It's hard today to remember, imagine or believe it, but there was a time when Williamsport and Divine Providence hospitals competed for patients.
The two hospitals, a five-minute drive apart, offered duplicate services using similar equipment.
It cost both hospitals a lot and had a trickle-down effect on the cost and efficiency of health care locally.
That's all changed. Sister Jean Mohl, who died recently, was perhaps the person most responsible for the alliance of Williamsport, Divine Providence and Muncy Valley hospitals into what is now known as Susquehanna Health.
Long before the Susquehanna Tower was even envisioned, Mohl had the foresight to realize the continued competition among the hospitals was ultimately going to be the wrong approach for local health care.
While the alliance took all parties to happen, with Divine Providence being run by the Sisters of Christian Charity, the philosophical barriers were the greatest for Mohl, then the leader of Divine Providence.
But Mohl's quiet persistence and her sense of purpose ultimately moved Divine Providence Hospital toward its merger of services with Williamsport and Muncy Valley in 1994 into what is now Susquehanna Health, nearly a decade after she was named chief operating officer of the hospital.
The best summation of Mohl's ultimate contribution was made recently by Steve Johnson, president and CEO of Susquehanna Health.
"She shaped the delivery of health care in our region."
And she did it without stripping Divine Providence Hospital of its guiding principles or its identity.
All the while, Mohl maintained an understated, unassuming, comforting leadership style that made people of all philosophical bearings want to work with her.
This community was forever blessed to have the wisdom, vision and care of Sister Jean Mohl as a guiding force.
