Our Brand Story
Honouring our past, embracing the present and creating our future;
The Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare Brand Story
Over 130 years ago, the original Hôtel-Dieu of St. Joseph was established as Windsor, Ontario’s first hospital. Through the love, perseverance, faith and persistence of five sisters of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph’s(RHSJ) and the guidance of Reverend Dean Wagner, a hospital was established to serve the needy, marginalized, and disenfranchised. It was more than just a hospital, instead, a place of shelter, safety and healing. Lives were changed, and hope was restored.
In 1920, Frederick Martin, an officer with the Salvation Army, recognized Windsor’s potential and growing need for healthcare service, expanding on the already established Hôtel-Dieu of St. Joseph’s. With his guidance and passion he helped establish Grace Hospital. Years later, Windsor’s healthcare system was again strengthened through alliance of the Salvation Army’s Grace Hospital forming Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital.
Today, as a result of hospital services realigning in 2013, we are Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH). We are a community-based hospital that resides on Prince Road in Windsor’s west end. We believe in discovering the moments that not only remind us what’s possible between humans, but more importantly, what’s true. We believe in building up a community; in becoming allies not enemies, in collaboration not confrontation motivated by the deep desire to do what’s right for our patients, our people and our community.
Physically, our location has changed but the unwavering commitment to the values and mission established through the visionary work of our founding bodies, The RHSJ and Salvation Army, remain a steady constant. We are a hospital of over 1,100 employees with the vision to transform healthcare and cultivate a healthier Windsor/Essex.
Our brand is more than our logo or colour palette. It is reverence to our history, pride in our present and signal to our future.