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Description

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Mission Values and Vision
Were Here to Serve
To provide you our patient with the best possible care takes the cooperative efforts of many different people doing many different jobs Not only are there doctors nurses therapists and technicians to help you there are many employees you may not meet facetoface such as registration representatives security officers medical records transcriptionists telephone operators and secretaries to name only a few Plus you will find our housekeeping staff keeping your room clean dietary personnel preparing and serving your meals and maintenance personnel who keep the hospital building and systems in operation

But whatever job Bedford Memorial Hospital employees and staff are performing they are doing it for you

Our Mission
Bedford Memorial Hospital exists to improve the health of the communities it serves

Our Values
Respect
We acknowledge the dignity diversity and worth of the people we serve each other and our institutions

Integrity
We act responsibly honestly confidentially and within ethical and professional principles

Excellence
We strive to improve continually in everything we do as individuals team and organizations

People
The people of Bedford Memorial Hospital and its affiliated organizations are the source of its success knowledge skill and compassion

Our Expectations
We are dedicated to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth friendliness individual pride and company spirit

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History

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In the early 1980s the hospital merged with the Roanoke Hospital Association and by 1987 another renovation and expansion project was completed In 1996 under a new branding strategy and guideline the hospital was renamed Bedford Memorial Hospital to reflect its partnership with Carilion Health System in Roanoke Two years later Carilion appropriated funds to expand services and improve technology The initiative resulted in renovations of the hospital lobby expansion of the Emergency Department and completion of a twostory medical office building which now serves as the main entrance of the hospital Carilion and Centra Health Lynchburg signed a formal letter of agreement on July 9 2001 to jointly own and operate Bedford Memorial Hospital

We Did the Best We Could
Bedford County is cradled at the foot of a particularly scenic section of the Blue Ridge Mountains The county may be small in population but is certainly not small in spirit Home to Thomas Jeffersons summer plantation Poplar Forest the rural county was almost 200 years old when its citizens began a drive to build a modern wellequipped hospital to serve approximately 30000 residents

The city of Bedford is located halfway between the cities of Roanoke and Lynchburg effectively making the area a bedroom community for the two larger cities Attractive to retirees as well as native residents Bedford has historically had a large proportion of elderly citizens Since the 1930s both farmers and suburbanites received medical care at two privately owned hospitals located in converted residences in the town While staffed well they were small and limited in equipment Retired physicians recall that during their early careers babies were delivered in homes or in the emergency room or Xray room at John Russell Hospital and in the operating room at Hartwell Hospital if it wasnt already in use

We did the best we could with what we had remembered Dr Tom Jennings who started a family practice in Bedford in 1952 We had a number of doctors practicing here so John Russell was especially crowded For serious cases we had the big hospitals in Lynchburg and Roanoke but each was more than 30 miles away

Transportation to access medical treatment was a considerable concern Dr Jennings recounted the tense details of using his personal car to carry an expectant mother from the western part of the county to a hospital in Bedford On the way he had a flat tire Able to get to a telephone he called for an ambulance from town She made it in time