AdventHealth Global Missions Grows to 15 Sites with Mexico Partnership

Agreement with Hospital del Sureste will create opportunities for volunteering, training.

February 18, 2024 | Florida, United States | AdventHealth

An official partnership between AdventHealth and Hospital del Sureste in Mexico was launched in January 2024, establishing the 15th location in AdventHealth’s growing Global Missions Program.

Located in Villahermosa, the largest city in the state of Tabasco in southeastern Mexico, Hospital del Sureste serves approximately 8,000 patients annually with a team of more than 200 employees. Established in 1975, the hospital offers high-quality, faith-based health care.

Hospital del Sureste is also the only private teaching hospital in Villahermosa, which enables the facility to offer clinical training to health-care students from several universities, including Montemorelos University, a Seventh-day Adventist institution.

Villahermosa (“Beautiful Village” in Spanish) is rapidly expanding, with nearly one million residents according to a 2024 report from the World Population Review. The city is home to a thriving academic community, including some of the most prominent universities in Tabasco. Hospital del Sureste is recognized as a leading medical institution in the region, with modern infrastructure and technology and a track record of safety and efficiency.

While the partnership through AdventHealth’s Global Missions program only became official in 2024, AdventHealth’s long-standing relationship with the hospital began more than 10 years ago in Orlando, Florida, United States, during the first Global Conference for Nursing Excellence.

“Hospital del Sureste brought a large group of nurses to attend the conference and has participated in several other nursing conferences over the years,” Global Missions director Monty Jacobs said. AdventHealth has supported the hospital in Mexico by donating ambulances, exam tables, and other medical equipment, and engaged the leaders of the hospital through campus tours and leadership meetings.

The official partnership will be supported by two co-executive sponsors: Rob Roy, senior vice president and chief investment officer for AdventHealth, and Rob Deininger, CEO of AdventHealth Orlando.

“My career has taken me worldwide, and I’ve had an opportunity to witness the tremendous need that exists,” Roy said. “My mother was from Mexico City, and sadly, she had passed away just a few days before I attended an AdventHealth leadership meeting. When the potential for this partnership was shared, I was inspired to help.”

Raised in a missionary family in Asia, Deininger witnessed firsthand the impact that partnerships like this one can have. “Mission is at the core of what we do,” Deininger said. “As long as I’ve been an executive with AdventHealth, I’ve looked for the right opportunity to get involved in extending our mission outside our walls.”

For Roy, this partnership means maintaining the service mindset he learned from his family. “Being able to represent the mission of AdventHealth on a global scale is so meaningful to me, especially to honor my late mother,” Roy said.

The partnership between AdventHealth and Hospital del Sureste will create opportunities for volunteer service through medical mission trips, sharing clinical best practices, engaging in leadership training, and developing and strengthening health care access and infrastructure in the communities the hospital serves.

“This partnership with AdventHealth is an answered prayer,” Alexis Pérez Zúñiga, CEO of Hospital del Sureste, said. “We don’t see AdventHealth as just a partner but as part of our family.”

The original version of this story was posted on the AdventHealth news site.