Signature Healthcare employees are historically a generous group, and this year is no exception. Employees participated in a book drive, coat drive, food drive, giving tree, blood drive and children’s toy and clothing drive. As they have done for more than a decade, employees of Signature Medical Group participated in a gift drive to benefit children served by BAMSI’s Case Management Program. In all, employees collected gifts for more than 150 children, each gift fulfilling the “Candy Cane” request of a specific child for toys, books and clothing.

Similarly, students from the Brockton Hospital School of Nursing organized a “Giving Tree” for residents of West Acres Nursing home, motivated by their own observations, during clinical visits to the facility, on the number of residents lacking in extra clothes and certain comforts. A representative group of students presented dozens of gifts to residents on December 14. The hospital’s Pediatrics department held a new toy and children’s clothing drive, inviting needy parents to visit a no-cost “store” in the hospital to choose presents to wrap for the holiday. Other collections gathered 1500 pounds of non-perishable food items for the Catholic Charities Food Pantry in Brockton in cooperation with Sodexho, the hospital’s food service vendor; 1600 children’s books in a book collection sponsored by students from Stonehill College, and 200 coats and counting to the ongoing Anton’s ‘Coats for Kids’ program. With winter on the doorstep, the hospital also hosted a Red Cross blood drive and filled 100% of the available donation slots.

But a new twist to Signature’s culture of generosity was added this year after employees voted to give up the annual company-subsidized holiday party in hopes that the savings would help offset other cost cuts facing the organization. Acknowledging their generous intentions, interim CEO Gene Wallace took $10,000 and challenged 50 “teams” in the hospital and Signature Medical Group ambulatory sites to choose an area charity to benefit from a holiday donation. Teams went to work identifying giving prospects, and in total selected 21 area charities, including homeless shelters, food pantries and social service groups. Top recipients of the team charity exercise at Signature Healthcare included Old Colony Elder Services ($1,600), Womensplace Crisis Center ($1,200), Mainspring Housing Shelter, and Catholic Charities Food Pantry, each of which received $1,000.

“Signature Healthcare is an important fixture of the greater Brockton and Southeastern Massachusetts community,” Wallace said. “Our first obligation is to the health of our region, and we are mindful of how the life circumstances of those less fortunate can contribute to medical issues. In addition to providing quality care year-round for the community, the holiday season gives us additional pause to give back in as many ways as we can.” 


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About Signature Healthcare
Signature Healthcare (www.signature-healthcare.org) is a new model of patient care delivery for Southeastern Massachusetts. The organization includes the award-winning Brockton Hospital as well as Signature Medical Group - 150 physicians and other direct care providers - and a total of 2,500 associates operating from locations in Abington, Bridgewater, Brockton, Randolph, Raynham, Stoughton and West Bridgewater. In 2008, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital received the Premier Award for Quality, ranking it in the top 1% of all acute care hospitals in the country. Signature Healthcare is setting the pace for quality, patient-centered healthcare delivery in the region, combining clinical expertise and state-of-the-art equipment and systems with the convenience of seven community locations.

December 2009
Rachel Labas
Media & PR for Signature Healthcare
(508) 941-7657
rlabas@signature-healthcare.org