Saint Joseph London: Community Impact Beyond Healthcare

Community Contributions

Going beyond the walls of health care to provide for the community

Stocking food and clothing for those in need. Pitching in with disaster cleanup. Fundraising for an Alzheimer’s cure. Serving on community boards. Awarding grants to support the work of local nonprofits. Designing outreach programs that address issues like substance abuse and child safety.

For Saint Joseph London, providing health care to Laurel and surrounding counties is not confined to the buildings that house its hospital and clinics: the ministry and its caregivers stretch beyond those walls into many other aspects of the community.

“Looking back to our foundresses’ mission, we are inspired to provide excellent and compassionate care within our facilities while reaching out into the communities we serve toimprove health and well-being – especially for those who are most vulnerable,” said Sherri Craig, Market Vice President, external relations, advocacy and healthy communities at Saint Joseph Health.

One major tool guiding these kinds of efforts is the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) that Saint Joseph London conducts every three years.

“We try to align our activities, our involvement in community projects and partnerships with community organizations with the significant needs we want to address through our CHNA,” said Craig, a 19-year Saint Joseph Health veteran. “As a nonprofit health system, we give back through Community Benefit contributions. That could be either time spent volunteering to help other nonprofit organizations in the community, or it could be financial contributions …. We also try to get our folks involved in community leadership programs, such as Leadership Tri-County.”

A sampling of service

Examples of community programs funded through the hospital’s foundation or the health system include the Total Health Roadmap, which integrates Saint Joseph London’s community health workers into physician practices to work with patients to address basic needs, like food insecurity, financial assistance for medication or utilities, and its Safe Child Initiative aimed at reducing child abuse and neglect in southeastern Kentucky through education, community outreach and caregiver support for families with children age 4 and younger.

Along with other efforts, the hospital’s Nurturing Children Program expanded the Eddie Eagle GunSafe program to all elementary schools in the Knox County school district. The program helps keep children safe when they encounter a firearm.

The London hospital has also set aside funds for the last three years for Community Health Improvement Grants to nonprofits “whose missions align with ours, working to address the same significant health needs that we are,” Craig said.

Among the wide range of projects supported by the grants is one to the Community Farm Alliance that addresses nutrition disparities among senior populations by providing free locally grown fruits and vegetables; another that supplements physical education classes in Knox County Public Schools with educational materials and equipment to improve the overall fitness of students; and one that works through hospice and other organizations to help improve access to care for high-risk patients in the area.

“We believe that our strategic community partnerships make us stronger,” said Craig.

Another one of those partnerships is with the London-Laurel County Chamber of Commerce and the business community.

“They help (businesses) in everything they need, from basic flu shots for the employees to give them an avenue to get their flu shots, to teaching CPR. Saint Joseph does a lot of reaching out to ask how can we help your workforce be a healthier workforce,” said Deanna Herrmann, the Chamber’s Chief Executive Officer. 

Saint Joseph London provides mentors for the chamber’s Miss Business program, a career awareness project for junior and senior high school girls, and its maternity ward nurses help the chamber register new parents and their newborns for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which the hospital operates locally as a program affiliate.

“When Laurel Grocery, one of the county’s major employers until its closure last year, became concerned about the health of its employees, it created an on-site clinic,” Herrmann said. “Saint Joseph helped supply them with a nurse practitioner and a doctor and the employees could just walk over to the clinic at any time,” she said. “The health of Laurel Grocery’s workforce just exponentially went through the roof, just with that small amount of treatment and caring. A lot of it had to do with Laurel Grocery, but it was also the partnership that the hospital offered.”

Saint Joseph London caregivers and staff are also involved in community events as participants, sponsors, organizers and hosts.

For example, a Saint Joseph London team has walked in the Southeast Kentucky Walk to End Alzheimer’s; Saint Joseph Health was the presenting sponsor of the 2025 event, chaired by John Yanes, President of Saint Joseph London and Saint Joseph Berea. The Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the largest fundraising event for Alzheimer’s care, support and research.

The hospital also has hosted Cancer Survivorship Day, bringing together local survivors, families, caregivers and community members to celebrate the strength, resilience and hope of those who have faced cancer. The event provided survivors and their families with a picnic lunch and activities, along with resources and the opportunity to connect with others.

An economic boost

When you think of Saint Joseph London’s local contributions, patient care and community services come to mind. But the hospital also has economic value to the community it serves. These figures for Saint Joseph London were reported by the Kentucky Hospital Association for 2022, the most recent year available. The association notes that “These dollars have a ‘ripple effect’ as they move through the larger economy, supporting other businesses and jobs in the community.

• Employs over 624 people and spends $54 million on wages.

• Spends $30 million on capital projects, creating additional local jobs.

• Purchases $40 million of goods and services locally.

• Pays $2 million in provider taxes that support $10 million in Medicaid spending.

• Generates over $4 million in state and local taxes.

• Subsidizes $2 million in losses from treating Medicare patients.

• Provides $2 million in financial assistance and charity care.

Total economic benefit of $145 million to the local community

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