Sister Mary Faith McKean, PhD, who served as CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Savannah, Ga., from 1982 to 1992 and was the last Sister of Mercy to lead the institution, died July 6.
Dr. McKean oversaw a decade of significant clinical and physical expansion at St. Joseph’s, according to a July 8 news release from St. Joseph’s/Candler. Her tenure included construction of a larger day surgery space, the opening of the St. Joseph’s Maternity Center, the addition of a 10-bed coronary care unit and a radiology expansion that brought a new CT scanner and a cardiac catheterization laboratory. She also guided the hospital to its first double coronary bypass surgery and helped position it as the first hospital in the Southeast to offer laser angioplasty. In 1990, she led the effort to build a $7 million emergency department expansion.
“Sr. Mary Faith led an extraordinary life in service to God and this community, generously giving of herself to care for her students and co-workers at St. Joseph’s/Candler,” Paul Hinchey, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s/Candler, said in the release. “She put this health system on a path to where it is today and she will be sorely missed.”
Before joining St. Joseph’s, Dr. McKean taught at institutions in Maryland, Virginia, Alabama and Georgia. Following her retirement as CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital on Dec. 31, 1992, she was appointed chancellor of the Diocese of Savannah, a post she held for nine years. Her obituary notes that those who knew her remembered her ability to greet every employee at the hospital by name.
Mr. Hinchey, who succeeded her as CEO in 1993, later led the 1997 merger that formed Savannah-based St. Joseph’s/Candler.
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