St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre became our operating name in 2004 after the implementation of new directions for health care restructuring for our community from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The Centre infrastructure and programming replaced what was formerly St. Joseph’s Villa (Long-Term Care) and Hotel Dieu Hospital (Complex Continuing Care). Despite over ten years with our new operating name, we still hear reference in the community to “the Villa” and “the Dieu”.

We are proud of both our present scope of services and the legacy of services that our founding congregation, the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph (RHSJ) provided in our community. The RHSJ arrived in our community in 1897 and served faithfully responding to various community needs until 2003. During that time 147 Sisters served the sick, youth, aged and marginalized in our community and provided education to nurses. The facilities and organizations that were founded and operated by the RHSJ included Hotel Dieu Hospital (1897), St. Paul’s Home for the Aged (1898), Nazareth Orphanage (1909), St. Joseph’s School of Nursing (1929), Macdonell Memorial Hospital (1959), St. Joseph’s Villa (1969), Janet Macdonell Pavilion (1989), Marie de la Ferre Apartments (1992), and St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre (2004).

We continue to serve in the spirit of our founders and be driven by our Mission, working collaboratively with our health system and community partners in the provision of service to address community needs. We recently introduced, with support from the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), an eight-bed Restorative Care Unit in our Complex Care program offering post acute care for patients transitioning back to community.

The Sisters were eternally courageous in the face of both challenges and opportunities, always focussed on the common good, and we are committed to upholding their legacy of service into the future.