Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach

Mission Outreach, founded in 2002 by the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis as a long-term response to global health inequity, currently has 12 full-time employees under the guidance of executive director Erica Smith.

“The idea was to share usable, surplus medical supplies and equipment from U.S. hospitals with health care facilities in low-resource areas around the world,” Smith said regarding the creation of Mission Outreach.

In 2020, Mission Outreach became an affiliate of Hospital Sisters Health System.
“Over the past 24 years, the team at Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach has worked with physicians and clinicians in 101 countries to provide thousands of shipments of high-quality, requested medical supplies and biomedical equipment with the support services to promote sustainability and improve patient outcomes,” Smith said. “From incubators to surgical instruments to hospital beds and linens, Mission Outreach delivers health resources that empower clinicians and saves the lives of patients, particularly in places where there are high rates of poverty and limited access to clinical health care.”

Each year, the organization’s international receiving hospitals and clinics serve a combined population service area of 28 million people in Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Eastern Europe.

This article appears in 15 Under Fifteen – 2025.