Other highlights:

• Thousands of people benefited from the successful conclusion of our three-year, $65 million project to expand maternity, surgery and emergency services.

Every patient benefited from the millions of dollars we invested in patient care quality initiatives that can't be touched like a new building, but are just as real. We now employ dozens of full-time board-certified physicians. We are among the last hospitals to insist that acute nursing care be exclusively provided by licensed nurses, not aides. About 72,000 patient visits were made to our emergency services department, ranking it as the second-busiest in Eastern Massachusetts.

• More than 6,000 patients were cared for in 167,000 home health care visits, including 425 Hospice patients and families.

We welcomed more than 4,000 newborns and performed more than 16,000 surgeries. Forty-four critically ill heart-attack patients had emergency angioplasties. A total of 80 new physicians and allied health professionals joined our medical staff. We became the first community hospital in Massachusetts to receive state approval to establish a neonatal intensive care unit, the highest level of care for frail infants. The 10-bed unit will open in mid-2003.

• Our diagnostic imaging department performed 171,000 imaging tests, including exams in our new on-site magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) center.

Millions more were invested in advanced computer systems and technology. Our home care nurses are now using sophisticated home electrocardiogram monitors to care for patients recovering from heart attacks and other cardiac conditions. And a growing number of home care nurses are using hand-held computers to track and document patient care, reduce paperwork, and further improve communication between caregivers.

But while these advances and numbers are impressive, they don't tell the whole story of South Shore Hospital's accomplishments last year - the care we provide every day, every week, every year. We help people in their times of greatest need. We comfort them, we ease their pain, and we help them heal and get through the most difficult times. We interact with them in ways that often forge a bond and cement relationships. In short, we make a difference.

The tough part of 2002 was no secret. These are economically difficult times for hospitals. Every time one challenge was addressed, another surfaced.