HElD, Mary Corita (Sister)

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

HEID, Mary Corita (Sister). (Pocahantas, IA, May 25, 1937- ). Sister Heid received a bachelor of science in nursing degree from Mercy College of Detroit and in 1970 a master of arts degree in hospital and health administration from the University of Iowa. (1) She spent a summer as an administrative assistant in Denver, Colorado at Mercy Hospital and then moved to St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Sioux City as the assistant administrator.

In 1972 Sister Heid became the president of ST. JOSEPH'S MERCY HOSPITAL and finalized the merger of St. Joseph's with the Dyersville Community Hospital which had been facing economic problems. The Dyersville Hospital was renamed the St. Mary's Unit of MERCY HEALTH CENTER. The controversial merger with the Dyersville Hospital had just been completed when the Sisters of Saint Francis inquired about consolidation of XAVIER HOSPITAL and Mercy. A letter of intent to merge was signed within three months. (2)

Heid assisted in having Mercy designated the Northwest Illinois Trauma Center and saw that a cardiac catheterization laboratory and programs in neuro-surgery and open-heart surgery were established. The same year she was one of nineteen members of the Iowa Governor's Task Force on Early Childhood Development. The task force was in the process of writing rules regulating day care centers at a time when the only regulation was that the operator had to be twenty-one years of age. (3) Under her direction, a day-care center was opened for the children of Mercy Medical Center employees in hopes that information could be provided to the task force. (4)

Sister Heid served as chairwoman of the board of the reorganized Sisters of Mercy Health Corporation, the largest non-profit hospital organization in the United States, for four years; past-chairwoman of the Governing Council of Multi-Hospital Constituencies for the American Hospital Association; and was a member of the board of directors of Blue Cross of Iowa. (5) In 1981 she served as the head of the Iowa Hospital Association's board of trustees. Sister Heid was named president in 1896 of the Sister of Mercy Health Corporation which provided health care services through twenty-three hospitals in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and New York. It was a subsidiary of Mercy Health Corporation. (6) Replacing her at the Mercy Health Center was Sister Helen HUEWE,OSF.

In 1975 Sister Heid was in the first class of women to receive certificates of leadership sponsored by the Dubuque YWCA Achievement Awards Council. At the time, she was the administrator of MERCY MEDICAL CENTER and the second vice-chairman of the Iowa Hospital Association. (7)

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Source:

1. "Heid Named Mercy Corp. President," Telegraph Herald, May 2, 1986, p. 43

2. Brimeyer, Jack. "Mercy Plans Day Care Center," Telegraph-Herald, December 6, 1974, p. 5

3. "Day Care Center Rules in Making," Telegraph-Herald, December 5, 1974, p. 14

4. Brimeyer

5. Shaffer, David. "Nun's Specialty: Hospital Administration," Telegraph Herald, January 27, 1986

6. "Heid Named..."

7. "Dubuque Women Recognized," Telegraph Herald, April 30, 1975, p. 19