Kettering Adventist HealthCare in Kettering, Ohio, reflects the vision of its founder, American inventor Charles F. Kettering, by exhibiting compassionate care in its eight hospitals, 10 emergency departments, and more than 120 state-of-the-art facilities in southwest Ohio. Charles Kettering’s son, Eugene, and daughter-in-law, Virginia, built Kettering Medical Center as a living memorial to their father and his lifetime achievements in innovation.
Eugene and Virginia based their proposed hospital concept on the faith-based approach to health and healing they witnessed firsthand while volunteering at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital in Chicago during a polio epidemic in the 1950s. Because of the Adventist belief of whole-person care, they chose the Adventist Church to run the facility. The Charles F. Kettering Memorial Hospital, now named Kettering Medical Center, opened in 1964 and serves the Dayton, Ohio, community. The Benjamin and Marian Schuster Heart Hospital, a maternity service with a level IIIB neonatal intensive care unity, and emergency care are all part of the health-care facility.
Service to others is Kettering Adventist HealthCare’s motto, evidenced through such faith partners as the Good Neighbor House. Together they provide medical, vision, and dental care to the underinsured. They teach wellness, diabetes education, and healthful cooking classes and run community gardens. More than 20,000 people came to the Good Neighbor House in 2014 in need of food, clothing, blankets, towels, and other essentials. One such person was Joetta.
A mother of two, Joetta was unemployed as a result of the economic downturn and was struggling to support her family. The Good Neighbor House not only provided her with clothing and food but also vision screening and prescription glasses. They prayed with her and helped to meet not only her physical needs but her emotional and spiritual ones as well.
“Health care provides a special place for us to live out the ministry of Jesus Christ in the simple things that we do for people in need,” says Kettering Health Network’s CEO, Fred Manchur.
Becky Lewis joined Kettering Adventist HealthCare in 2009. After Becky’s husband, Jack, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died in 2013, Becky sought out spiritual support. Because she already was familiar with Kettering’s faith-based culture, she accepted an invitation to attend Kettering Adventist Church.
“Everyone was so kind and welcoming,” Becky says.
She began taking Bible studies and was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in September 2013.
Kettering:60 is a weekly video program of biblical inspiration and reflection that is texted to subscribers, loaded to Kettering Adventist HealthCare’s YouTube page each Monday morning, and e-mailed to Kettering employees. It offers simple, one-minute thoughts and Bible instruction that relate to contemporary life on such topics as love, stress, loneliness, and forgiveness.
Kettering’s marketing and communication team developed the initiative in 2014, based on the concept of providing inspirational and spiritual fulfillment within a one-minute format for busy employees. The fast-growing ministry averages 2,800 weekly viewers with 850 text and 500 YouTube subscribers. It reaches the entire United States of America and five other countries.
“The devotions help center my thoughts and attitudes heavenward as I face the challenges and opportunities of the week ahead,” says Union College student Natalie Bruzon. “I love receiving the . . . messages each Monday.”
Kettering Adventist HealthCare continues to provide whole-person care to those in its community. To learn more, stop by booth 747NAD and A538 in the GC session Convention Center Exhibit Hall or go to http://www.ketteringhealth.org.
