How to turn a broken health care system into one that works for everyone
By SR. MARY HADDAD, RSM CHA president and CEO
Americans are sick of the way our nation’s health care system treats them. In survey after survey and across all social media platforms, they are speaking out, sometimes in rage and sometimes in despair, against a system they view as putting profits ahead of people. They are confused by the complexity behind care delivery and distrust those delivering it. They know intuitively that the human connection necessary for compassionate, quality care is too often
diminished in favor of productivity, efficiency, and the bottom line.
Those of us who are responsible for shaping and leading the development of health care policy can no longer ignore this reality. And we can no longer point a finger at other sectors of the industry and cast blame for the problems that have arisen after decades of policy decisions driven by special interests instead of the common good. It is our responsibility to come up with solutions to create a system that values the human
Ministry executives say taking time for hobbies helps counter burnout
By JULIE MINDA
As the president and CEO of a 93-hospital, 26-state ministry system, Trinity Health’s Mike Slubowski makes the tough decisions needed to sustain that vital ministry. In his downtime, he likes to rock. Meanwhile, in his free time, Damond Boatwright, Slubowski’s counterpart at Hospital Sisters Health System, turns into a culinary kingmaker, deciding whose barbecue rules. The two executives are among four who shared with Catholic Health World the diverse ways they unplug from the office and rejuvenate in their off hours. See Page 6
years. chausa.org/chw
Catholic Health World marks 40th anniversary of coverage
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
They say wisdom comes with age — and Catholic Health World continues to build upon decades of expertise in covering the Catholic health ministry as the publication enters middle age and marks its 40th anniversary.
In the first issue, which debuted Feb. 15, 1985, then-CHA President John E. Curley Jr. wrote: “CHA is launching this tabloid newspaper to assure that you have access to timely, newsworthy information of special interest to the ministry and, we hope, to others involved and concerned with health care in America as well.”
The issue included two major headlines on its front page. The
Alphonsus embeds community health worker in school district to serve students, families
By JULIE MINDA
Several years ago, a community health worker with Saint Alphonsus Medical Center — Baker City in Oregon was assisting a child with health and social service needs when it became necessary to coordinate with the child’s school. Through conversations between the health worker and the school district, the school’s director saw the true value of a community health worker’s services.
That director told the community health worker, Kathie Pointer: “We need you here at the school,” and even offered to give her office space. That conversation spurred
Bob Baxter Mercy Health — Toledo, Ohio, president
K.C. DeBoer SSM Health regional president
Mike Slubowski Trinity Health president and CEO
Damond Boatwright Hospital Sisters Health System president and CEO
Slideshow • Take a closer look at some pages from Catholic Health World over the
Catholic Health World debuted Feb. 15, 1985
Angels who pamper
Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle is one of the hospitals where the group Lipstick Angels provides beauty and wellness services to people affected by cancer.
Essentia partnership
Essentia Health and the University of Minnesota plan to create a new nonprofit health care entity that will support patients with ‘expanded and enhanced’ care.
Synodal conversations
CHA offers a downloadable synodal conversation toolkit to help members engage in the spiritual discussions happening across the Catholic Church.
Daniel Daly: Prioritize human dignity in decisions on AI apps
By JULIE MINDA
There are countless artificial intelligence apps opening up to health systems and facilities every day, but which ones should providers adopt and which should they avoid?
From an ethical standpoint, it is important for providers to recognize that all AI apps can hold great promise and great risk, says Daniel Daly, executive director of CHA’s new Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health. Daly sees it as crucial that organizations — especially those in the Catholic health ministry — conduct a comprehensive ethical analysis of decisions around AI use prior to adopting any such technology.
Daly spoke during a January webinar titled “Artificial Intelligence in Catholic Health: Theological and Ethical Considerations.”
He said that AI is not morally neutral — rather it is a reflection of the people who programmed it. While AI apps can provide numerous benefits in health care, there are important ethical issues to consider with
Michael McCarthy: Ethicists have critical role as AI use increases
By JULIE MINDA
The use of artificial intelligence is increasing exponentially in the health care sector, and ministry systems and facilities are among the countless providers deploying the technology.
Ethicists have an essential role to play in guiding decision-making around which artificial intelligence tools ministry organizations should use and in what way and for what purposes, says Michael McCarthy, associate professor and graduate program director at the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics at Loyola University Chicago.
McCarthy shared his thoughts in a webinar in December that was part of an ongoing CHA series called Emerging Topics in Catholic Health Care Ethics.
When it comes to the deployment of AI, McCarthy said, “It’s not enough to say, ‘Is the technology useful?’ … We’re also saying, ‘What are we using and why, and how does this enhance the patient experience?’”
the use of any AI technology. Key among them is ensuring that the apps prioritize human dignity, Daly said.
Daly said AI apps already are in wide use in health care, and many have shown important benefits.
He said various AI apps have been shown to increase clinician satisfaction and well-being and reduce burnout susceptibility. Some apps also have been shown to improve patient outcomes.
And, yet, said Daly, there is much evidence that some AI apps are perpetuating serious societal harms, such as racism and other biases.
In considering such harms of AI — intended or not — it is clear that there are moral issues at stake in whether and how providers adopt certain AI technologies, Daly said. He said AI reflects the virtues and vices of the people putting it in place.
He said it is important to think carefully about the goals of AI apps, how the technology is implemented, how the voices of the people who are impacted by the technology are taken into account, and how the technology respects the humanity of the people it impacts.
He said a key concept to keep in mind is the importance of ensuring mercy is part of any AI endeavor. Drawing on the themes outlined previously, he said it is also important to understand that Catholic health care should be a place where providers encounter patients, just as Jesus encountered those he healed. AI technology should not undermine that connection.
As decisions are made around AI, providers should be sure to include the voices of marginalized people who will feel the impact of the technology, he said. Providers should be asking who benefits from the technology and how, and who is harmed.
“It’s about being transformative … and having a deep concern with mercy and encounter,” Daly said. “The technology must show efficacy … but (more importantly) we must be careful of how we use AI.”
In addition to the webinars the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health is offering this year on AI and ethics, CHA is offering a series of podcasts on the topic. To listen, visit chausa.org/newsroom/ podcast
McCarthy said that when implementing new technology, “figuring out what your values and goals are is really important.”
He said the use of AI and related technologies has brought numerous advancements but also has invited many questions and concerns. He said with a laugh that among the questions is “whether any of these technologies will take over the world.”
McCarthy said health care systems and facilities and technology companies are investing billions of dollars into AI, but it is uncertain what everyone’s expectations are or what the return on investment will be.
He said it is important that health care providers have a thorough grasp of the technologies they are considering implementing, why they are
QUESTIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS TO CONSIDER RELATED TO AI:
What do patients need to know and what consent is needed?
What are the patient needs that are being addressed with the technology?
How will health care staff be impacted by the use of the AI tools?
How might underserved people benefit from or be harmed by the technology?
Is information being used in an ethical way?
implementing the technologies, what the potential risks and rewards are, and what goods are being achieved.
McCarthy said ethicists should be at the forefront of discussions of these concepts in the ministry.
McCarthy advised that ethicists prioritize bringing all key stakeholders in technology decisions to the table to discuss what the goals of AI use are and what values are at play. Guided by ethicists, stakeholders should think through who is responsible for the outcomes of technology decisions, who needs to know what about those decisions, and how trustworthy the decisions are.
McCarthy said when it comes to technology “it’s not about whether on its face it is good or bad but about how we think about it and use it.” jminda@chausa.org
Woodson Road, St. Louis, MO 63134-3797; phone: 800-230-7823; email: servicecenter@ chausa.org. Periodicals postage rate is paid at St. Louis and additional mailing offices. Annual subscription rates: CHA members free, others $29 and foreign $29. Opinions, quotes and views appearing in Catholic Health World do not necessarily reflect those of CHA and do not represent an endorsement by CHA. Acceptance of advertising for publication does not constitute approval or endorsement by the publication or CHA. All advertising is subject to review before acceptance.
McCarthy
Scan to read an extended version of this story.
Daly
Scan to read an extended version of this story.
Denver respite center provides solution for homeless patients after hospital stays
By JULIE MINDA
When people who are homeless are admitted to the hospital, what happens when they are healthy enough to be discharged but still have post-acute care needs? How can they safely recover when they don’t have a home? These are questions that had long vexed Denver-area hospitals amid rising homelessness. A 75-bed recuperative care and medical respite facility that the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless opened in Denver in early 2023 is providing an answer.
Hospitals that lease beds in the coalition’s John Parvensky Stout Street Recuperative Care Center can discharge qualified patients who are homeless to those beds. Once there, patients receive help meeting post-acute care needs, accessing social services and securing housing.
Intermountain Health is one of the health care partners that has been discharging unhoused patients to the center. That system’s Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver leases 10 beds. The remaining Intermountain Health hospitals in the Denver area together lease six respite beds. Those facilities are Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette, Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge and Platte Valley Hospital in Brighton.
Michelle Kelly-Jones, Saint Joseph manager of case management, says people who are homeless can face many gaps in care as they try to recover from their medical conditions after discharge. She says through the respite center, the Colorado Coalition can help people bridge those gaps. Todd Grivetti, Intermountain regional director of operations for care management, says the respite center sets the hospitals’ discharged patients up for success. He says the center’s work aligns with Intermountain’s purpose, which is to “improve the health of those who live in our communities.”
Unsafe conditions
According to the Colorado Coalition, people who are homeless have rates of serious illness — including diabetes, heart disease and HIV/AIDS — that are about three to six times those of people who are housed. People who are homeless have hospital stays that are on average nearly twice as long as people who have homes.
Kelly-Jones adds that people who are homeless are particularly vulnerable to conditions like frostbite and to burns from the fires they set or the devices they use to stay warm.
If people who are homeless are discharged from a hospitalization with nowhere to go, they are at very high risk of readmission. She says that is because it can be difficult for them to adhere to the medical instructions given at discharge if they are living on the streets. For instance, they may be unable to keep a wound clean and dry so it heals. They may not be able to
safely store medicines that require refrigeration. And they can struggle to keep track of follow-up medical appointments and to find transportation to get to them.
Patchwork of options
Kelly-Jones explains that prior to 2023, there were few good options for unhoused patients who were cleared for discharge.
Many patients who are homeless are uninsured. Grivetti says many may not know whether they are eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, or they may not know how to apply. It can be an arduous process to enroll, he says. With no insurance, many unhoused patients are ineligible for reimbursement for post-acute care, so rehab facilities may not want to admit them. Or rehab facilities may not accept them because there is no specified location where they can be discharged.
Kelly-Jones adds that prior to 2023 there was just a patchwork of shelters that hospitals could discharge to, and those shelters usually had a waitlist. The shelter beds that were available did not have any clinical staffing. It was common for shelters to send patients back to the hospital because the shelters couldn’t care for them. This was especially true of patients discharged on oxygen.
All on board
Kelly-Jones says the coalition had been keeping metrics on all of this, particularly on the lack of shelter space for discharged patients and the high readmission rate for high-acuity dischargees.
Since its 1984 founding, the coalition had built up a portfolio of nearly two dozen transitional living and supportive housing complexes, plus a network of federally qualified health centers and social services throughout Colorado, mostly in Denver. With none of its facilities equipped to
Wildfires destroy Providence
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
Providence St. Joseph Health hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles County are coping with the effects of the wildfires that have devastated several neighborhoods and destroyed the homes of many staff members and volunteers.
The six Providence hospitals in the county have not been damaged, nor have they closed. However, a clinic in Pacific Palisades that is affiliated with Providence was wiped out by wildfire.
Providence leaders are looking for a location to reopen the clinic, called the Saint John’s Physician Partners Pacific Palisades Primary Care and Pediatrics clinic,
handle the needs of discharged hospital patients, the coalition came up with the respite center solution.
Funded by the city of Denver and philanthropists as well as by the hospital leases, the respite center offers around-the-clock care from a nursing staff of up to 20 people during daytime hours and up to five overnight. The center provides meals and snacks and access to laundry facilities and community rooms. And patients can get additional care at the adjacent federally qualified health center. They also can get on-site social service support, including behavioral health care, substance abuse treatment, job training and help pursuing long-term housing.
When the coalition made local hospitals aware of this idea early on, says Grivetti, “we all jumped on board.”
The coalition requires hospitals to lease beds in order to discharge to the respite center. In addition to Intermountain, several other health systems including CommonSpirit Health are lessees.
Grivetti says Intermountain pays about $600,000 per year to lease the 16 beds. The solution has been so valuable that he says Intermountain will gladly increase its count if given the chance.
Trusted network
Grivetti says the Denver-area Intermountain hospitals have on average about nine discharged patients who are using the respite program at any given time. Patients usually stay at the respite from two to three weeks, and during that time coalition staff seek to get them into services and stable housing.
According to statistics from Grivetti, altogether Intermountain’s Denver-area hospitals have discharged 170 patients to the respite center since its opening. About one-third of these patients have completed a program for “ideal discharge” from the
center. This includes entering into stable housing or long-term care and, when applicable, reuniting with family and/or accessing substance abuse treatment.
Grivetti adds that statistics show that patients who are homeless and who are discharged to respite have a readmission rate of 12.8%, as compared to the national average of 17.7% for patients who are homeless being readmitted.
Kelly-Jones attributes much of this success to the trusted network of partners that has formed through this work. The coalition and its hospital partners have connected through an electronic record of sorts, and they stay in constant contact about the patients who move between the partner hospitals and the respite center. She says patients come to know and trust these organizations. Additionally, the fact that the coalition has preexisting outreach, health and social services that local unhoused people are familiar with helps with the trust factor. It also promotes continuity of care, she notes.
To illustrate the importance of this interconnection, she describes a recent inpatient who was homeless and nearing the time for discharge. He told Kelly-Jones who his social worker was at the coalition, and she was able to quickly connect with that person and confirm that the patient already was in the system. This eased the discharge planning for everyone involved.
Grivetti says the partnership with the respite center has resulted in improved health outcomes and better social supports for many Intermountain patients. He says the coalition and its partners “have been very successful — we’ve helped patients stay out of the hospital.”
He says the respite center “allows patients to be in a safe environment to get the care they need.”
jminda@chausa.org
clinic in Los Angeles County, homes of employees and volunteers
spokeswoman Patricia Aidem said.
Also, 26 doctors, a physician assistant, 11 other employees and 14 volunteers have lost their homes to wildfires. Scores of Providence staffers or volunteers have had to evacuate. The system has set up a fund to help them and is assisting with temporary housing and other needs. Aidem said Providence continues to have enough personnel to ensure quality and safe patient care.
Providence President and CEO Erik Wexler said in a social media post: “Our communities have faced many wildfires and other natural disasters in the past, but this is the most destructive event the greater Los Angeles area has ever seen. I remain in awe of how our teams have come together
to ensure we can continue to be here for our patients, especially those who are most vulnerable.”
Some Providence clinics, mostly in Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica, closed for a varying number of days because of air quality, power issues, and direct impact by wildfires.
Santa Monica’s Providence Saint John’s Health Center, which borders areas of the Palisades fire, postponed nonemergent surgeries for two days. Leadership discussed evacuation plans, but fire officials assured them patients and staff were safe.
Some emergency rooms have seen patients affected by the fires, with most visits involving eye irritation, minor burns,
smoke inhalation and respiratory issues, including exacerbated asthma symptoms. Some of the hospitals already had seen surges from unrelated seasonal issues like RSV, the flu, and COVID-19.
Hospitals also brought in air purifiers to help, mostly in Santa Monica.
The system’s spiritual care teams have been “rounding more than usual,” Aidem said, and Providence has enhanced programs for doctors and other caregivers to help ease stress.
Wexler said: “In the face of such overwhelming loss, unity and compassion will help our communities rebuild and move forward into the future.” vhahn@chausa.org
Sara Keith, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless manager of patient activities and volunteers, talks with Casey Capper outside the John Parvensky Stout Street Recuperative Care Center in Denver. Capper experienced homelessness after an injury cut short his plans for a snowboarding career and his sister died. He got help at the center to stabilize his life.
Grivetti
Michigan hospice’s training empowers African Americans to dialogue
By LISA EISENHAUER
Rev. Diane Smith knows the hospice education program she leads for predominantly Black churches resonates with those who enroll. She recalls the time a man popped into a virtual class as he was riding in a car. He told Rev. Smith: “My sister died. We went down south to a funeral. I’m on my way back, but I didn’t want to miss this session.”
Another woman tuned in to the training while hospitalized. “I said, ‘Are you sure you want to be on this call?’” Rev. Smith asked her. “She says, ‘Oh, yes, I’m going to get my certificate.’”
Rev. Smith directs The African American Church Empowerment Project at Livonia, Michigan-based Angela Hospice and gives certificates to those who complete the training. She is also the hospice’s director of ministry engagement and chief diversity officer.
The Empowerment Project isn’t about promoting Angela Hospice’s services, Rev. Smith explains, but rather about educating the community on hospice care and listening to concerns about end-of-life issues.
“It is such a wonderful experience for those of us who facilitate the trainings, because people want the information and they want to have a safe place to even talk about their own experiences,” she says.
Conversation to project
The Empowerment Project took root in a discussion among members of Angela Hospice’s ethics committee about Black Americans being underserved by hospice. A doctoral student in ethics and philosophy prompted a conversation that led to a literature review that found many articles back up the concern.
Other research has reached the same conclusion, including a report published in 2017 in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. The report identified many barriers to the use of end-of-life care by Black Americans such as lack of knowledge about prognosis, desires for aggressive treatment, family members’ resistance to accepting hospice, and lack of insurance.
Rev. Smith sees another primary reason for the disconnect between Black Americans and hospice providers. She says many people of color have a distrust of the medical community that is rooted in historically being both denied care and exploited, including in the Tuskegee experiment that was revealed in the 1970s and in which syphilis sufferers were intentionally left untreated.
Commentary
From page 1
dignity of each person and recognizes that the well-being of our neighbors is deeply intertwined with our own health. For those of us in Catholic health care, we must be disciples of change. We need to remember why our founders began this ministry of caring for people, particularly those who emigrated to this country and struggled with poverty and prejudice. Our founders understood that the very core of our mission is “to see Christian love as the animating principle of health care; to see healing and compassion as a continuation of Christ’s mission,” as so aptly stated in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services
Today Catholic health care is America’s largest nonprofit provider of health care, caring for one in seven patients in the nation. Many Catholic health systems are multi-billion-dollar businesses that employ tens of thousands of people and care for millions each year. We are blessed with the
‘How
do
we reach them?’
After the literature review, Angela Hospice’s ethics committee surveyed the surrounding community to get residents’ take on hospice care. The committee brought church leaders, academics, health care workers and elder residents into the conversation.
“We intentionally surveyed a diverse group of people to determine what their experience of hospice had been,” Rev. Smith explains.
From there, the committee developed what Rev. Smith calls a “Hospice 101” presentation focused on hospice care, who qualifies, where it’s offered, who provides it, how it’s paid for, and bereavement and grief care services.
Then the committee took the presentation back to the people whose input had helped in the development. That group agreed that the information would be welcomed by the African American community.
“The next question was, how do we reach them? How do we share this information with them?” Rev. Smith says. “And the answer was the churches. So that’s how they ended up doing the trainings in churches.”
Point people
The training sessions started in 2017 for predominantly Black churches of any denomination near Livonia in suburban Detroit. The St. Francis Fund set up by the hospice’s founding congregation, the Felician Sisters of North America, to support new initiatives based on shared core values provided seed money. The grant paid for the training resources and covered other costs in the project’s early years. Angela Hospice has since taken over the costs.
Rev. Smith has been leading the Empowerment Project since she joined Angela Hospice in 2018. She says trainers approach church leaders to see if they are interested
resources to offer our patients the most advanced care available and provide it with compassion and reverence for everyone we encounter.
To live up to our mission and our vision to “empower bold change to elevate human flourishing,” we must recognize our critical role in bringing healing and hope to those we are called to serve. As a representative of Catholic health care, I recognize that our healing ministry cannot do this work alone. But we can be a leading voice that advocates for change.
It is time to grapple with the critical questions on issues that have been holding us back. For example, is prioritizing inpatient care hindering health systems’ ability to invest more in programs and services that can better address community health, chronic disease management, and preventive services? What reasonable new regulations are needed to curb profitdriven decisions by commercial insurance companies that delay and deny coverage to patients? Are intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical companies that are intended to encourage innovation
and supportive of hospice education for their parish.
“This is a very important feature of the project, because the minister is the driving force in the Black church and to go around the minister would be a mistake,” she says.
The minister then decides who in the church should get the training and become the hospice point people for all church members.
“When people hear hospice, they feel that you sign on to hospice and you’re dead. To be able to point to this experience that President Carter had has allowed the public to be aware of and actually helps to educate the public ...”
— Rev. Diane Smith
Initially, the training was four in-person sessions, each on a specific topic: an introduction to hospice, advance directives, grief and bereavement, and “Ask the doctor,” an open forum with a member of the hospice’s medical team.
Later, the trainers added a fifth session on empathic listening and creating a safe space for fellow parishioners to talk about planning for death. “And that is the most important session after they understand what hospice is, given what their role is to be in the church, to walk alongside people who need this information,” Rev. Smith notes.
Fostering dialogue
Maria Holmes went through Empow-
instead stifling competition and driving up drug prices? How do we help government leaders truly understand the benefits to society and the economy when everyone has access to affordable coverage and care? How do we help employers recognize the increased cost of doing business when their employees miss work due to illnesses? These and other fundamental questions need to be part of a broader debate on how we reimagine a health care system that works for everyone, not just those who stand to profit.
As CHA and our members look to influence health care policy in the months ahead, we must be grounded in and impelled by the core principles of our Vision for U.S. Health Care:
Human dignity
Common good
Concern for the poor and vulnerable
Stewardship
Justice
Pluralism
Using these principles as the foundation for our advocacy priorities with the new Trump administration and Congress,
erment Project training along with other members of Abundant Harvest Church of God in Christ of Belleville, Michigan. Pastor Willie S. Foster dubbed the training program the “11th Hour Ministry.” The church posted information about the trainees on the bulletin board and website and spread the word that they’re available to parishioners to discuss end-of-life issues.
Holmes wishes she had known about hospice in the 1980s, when she was a teenager and her father’s health began to deteriorate as heart and lung disease and other illnesses took their toll. “I look back now and wonder, especially for my father, if hospice might have been helpful, but it just wasn’t all that common then,” she says.
Before she took the Empowerment Project training, Holmes had become something of a bereavement resource for family, friends and fellow parishioners.
“I realized after I lost my father-in-law in 2015 that a lot of families don’t know what to do when they lose a loved one, if they’ve not been through that before,” Holmes says. “So I actually put together my own personal spreadsheet to support friends and family. It’s a list of what to do and how to find information and what you might need to prepare for during the death of a loved one.”
She also shares templates for obituaries and funeral programs.
She found Angela Hospice’s training to be a helpful addition to her knowledge base. In particular, she says she appreciates how it showed her and the other trainees how to open dialogues on sensitive topics.
“We feel like we’re in a better position to understand and help other people,” Holmes says. “And I think that it’s a big part of what ministry does. And yet, oftentimes we’re ill-prepared for it and/or uncomfortable with it.”
Hospice champion
Rev. Smith notes that hospice gained something of a poster child in 2023 when former President Jimmy Carter went into care. She says his candidness about his failing health and his championing of hospice until his death in December changed the perception of end-of-life treatment for many people.
“When people hear hospice, they feel that you sign on to hospice and you’re dead,” Rev. Smith says. “To be able to point to this experience that President Carter had has allowed the public to be aware of and actually helps to educate the public and opens the door for conversation about people being on hospice longer and not automatically dying when they sign on the dotted line. That, in and of itself, is a huge lesson about what hospice can be.”
we will work tirelessly in calling for legislation and policies that ensure a strong safety net and protect Medicaid; provide access, coverage and affordability for everyone; strengthen primary care, aging and chronic care services; improve the health of communities; seek to eliminate health disparities; and protect the sanctity of all life, from conception to natural death.
As we work to find solutions to fix our nation’s broken health care system, we recognize there will be varying perspectives as well as many disagreements on policy solutions. We know that because the status quo appeals to some, there will be perceived winners and losers to any changes in the structure of how care is delivered. But rather than see health care policy as a zerosum game, what if all leaders of goodwill who are committed to truly reimagining a system focus their collective talents and resources on creating one that is not only efficient and innovative, but also compassionate and equitable?
In short, it is time to recreate our system of care in the same animating spirit of our founders, one that emulates Christ’s love.
Members of Second Ebenezer Church in Detroit participate in a session of The African American Church Empowerment Project, a program sponsored by Angela Hospice of Livonia, Michigan.
Rev. Smith
Community members’ donations provide extra comfort for hospitalized kids
By JULIE MINDA
Mid-January brought special donations from the local community for Mercy St. Louis in Missouri and for CommonSpirit Health’s Dignity Health Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, California. At Mercy, several community organizations came together to donate items for comfort bags that families can have when their child is admitted to inpatient care from the emergency department.
Mercy Kids Child Life Specialist Kelsey Mitchell says when a child comes to the emergency department, the visit and a subsequent hospital admission are usually unexpected, and so families are not prepared for an overnight stay. Mitchell has been working with multiple organizations since late last year to gather supplies that families can benefit from during a child’s inpatient stay — and that they can take with them upon discharge.
The Mercy Kids-branded tote bags contain a fleece blanket with the Mercy logo, a child-sized toothbrush, both lip balm and a plastic cup with the Mercy logo and colored pencils or markers from the Creve Coeur, Missouri, fire department. A St. Louis Christian radio station, 99.1 JOY FM, used dona-
tions from listeners to fund stuffed “prayer bears,” prayer cards and a prayer devotional for parents. The station’s founder and onair personality Sandi Brown delivered the bears to the hospital in mid-January, sharing some of the items with patients and providing the rest to the hospital for the bags.
School health worker
From page 1
Pointer to investigate the level of need at the school and convinced her to approach leadership of Saint Alphonsus Health System’s Community Health & Well-Being division about the school’s request. After months of coordination, in fall 2021 Pointer became an embedded community health worker at the Baker School District in northeast Oregon’s Baker City. Pointer calls the arrangement “a beautiful collaboration” between the hospital and school district.
Pent up demand
Pointer, whose title is community health worker supervisor with the Community Health & Well-Being department of Saint Alphonsus in Baker City, provides services to everyone at no cost to them, whether or not they are patients of Saint Alphonsus. Her role is to connect with students and their families, assess their needs and then guide them to the health and social services they require, including connecting them with providers and helping with transportation needs. Pointer says upon her arrival, word spread quickly about how she could help people and “it kind of blew up from
there.” Demand for her services escalated quickly.
Vanessa Haggett is principal of Eagle Cap Innovative High School and Baker Virtual Academy, two schools within Baker School District. She says in the district, many students and families “are dealing with extensive life traumas, and often do not have the time, money, or connections to deal with a major life setback like a serious illness. When they let us know, we connect them to Kathie.”
Engaging Pointer in this way increases “the feeling of belonging families have at our school, as they know we are here to support them however we can,” says Haggett.
‘Cowboy community’
Baker City is a community of nearly 11,000 people that is about 130 miles northwest of Boise, Idaho. The 25-bed Baker City hospital’s parent, Saint Alphonsus Health System, is based in Boise. Saint Alphonsus is part of Trinity Health.
Baker City is remote and faces challenges with economic disparities similar to other rural communities, says Pointer. About 13.8% of the population is in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Baker School District has about 1,700 students across six elementary schools, one middle school, a high school, the innovative high school that provides alternative paths to a diploma, and the virtual school. According
Mitchell says the Mercy foundation also contributed to the cost of assembling and filling the comfort bags.
Members of a “pre-hire” volunteer group at Mercy are filling about 600 bags with the donated items. The volunteers are people with disabilities who are building up skills
to district statistics, 59% of students qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch program. Haggett says in the innovative school for students who do not thrive in the traditional high school 89% of students qualify for the free lunch program and 32% are homeless.
Torie Andrews, a counselor for the innovative school, says “families are struggling and hurting. Often it seems that students and their families don’t understand what resources are available to them or they don’t know where to start looking.” Often, school counselors and nurses are ill-equipped to help students and families navigate local health care and social service systems, say Andrews and Pointer.
Pointer adds that in many respects, Baker City is “a cowboy community, where people don’t always want to accept help.” She says the fact that she lives and raised her kids there helps her establish trusting relationships and convince fellow residents to accept help.
Visible presence
While many of the students and families Pointer serves have been referred to her by district staff, many come to know her through her outreach. She frequently visits the district’s schools to interact with staff and students and families. She participates in school activities. It’s becoming a tradition for her to bring ornaments and help students decorate the school for Christmas. She attends parent nights. Sometimes she’ll do presentations, alerting families to the services she can offer or highlighting important public health issues. For instance, when there was a local increase in accidental infant deaths, she presented on infant safety.
Out and about in the schools, she becomes aware of numerous needs. She learned of a family who had fallen on hard times after the father’s diagnosis with a terminal condition. They were storing food in the snow because they couldn’t afford a refrigerator. She helped figure out how to get them one at no cost. Another time, she learned about a student who was dying and reliant on wheelchair. He wanted to have some normalcy by attending school, but the school’s available transportation was not workable for his family. Pointer arranged for volunteers who had the needed wheelchair-accessible van to transport him.
Pointer has arranged toiletry supply drives and other collections to add to the school’s food pantry. Saint Alphonsus staff have responded enthusiastically. She’s also
as they seek to become Mercy co-workers. Mitchell says with a busy pediatric emergency department and inpatient pediatric unit, she knows this initial supply of bags will not last forever. She is encouraging people to donate to Mercy St. Louis’ foundation or to provide in-kind gifts for use in bags in the future.
Clothes for people in need
More than 1,900 miles west of Mercy, Marian Regional Medical Center also received a donation for young patients in mid-January. Janeth Ruiz, a sixth-grade student at Joe Nightingale Elementary School in Orcutt, California, undertook a collection at her school and amassed 100 jackets and sweatshirts that she then donated to the Pediatric Closet at Marian. Many of the items she collected were from her school’s lost and found. She launders the items herself before donating them to the hospital’s closet, which was established in 2016 to aid families in need.
Families of pediatric patients can go to the closet to choose clothing and toys to take home free of charge. Janeth has been making donations to the closet since she was in kindergarten. jminda@chausa.org
collected donations of art supplies for an art therapy program that has greatly benefited students dealing with trauma.
“She understands the importance of relationships and being seen,” says Andrews.
Firsthand knowledge
Pointer is one of 14 community health workers employed by Saint Alphonsus. Rebecca Lemmons, Saint Alphonsus regional director of Community Health & Well-Being and Community Benefit, says no other Saint Alphonsus community health workers are embedded in schools.
Lemmons notes that one reason Pointer’s arrangement has worked out so well is that “the best community work happens organically,” as this setup did. “We are going where the people are,” she adds. She says Saint Alphonsus has gotten more in tune with Baker City through the arrangement. Pointer has gained firsthand, comprehensive knowledge of the needs and gaps. Her insights have proven very valuable when Saint Alphonsus is completing community health needs assessments and community benefit plans, Lemmons says.
Lemmons adds that Pointer’s presence also builds goodwill for Saint Alphonsus. “She’s a trusted face in the community,” she says. “And those relationships are everything.”
Pointer says being such a part of the school district community has been very meaningful for her, especially when she is able to help people in deep need. “I see the brokenness of some of these kids, and that has ignited a love in me for them,” she says.
“This work has become a passion for me.”
Haggett says the support Pointer provides is essential to the students. “If you are hungry, in pain or feeling unsafe, you are not going to be able to learn,” she says. “Kathie has helped families to get medical care and meet their basic needs.”
Andrews says, “Kathie often goes above and beyond to find every avenue of help or system that could potentially be used. Just knowing that there’s a community health worker, with their boots on the ground, who has a vast knowledge of local and state support, has been critical.”
She adds, “Community health workers have such a unique opportunity to bring light to situations that often seem bleak.” jminda@chausa.org
Pointer
From left, Vanessa Haggett, Alicia Wolfe, Kathie Pointer and Torie Andrews display some of the hygiene items that Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center employees collected for students of the Baker School District in northeast Oregon’s Baker City. Haggett is principal of Eagle Cap Innovative High School and Baker Virtual Academy, Wolfe is mission leader and chaplain at Saint Alphonsus, Pointer is community health worker supervisor with the Community Health & Well-Being department of Saint Alphonsus in Baker City and Andrews is a counselor at the innovative high school.
Lemmons
At left, Kaori Dotson holds one of the “prayer bears” given away in comfort bags to pediatric patients at Mercy St. Louis in Missouri. At right, Janeth Ruiz is surrounded by others and by gently used clothing and toys she donated to the Pediatric Closet at CommonSpirit Health’s Dignity Health Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, California.
HOBBIES HELP REVITALIZE MINISTRY EXECUTIVES
Music man
In his personal time, Mike Slubowski needs a refresher from the hectic pace of executive leadership, and he unplugs by plugging in his guitar. He finds playing the electric guitar, and sometimes the bass guitar, to be “a form of meditation. It takes you to a different place and uses a different part of your brain.”
Slubowski started strumming at 10. “Seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, I was hooked!” he says. His dad bought him a secondhand guitar for $10 and Slubowski has been playing ever since. He enjoys classic rock, pop, Motown — almost anything that’s been popular from the 1950s thru the 1990s. He’s become an avid guitar collector as well — “you can’t stop at just one,” he says, laughing. He now has about 300 guitars and about 75 amplifiers.
He’s been a part of different bands as he has moved around the country. He is from suburban Detroit; when he returned to that area in 2017 to lead Trinity Health, he placed an ad on Craigslist, saying he was “an office guy by day” seeking to start a band that could play casually in their off-hours. The group’s five members dubbed themselves
Cookoff champ
K.C. DeBoer recalls enjoying his dad’s homemade chili as a kid. As an adult, it has become a favorite pastime of his to perfect chili recipes and enter them into competitions.
It all began in 1992, when DeBoer was an administrative fellow at Avera St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen, South Dakota. The hospital’s dietary department decided to compete in that town’s South Dakota State Chili Cookoff that the hospital sponsored. In his leader-in-training role, he was asked to join that team. “I had a great time,” recalls DeBoer, who has worked in multiple top leadership roles in three states and is now regional president of SSM Health in Mid-Missouri. That region includes SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital — Jefferson City.
Since that first contest, he’s participated in at least one chili cookoff but sometimes several every year for the last three decades. He typically is lead chef and usually enters in all three available categories: red, green and homestyle. He sometimes judges chili cookoffs as well.
“Blind Date” after the feel of the process to cull through the musicians who responded to the ad. The band that eventually formed includes a retired Trinity Health clinician, a retired auto industry attorney, a pharmacy technician and a dental office staff member.
Blind Date rehearses several days a month and plays publicly just about whenever there’s an invite. This has included
some Trinity Health and charity events. Slubowski says a lot of people at work are surprised when they find out that he plays guitar.
“I think everyone has to have an outside interest, it makes us more well-rounded and human,” he says. “And we can connect more with other people and share our gifts in a new way.”
Marathon runner
About two decades ago, when Bob Baxter was seeking ways to better his health, a friend challenged him to run the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon that goes through South Dakota’s Black Hills. He decided to give it a try.
As a marathon newbie, though not totally new to recreational running, he started getting painful leg cramps around mile 21 of the Mickelson Trail. He began to stumble and said to himself, “This is the worst!”
But then a fellow runner helped him up, offered him some electrolytes, provided a shoulder for him to lean on and gave him the encouragement he needed to make it to the 26.2-mile mark. “I realized there is this community feeling here. You’re out there with other people who want to have fun and who want to help anyone who is struggling,” he says.
He’s won local competitions many times. He’s been a state champion five times. And he has entered world-level competitions about a half dozen times.
Barbecue kingmaker
More than two decades ago, Damond Boatwright was participating in the administrative fellowship program at Duke University Health System in Durham, North Carolina, when a friend had what Boatwright calls a “wonderful idea”: The two financially strapped graduate students could eat their fill of delicious southern barbecue if they became barbecue contest judges.
The two completed the required seminar and earned their credentials and then quickly began receiving invitations to be judges.
Boatwright, now president and CEO of Hospital Sisters Health System in Springfield, Illinois, concedes he had a big lesson to learn at the outset. “The first one I did, I made a cardinal mistake. I was a hungry grad student, I went in excited, and I immediately turned the barbecue contest into an all-you-can-eat festival,” he recalls. He quickly began to feel queasy and stuffed.
“I learned to pace myself,” he laughs.
Over the decades, he’s judged contests of all sizes, including the American Royal World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City, Kansas.
DeBoer says there’s a “small, great community of people who travel all over the U.S.” to participate in chili cookoffs. He’s learned a lot by competing in and judging contests, including how to make each bite count.
“This is something I stumbled into 30 years ago and grew to love the people involved,” he says. “Plus, these cookoffs benefit charity, so it’s also helping the community.
“These are fun events that bring people together — win, lose or draw,” he says.
He says he’s learned that the key to barbecue judging is to be open-minded. He says judges shouldn’t predetermine how they will feel about a particular submission based on whether it’s cooked using a method they like or don’t like.
Boatwright has picked up numerous tips along the way for barbecuing a delicious
entrée, and he hopes to someday join a crew to compete himself.
He’s looking forward to continuing this hobby into the future. “It’s this festive, carnival atmosphere,” he says, “and you get to meet people from all walks of life, all shades and sizes, all with a passion and a love of good food.”
Thus began two decades and counting of marathon running for Baxer, who has been president of Mercy Health — Toledo, Ohio, since 2017. That hospital is part of Bon Secours Mercy Health.
Baxter estimates he’s completed about 30 marathons in 14 states, and his goal is to eventually make it to marathons in all 50 states.
He is selective about the ones he chooses to run. He says taking part in a marathon is a great way to see beautiful areas, so he picks races in cities he’s been wanting to visit. He’s been to runs at the Hoover Dam, communities in the Great Lakes region, and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. One of the most impressive ones he has participated in, he says, is the Boston Marathon, one of the nation’s premier marathons.
He is a regular at the annual Mercy Health-sponsored Glass City Marathon in Toledo.
Baxter says marathon running has given him a nice way to have work-life balance and has helped him grow as a person. When he runs, he can tune out the noise and daily pressures and focus on other things. “There are so many benefits to running,” he says. jminda@chausa.org
Visit
chausa.org/chw to view a video of Mike Slubowski performing with his band, Blind Date.
Mike Slubowski, president and CEO of Trinity Health, at left, performs with his band, Blind Date. Slubowski says he enjoys challenging himself by playing with musicians who are better than he is. He also finds that playing as part of a band improves his teamwork.
K.C. DeBoer, regional president of SSM Health in Mid-Missouri, at right, competes in a chili cookoff. When he enters, he always brings a crew.
Damond Boatwright, president and CEO of Hospital Sisters Health System, second from left, is joined by HSHS colleagues and former colleagues during a barbecue contest he judged in Shelbyville, Illinois, one of HSHS's markets.
Bob Baxter, president of Mercy Health — Toledo, Ohio, completes a marathon. He loves that marathon running is a very accessible sport and that just about anyone can do it — they don’t even have to be good at running, they can just give it a try at a slow pace, he says.
PRESIDENTS/CEOS
Organizations within CommonSpirit Health have made these changes:
Crystal Bohannan to president of CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs in Arkansas, from vice president of operations. She succeeds Dr. Doug Ross, who moved to president of Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, a CommonSpirit hospital in Phoenix.
David P. Ziolkowski to president and CEO of Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California, from CEO of Tenet’s Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona. He succeeds Don Wiley, who retired in November.
Dorval R. Carter Jr. to president and CEO of Saint Anthony Hospital of Chicago. Carter is a Saint Anthony board member who most recently was Chicago Transit Authority president. He succeeds Guy Medaglia, who is
retiring. Medaglia will remain president and CEO of Chicago Southwest Development Corporation, the organization overseeing a Saint Anthony expansion project.
ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES
David De Simone to senior vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of St. Joseph’s Health of Paterson, New Jersey.
Gary Williams to vice president of the Center for Performance Improvement and Innovation at Covenant Health in Andover, Massachusetts.
Michelle Wieczorek to system director of accountable care for Hospital Sisters Health System of Springfield, Illinois.
Dr. Amine Hila to chief medical officer, acute care at St. Joseph’s Health in Syracuse, New York. He also will be chief clinical officer for St. Joseph’s Health and St. Peter’s Health Partners in Albany, New York. As Hila focuses
on acute care, Dr. Robert Carlin continues as chief medical officer for ambulatory services, a role he assumed in August. St. Joseph’s and St. Peter’s are part of Trinity Health.
Organizations within CommonSpirit Health have made these changes:
Dr. Garrett Lewis to market chief medical officer of CHI St. Vincent, which is CommonSpirit Health’s network in central and southwest Arkansas.
Brady Small to chief information officer of CommonSpirit Health’s mountain region.
Kara Estenson to chief nursing executive/chief operating officer of Dignity Health Woodland Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, California.
Dr. C. Lee Jackson to chief medical officer of CHI Memorial of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Carrie Miller to president of the Bon Secours Hampton Roads Foundation in Virginia.
Dr. Mara Groom to chief medical officer for Avera Medical Group, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
GRANT
Flaget Memorial Hospital, part of CHI Saint Joseph Health, has received a $600,000 grant from the Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana to purchase an orthopedic robot designed to enhance knee replacement surgeries. This robot will help ensure that patients from Bardstown and surrounding communities in central Kentucky have access to advanced orthopedic care. The hospital is part of CommonSpirit Health.
ANNIVERSARIES
Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Stockton, California, part of CommonSpirit Health, 125 years.
Mercy College of Health Sciences of Des Moines, Iowa, 125 years.
CHRISTUS Health’s Mother Frances Hospital — Sulphur Springs in Texas, 75 years.
CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini in Alexandria, Louisiana, 75 years.
Ascension joins CHA in Keep Americans Covered coalition
Ascension has joined the Keep Americans Covered coalition, a nonpartisan group that is advocating for the extension of enhanced premium tax credits for people insured through the health insurance marketplace. CHA also is part of Keep Americans Covered and is represented on the coalition’s steering committee.
The enhanced premium tax credits became available under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021. The credits were extended in 2022. The credits are set to expire late this year, unless Congress elects to once again extend them.
CHA says the tax credits have made insurance more affordable and accessible and reduced barriers to care for more than 20 million individuals and families. The association says the credits also have helped to improve health outcomes. Four million Americans could lose their insurance coverage if the credits expire. CHA says premiums could increase by 25% or more if they do.
14-week series
Order your printed or digital cards at:
In a press release about Ascension joining Keep Americans Covered, Joe Impicciche, the health system’s CEO, says through the coalition Ascension is promoting public policy solutions that will “protect access to quality and affordable care and strengthen the country’s health care safety net.” He says without the credits many people will have to choose between health insurance and essentials like food, transportation and utilities.
The Keep Americans Covered coalition also includes the American Academy of Family Physicians, AARP, Association for Community Affiliated Plans, Alliance of Community Health Plans, American College of Physicians, AHIP, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Medical Association, BlueCross BlueShield Association, FamiliesUSA, Federation of American Hospitals, Healthcare Leadership Council, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, National Association of Nurse Practitioners, National Rural Health Association, Small Business for America’s Future, Susan G. Komen, United States of Care and UnidosUS.
Bohannan
Williams Small Ziolkowski
Wieczorek
Estenson De Simone Lewis Jackson
IN BRIEF
St. Joseph’s Health in Central New York sees ‘baby boom’ among staff
St. Joseph’s Health Hospital in Syracuse, New York, is having a “baby boom” among the staff in its Women and Infants Service unit. One obstetrician and 13 nurses have been pregnant with babies due between October 2024 and June 2025. Eight of these babies had been born as of Jan. 29.
Most of these moms-to-be are giving birth at St. Joseph’s, which is part of Trinity Health. The hospital said in a news release that the hospital is “thrilled to share this special journey with its patients, as the women who care for them are also embracing motherhood. Everyone is looking forward to welcoming the newest members of the St. Joseph’s Health family.”
Heather Shimer-Bero, director of the Women and Infant Service line noted that while there is much excitement in the unit with the arrival or pending arrival of so many babies among staff, the situation “also presents challenges for staffing.”
She noted, “We’re here for them as they
the 14
between October 2024 and June 2025.
take time with their babies, and they’re there for each other like a close-knit group. It’s truly special to have a ‘work family’ that understands exactly what you’re going through, from pregnancy to raising children.”
40th anniversary
From page 1
first, “CHA calls for National Commission on Health Policy,” topped a story that called on national leaders to establish a bipartisan national commission to undertake a study to make recommendations to ensure quality health care access to all Americans.
The second headline, “CHA demands apology for Regan slur,” was on a story that called on White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan to apologize for a statement he made to Newsweek magazine while he was treasury secretary: “My heart cannot bleed for many hospitals hurt by limits on Medicare payments, even those run by Roman Catholic nuns. Their hearts are big, but their heads aren’t screwed on tight. Most of them need new management.”
Regan offered a “guarded apology” and an explanation in the March issue, which also included several angry letters to the editor.
That year, the World, as Curley called it, explored topics of interest that continue to warrant coverage: programs for the unhoused, concerns over a proposed Medicare freeze, the culture of Catholic health care facilities, and poor pregnancy outcomes among Black mothers.
It addressed issues more illustrative of the time: the famine in Africa, Ethiopia in particular, and the AIDS crisis.
Some pop culture references might be lost on today’s younger readers. One photo showing a car stuck on a parking deck after an accident at a North Carolina hospital noted that it looked like the set of “Dukes of Hazzard.” A story about a hospital program in Pennsylvania to help quell the fears of child patients was illustrated by photos of children looking on as adults pretend to examine Cabbage Patch Kid dolls. One editorial from a hospital executive asked readers to think of people in other countries, not just Ethiopia, when they hear the song “We
Are the World.”
CommonSpirit Health’s downtown LA hospital opens patient tower
Dignity Health — California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles has opened its new $215 million-plus patient tower that increases the CommonSpirit Health hospital’s emergency footprint by about 50%.
Jill Welton, CommonSpirit market president, says the new Grand Tower significantly expands the medical center’s emergency, trauma and maternal care services while also addressing critical gaps in health care for the 85,000 residents and 500,000 workers in downtown Los Angeles.
The emergency department expansion includes six trauma bays, 47 private exam rooms, dedicated pediatric rooms, family waiting rooms and new patient-facing digital systems that enable people to get real-time updates on patients’ status. The hospital says the new facilities will increase
Catholic Health World’s coverage of the 70th annual Catholic Health Assembly in 1985, which was held in Orlando, Florida, noted that more than 1,100 people attended. Recordings of presentations were later available on audio cassettes for $8 each, according to an advertisement. Topics included “Too Many Beds: is Merger the Answer?”, “Inter-species biomedicine: technology or tinkering?” and “Is Being Catholic Worth Saving?”
Over its four decades, the newspaper has covered a plethora of topics, including the rise of lay sponsorship of Catholic health care, the consolidation of health systems, and the ever-increasing use of robotics, artificial intelligence and other technology to advance medical care. Pope John Paul II made the newspaper’s pages, notably during his address to the CHA assembly in Phoenix in 1987 and his visit to St. Louis in 1999. In 1996, the paper touted the association’s new home on the world wide web, and in 1997, it greeted the first cloned sheep with the headline “Hello, Dolly!”
Catholic Health World covered the 1997 passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which CHA strongly supported,
the emergency department’s capacity, reduce wait time, increase efficiency and decrease ambulance diversions.
The new family birth center and neonatal intensive care unit have 28 private postpartum rooms, 24 private NICU rooms, three surgery suites, a pregnancy care center with birthing rooms, a children’s play area in the waiting room, private consultation spaces and a water birthing suite.
Time capsule at Minnesota hospital captures snapshot of progress
Opening a time capsule at Essentia Health — St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, Minnesota, took time. The copper box was soldered shut, and two maintenance workers had to hammer and chisel for about 20 minutes to break through the seal.
The time capsule was in a 1950s-era wing that was part of the old medical center building. The hospital dated to 1888, when it was established by the Benedictine Sisters of the St. Scholastica Monastery. It was replaced on the next block in July 2023.
The inside of the copper box was shiny, the items remarkably well-preserved.
Among the oldest: a 1921 silver dollar, and a book on the “Rule of St. Benedict” from 1910. Most of the other items were from the mid-1950s: local newspapers, brochures about career planning and internship opportunities, a sample nurses’ schedule, a hospital menu, a handout reviewing blood diseases, a night report and a surgery report. There were also small statues and holy cards of St. Joseph and Mary.
Items from the capsule will be used to design and plan a heritage wall in the main entrance of the new hospital. St. Mary’s is one of several hospitals the sisters founded in northern Minnesota. In their early years the hospitals were funded by patients and “lumberjack tickets,” which lumberjacks bought to get a year of care.
and the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. That year, CHA’s then-president and CEO Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, made TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2015, the newspaper covered President Barack Obama’s speech at CHA’s assembly in which he thanked the organization for supporting his health insurance program and said of Sr. Carol: “We would not have gotten the Affordable Care Act done had it not been for her.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic Health World halted its print production in May and June of 2020 but continued to provide news of hospital and health care response online. Throughout the public health crisis, the newspaper covered the challenges providers grappled with as the virus infected millions and to date has killed more than a 1.2 million in the United States, workers were overwhelmed, and public health directives came under fire. The newspaper also has documented the strong push for health equity within the ministry that was spurred in part by the inequities seen during the pandemic.
Catholic Health World , which started as a twice-monthly print publication, is
now printed monthly. It has a print circulation of about 12,600, with issues sent to readers in all 50 United States and Washington, Puerto Rico, Italy, Canada and Germany. Last year, Catholic Health World adopted a digital-first strategy, posting new content to its website several times a week. Its online content, which is free and open to the public, draws thousands of readers.
“Since its founding, CHA has worked to lift up the collective voice of Catholic health care in the United States,” said Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA president and CEO. “During the past four decades, Catholic Health World has played a critical role in telling the story of our healing ministry and has been consistently recognized for excellence in journalism. Through the work of Catholic Health World reporters and editors, our members and the larger public have gained new knowledge and insight on a wide variety of topics such as health care reform, community benefit, spiritual care, disaster response, and the vital role our members play in relation to the global church.”
vhahn@chausa.org
These are 10 of
clinicians who are part of a “baby boom” at St. Joseph’s Health Hospital in Syracuse, New York. One obstetrician and 13 nurses in the hospital’s Women and Infants Service unit have been pregnant with babies due
Los Angeles’ Dignity Health — California Hospital Medical Center has opened a new patient tower.
