Mercy Medical Center Honors Physicians on National "Doctor's Day," March 30th

March 30th is “Doctors’ Day,” a national annual holiday honoring doctors for the work they do for their patients and their communities, and for society as a whole. According to Sister Helen Amos, RSM, Executive Chair, Mercy Board of Trustees, Mercy Medical Center will celebrate thanking Mercy’s physicians for their lifelong commitment to serve the sick, and inviting patients and others to make gifts in their honor.

“In countless doctors’ offices, treatment rooms, labs, operating suites and at each inpatient’s bedside, Mercy’s physicians provide quality, compassionate care each and every day. We are proud to celebrate our doctors and their dedication to the mission and values of the Sisters of Mercy, and their devotion to healing and comforting our patients,” Sr. Helen said.

The Mercy Health Foundation initiated a fundraising campaign for Doctors’ Day in 2007. “Philanthropic gifts are vital to supporting Mercy’s mission of providing excellent, compassionate care to all who come to our doors for help,” Sister Helen said.  Patients and their families who wish to honor a doctor can make an online gift at mdmercy.com/giving.

Doctors' Day became an official national holiday in 1991 when Congress passed Proclamation 6253. The history of Doctors’ Day dates back to the early 1930s when it was conceived by Eudora Brown Almond, a physician’s wife in Georgia. She chose the date because it is the anniversary of the first use of general anesthesia during surgery in 1842.

To recognize the efforts of physicians like her husband, Mrs. Almond mailed greeting cards to practicing doctors and placed red carnations on the graves of all deceased doctors. The red carnation is still used today as the symbolic flower to celebrate National Doctors’ Day.