The Sisters of the Holy Cross arrived in Columbus’ Franklinton neighborhood in 1886 to serve in a four-story, 18-room building, later Hawkes Hospital of Mount Carmel, facing challenges from a lack of furniture, equipment and supplies.
The challenges today are different, but values instilled by the Catholic religious order remain core to Mount Carmel Health System.
A member of Trinity Health, Mount Carmel provides care in central Ohio at five major hospitals: Mount Carmel East, Mount Carmel Grove City, Mount Carmel New Albany, Mount Carmel St. Ann’s and Mount Carmel Dublin, which opened last year.
On July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the organization celebrates its 140th anniversary.
The health system has changed significantly in its nearly two centuries of existence. It has worked to provide care amidst rapidly changing technological and medical advancements.
Its mission remains unchanged: to serve in the spirit of the Gospel as a compassionate and transforming healing presence within its communities.
Mount Carmel prides itself on honoring the dignity of every life. The health system offers support programs from birth to death, ensuring that every patient is treated with dignity.
Mount Carmel St. Ann’s, located in Westerville, is a leader in maternity care, delivering more than 3,000 babies annually. It was named one of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals by Newsweek magazine. Founded by the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, the hospital opened in 1908 to care for orphaned infants and unwed mothers.
Since 1903, Mount Carmel College of Nursing (formerly School of Nursing) has offered healthcare education. Founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, the college educates the next generation of nurses, working to fill Ohio’s approximately 9,000 vacant nursing job positions.
In April 2025, Mount Carmel Dublin Hospital opened to the public. The 35-acre campus offers cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, primary care and surgical services.
The organization is passionate about ensuring its original mission guides its work.
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“One of the things that’s important about that founding spirit is it’s based in the Gospel, and so, there’s a drive there – there’s a well that can never be exhausted, and that’s where we draw our inspiration,” said Mount Carmel’s mission leader, William Hubbard.
The Sisters of the Holy Cross, based in Notre Dame, Indiana, are a branch of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. The congregation was founded by Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau in 19th-century France.
The first Sisters arrived in the United States in 1843. Its members serve in hospitals and clinics, schools and universities, parishes, and inner-city and rural areas.
Sisters of the Holy Cross are members of Mount Carmel’s Board of Trustees. No religious in the congregation, however, are part of the health system’s operations today.
“They figured out structures and processes to make sure that (mission) … would live on,” Hubbard said, “so this wouldn’t just become some healthcare company, but this remains a ministry.”
The health system’s executives take an annual pilgrimage to the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
Leaders reflect on the order’s spirituality and history and interact with the sisters. The initiative was implemented after the last Sister of the Holy Cross retired from Mount Carmel operations.
Commitment to Catholic values sets the health system apart from others in central Ohio.
“We might all have the same technology – there’s not going to be a Catholic MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine, for instance,” Hubbard said, “but the way that we approach that MRI machine and the person who’s going into it, that should feel different, because those other inputs are different.”
Mount Carmel is largely supported by the Mount Carmel Foundation. Established in 1984, it serves as the primary fundraising entity.
The foundation stewards donor gifts to support the health system’s mission. It also ensures the Sisters of the Holy Cross’ charism endures.
“I’ve been privileged to work for a number of non-profit, mission-driven organizations, but Mount Carmel is unique in the way that it’s infused within the culture and really lived out on a daily basis,” said Paul McClelland, the foundation’s president.
Msgr. Joseph Hendricks, the bishop’s delegate for community relations, serves as chair of the foundation’s Board of Trustees.
The health system is parts of the Church’s largest missions in the United States: Catholic health care, Catholic universities and education systems, and Catholic social services.
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“Mount Carmel Health, being established by the Sisters of the Holy Cross for 140 years, continues to serve the mission of providing radical, compassionate care to those in need, regardless of their circumstances,” Msgr. Hendricks said.
“Mount Carmel provides not only compassionate care, but in the Healthy Living section of Mount Carmel, they also provide care for people who are in need of nutrition, people in need of other medical care,” he added.
Mount Carmel’s Street Medicine program provides no-cost urgent medical care to uninsured and underinsured central Ohioans. The program also offers services including medication, vaccinations, physicals, case management and referrals to primary care.
“This is a great opportunity for the city of Columbus and those who work for Mount Carmel to be grateful for the service provided so many years ago that continues its mission even today,” Msgr. Hendricks affirmed.
The foundation recently launched a “Humanity Behind the Healing” campaign, aiming to raise $15 million.
Its philanthropic pillars include supporting community health and well-being; education at Mount Carmel College of Nursing; hospice care; and a Maternity Transformation modernization project at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s, revitalizing the hospital’s mother-baby unit and labor and delivery rooms.
Other developments include moving Mount Carmel Health System’s corporate headquarters to Mount Carmel East Hospital campus. The move is expected to be completed this summer.
The organization will celebrate its annual Heritage Week in mid-July.
“For 140 years, what that tells me is that Mount Carmel has earned the trust of our community, and that, generation after generation, people continue to put their trust in us,” Hubbard said.
“It goes back to that founding spirit and that founding vision, to say this was such an engaging mission that the sisters gave to us that we continue to explore it and find new ways to live it.”