Sr. Mary Maurita Sengelaub, RSM 7 CHRISTUS patients dig gardening 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
AUGUST 1, 2019 VOLUME 35, NUMBER 13
Providence volunteers lend empathy and elbow grease to immigrant respite center Catholic Charities says volunteers are vital to meet the crushing demand for services near the border By LISA EISENHAUER
Carrie Schonwald says that she had braced herself for what she would see as a volunteer at a respite center on the Texas border helping with the recent surge in immigrants. Even so, she was overwhelmed by the seeming chaos and confusion as families sought desperately needed aid at the center run by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. “It was just a real mass of people,” Schonwald says. The chaos was no doubt exacerbated by the center’s relocation days earlier. But even in the best of circumstances the swell of hungry, disheveled and traumatized migrants coming into the Catholic Charities refugee center in McAllen for help in mid-June would have stretched its staff and resources beyond their limits.
One volunteer, a Providence executive who doesn’t speak Spanish, made scrubbing the women’s showers a personal mission so each refugee could wash in a clean stall. That same woman became the go-to person for single fathers to hand off their young daughters for showers. Afterward, she braided many of the little girls’ hair in long plaits that became a signature gesture. Kindness to spare “It was like a sacred Amid the confusion, the conact,” Schonwald says. tingent from Providence found “It was like a ministry. It was just one their bearings. They spent After being released from a detention center along the U.S. border with the week doing chores that Mexico, a migrant child drew this picture of people sleeping behind bars. person. It was just her.” Another member of the Proviincluded serving meals; distrib- The photo of the drawing was one of several such images shared by the uting clothing; buying supplies American Academy of Pediatrics to draw attention to the emotional toll dence team is a nurse practitioner. She hadn’t gone to Texas as a clinical for, prepping and filling snack of detention on children. bags with bottles of water and ham-and- them on the next leg of a long journey that volunteer, but with the respite center’s own cheese sandwiches; and directing refugees for most had started thousands of miles clinic out of commission at the time, she to the buses and airplanes that would carry away in Central America. Continued on 3 At the time, the center was each day assisting upwards of 1,000 people who were recently released from detention centers and in need of food, a change of clothing and aid making their way to the homes of relatives already living in the United States. Schonwald led a team of six from Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health to help the center’s staffers and local volunteers — people she refers to as “superheroes” — respond to the refugee surge.
Health systems to keep watchful eye on 2020 census
Inaccurate decennial count could prove costly
rblfmr/Shutterstock.com
By KEN LEISER
Public health officials, health care foundations and other grant-making organizations, health policy experts and many states are mobilizing in an effort to promote participation in the 2020 decennial U.S. census. The population distribution data and other information that is captured in, or derived by, the census will determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal money is allocated among state and local governments for the next decade. The census officially begins April 1. This year the buildup has been peppered with heated rhetoric related to the inclusion or exclusion of a question on citizenship status. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the inclusion of the question, and the Donald Trump Administration ultimately relented.
Colored pencils, pens and crayons are added to craft packs for adult hospital patients.
Information technologists ‘pop A booth offers information about the 2020 Census at a street festival in New York City last month. the tech bubble’ to connect with ‘Patient-targeted Googling’ has benefits and pitfalls, but is it ethical? HSHS patients Continued on 2
By DALE SINGER
How would you feel if you found out that your doctor was researching you online to learn more about COMMONSPIRIT you? Happy she HEALTH was so thorough? Annoyed at her nosiness? Maybe a little of both? With more people using social media and more details of people’s lives available online, most health care professionals are a mouse click away from learning things their patients may not have shared yet — or may not want to share — with their health care team. While searching for information
about patients online may provide relevant information in some cases, it can also be an intrusive, if surreptitious, invasion of privacy. And, though the line between appropriate searching and inappropriate searching is far from clear, the practice is common enough that there is a growing body of journal articles on the Kuhnel topic of “patient-targeted Googling.” Leslie Kuhnel, division ethicist at CHI Health in Omaha, Neb., is among those working to help clarify this murky ethical
area. She published an article in the Summer 2018 edition of The Journal of Clinical Ethics examining the topic and describing TTaPP, a critical thinking tool developed by CHI Health’s Behavioral Health Ethics Committee. TTaPP, which is short for Together Take a Pause and Ponder, is intended to prompt health care professionals to weigh their intentions and motivations before conducting online searches for information about their patients.
By LISA EISENHAUER
Do patients realize clinicians are doing such online searches? For a lot of patients, it probably wouldn’t
For Trisha Redpath, the chance to take part in a project to gather mentally stimulating items for adult hospital patients hit close to her heart. “I feel like I’ve had a lot of people, friends, that have been in the hospital here at St. Mary’s and I’ve seen what they’re going through,” said Redpath, a technical analyst based at HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur, Ill. “Some of them are lonely, don’t have any family and maybe just a couple of friends.”
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD August 1, 2019
income, renters, people of color, families with children under five, rural, and immigrants,” according to the statement. “For every person undercounted in 2010, Missouri forfeited an estimated $1,200 in federal dollars.”
2020 census A question of citizenship Some fear the efforts to include the citizenship question may have frightened and discouraged immigrants from participating in the census. The California Endowment, a $3.7 billion health care foundation in the nation’s most populous state, said it has committed $10 million to support efforts to “educate and mobilize California’s hardest to count populations, including immigrant, Latino, African American, Asian Pacific Islander and LGBTQ+, among others.” Douglas Strane, clinical research project manager at the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said that members of Latino immigrant communities and Muslim communities may be less willing to self-identify because of increased hostility being directed toward them. Although the U.S. Census Bureau is prevented by law from divulging personal information, some participants lack trust in the government. Some of the very attributes most aligned with undercounts — poverty and unstable housing — also make populations more susceptible to poor health, he added. In addition to the political and legal battle over the inclusion of a citizenship question, reductions in federal spending to support data collection could impact census participation. Further, the 2020 census will be the first to be conducted online. This should make it easier for respondents to complete the survey, but it is a concern for communities with limited broadband access. The Census Bureau said the option to respond to census questions by phone or by returning a paper questionnaire is open to everyone. Census takers will conduct outreach if the bureau has not heard from a household. What’s at stake Failure to accurately count vulnerable population groups could result in states losing their fair share of federal funding for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, among other safety net programs. In 2015, the federal government distributed more than $675 billion in federal funds, grants and support to states on the
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From page 1
basis of Census Bureau data. According to an article in Econofact, that amount included $311 billion for Medicaid, $71 billion for the supplemental nutrition program, $38 billion for highway planning and construction and almost $30 billion for the Federal Pell Grant program. The authors, economists Nora Gordon and Krista O’Connell, wrote that census data is used in calculating the federal medical assistance percentage. That percentage is plugged into the formula that generates the federal government’s share of Medicaid spending. Gordon and O’Connell said if a state’s population is undercounted in the census, its per capita income calculations will be inflated. This negatively impacts state Medicaid programs because the federal matching funds range from 50 percent in wealthier states to 83 percent in the poorest states. Peter Leibold, chief advocacy officer for Ascension, said that in addition to making sure there is sufficient funding to provide Medicaid or CHIP insurance to all who are eligible, there is an ethLeibold ical reason to encourage a full and accurate census count: Every individual should be counted because every person has worth and dignity.
Endorsements open doors In Ascension’s home state of Missouri, the Missouri Foundation for Health is lead-
ing a cross-sector initiative to support an accurate count. In late May the foundation released a call for leaders in the government and private sector to promote census participation. The statement was endorsed by 30 leaders across the St. Louis region, many of them heads of health care organizations that provide direct health care to low-income people or fund grant-based programs that benefit that population. Represented among the signatories were St. Louis-based Ascension, the Daughters of Charity Foundation of St. Louis (now the Marillac Mission Fund), and the Incarnate Word Foundation. “We understand that there are some unique challenges with the 2020 census that make it even more imperative that private entities help facilitate get-out-the-count efforts with the operations of public entities,” said Alexandra Rankin, government affairs manager for Missouri Foundation for Health. As an example of challenges, Rankin said 20 percent of Missouri Rankin does not have access to broadband, high-speed Internet. The statement said that roughly 9 percent of Missouri’s population lived in hardto-count communities during the 2010 census and undercounts that year resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. “Households most at risk of being undercounted include those who are low
Catholic health’s trusted voice Rankin stressed the importance of “trusted voices” in the communities including employers willing to underscore the importance of an accurate census, to persuade people that it’s safe to complete the census form, and to encourage people to be counted. “If households — especially households that are harder to count — are hearing of the significance and the value and the safety of the census from people they trust, they are more likely to participate than if they get a form dropped off or if they have someone knocking on their door that they don’t know,” she said. To that end, the Census Bureau began developing its national partnership outreach two years ago — earlier than usual in advance of a decennial count, said Robin Bachman, the Census Bureau’s chief of the national partnership program. Partners help educate and encourage people to fill out the census forms. Bachman staffed the bureau’s booth at the Catholic Health Assembly in June in Dallas, distributing materials promoting the 2020 census. “We are trying to (work) through trusted voices in the community to help educate and motivate our respondents to fill out the form,” said Bachman, who previously worked as vice president of government and public policy at Cleveland-based Sisters of Charity Health System. “Catholic health ministry is a great member of the community and so for us it was a place where we were excited to go and start some of these conversations.” Kathy Curran, CHA’s senior director of public policy said, “Getting an accurate census count is crucial so that states have the resources to provide people with access to health care through Medicaid and CHIP. Even without a citizenship question, some communities will still avoid the census out of fear. Catholic hospitals are trusted voices in their communities and CHA will be working with our members to provide outreach and education resources” to support and encourage census participation.
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August 1, 2019 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
Respite for migrants
Appropriate giving: Avoiding a ‘disaster after a disaster’
From page 1
spent long days providing minor medical care and directing people with more acute concerns to medical centers. Another team member took it upon himself to help bring some organization to the center by taping out pathways to the various stations to help with the lines. “And then when he went to buy rope to organize those lines he realized they could also be used for jump rope and for the last days, in a space that the center had been able to clear out, he cut a huge jump rope and he played jump rope for two or three hours a day with all the kids there,” Schonwald says. “And you heard laughing and joy and you saw smiles on those little faces.”
Compassion and respect Gladys Rivera, one of the team members, says she spent much of the week defending the migrants. That included correcting misinformation they were being given by some official sources and even halting an apparent attempt to kidnap a few of the families from the center. But she says that even the small kindnesses, like flashing a smile to an overwhelmed mother or fixing a batch of tortillas for hungry families, were met with intense gratitude. “I know that I and we all made a difference down there by just treating people with compassion, respect and dignity,” says Rivera, a program coordinator for Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital in Hood River, Ore. “And I know that we will all in different ways be part of their story.” Schonwald, manager of international educational exchanges for Providence, has done a lot of volunteering, including working with survivors of human trafficking in the U.S. and helping with economic development projects in Guatemala. She says the scale of the need and the heartfelt response she saw in McAllen touched her deeply. “I think anyone who goes there will feel that it was a life-changing experience,” she says. Root causes As to the small team of Catholic Charities workers and volunteers who staff the respite center on a permanent basis, Schonwald sees them as almost saintlike for being there daily to help poor and vulnerable refugees who have only strangers to rely on as they take their first tentative steps toward what could be their dream of a new life. Leading that band of caregivers is Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, executive direc-
I
Susan Tuller washes the feet of 12-year-old Mario at a respite center in McAllen, Texas, run by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Tuller was among a team of Providence St. Joseph Health volunteers who spent a week helping refugees at the center in June. Mario had walked with his mother from El Salvador and in the last two weeks of their journey, did so with shoes that were in shreds. As a result, his feet were rubbed raw. Tuller found him a new sturdy pair of sneakers and the softest socks available.
Volunteers from Providence who helped out at a Catholic Charities migrant respite center are Gladys Rivera, front, program coordinator, Providence Hood River; and, from left in back, Susan Tuller, executive director of Providence ElderPlace; Patrick Rawson, spiritual care chaplain at Providence Hood River; Carrie Schonwald, manager of international educational exchanges for Providence; Sue Giboney, chief patient experience officer; and Becki Rawson, orthopedic nurse practitioner.
tor for Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Sr. Pimentel has spent decades helping immigrants and has overseen the agency’s refugee efforts since 2014. She says while the recent surge in refu-
gees is historic, the motivation behind their risky journeys remains the same: many are fleeing the misery of unrelenting poverty or the threat of deadly violence. Sr. Pimentel says that in the first half of July, the number of immigrants seeking help at the respite center dropped to 500 to 600 daily — a level that still puts great demands on the center’s limited resources. She is grateful for the outpouring of service and donations that Catholic communities across the country have provided to further the center’s mission of giving the migrants what she sees as “the basic things that a human person needs just to be able to restore their dignity and make them feel like persons again.” While funds are necessary to keep the center’s lights on and showers running and to buy the supplies to feed and clothe the refugees, Sr. Pimentel says the volunteers are vital to keep it in operation and to bear witness to the magnitude of the need. “It’s so beautiful to see our church, our people, involved and willing to participate in our response,” she says. “It’s what we are: one family, one community, one church.”
Bearing witness Aimee Khuu, system director of global partnerships at Providence, issued the call for volunteers from that system after reading in the CHA Weekly email that Catholic Charities sought help at the border. She says that within 24 hours of asking for employees willing to head south within a few weeks, she had a full slate of volunteers. The response didn’t surprise her. “I think that people know that what’s happening along the border is wrong and
In migrant children’s drawings, stark reality and indomitable hope T
he drawings are grim. They depict stick figures standing behind bars while others with hats and what appear to be gun belts stand at desks outside the bars, people sleeping on the floor of what looks like a huge cage, and toilets and a shower behind bars. The drawings by children who had been held in immigrant detention facilities on the Texas border have gotten national media coverage since they
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were shared by the American Academy of Pediatrics after pediatricians who toured some of the centers denounced them as unhealthy and dangerous places to house refugee children. There are even reports that the Smithsonian Institution is interested in acquiring the drawings for its collection, although in a statement the institution says that an inquiry made about the drawings was only “part of an exploratory process.” The drawings were done by children at the refugee respite center in McAllen, Texas, run by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Its executive director, Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, says she understands why the art has struck a chord with some people and been cited as evidence of the harsh impact detention can have on children. But she says those drawings are not the whole picture when it comes to migrant children’s experience. Other drawings kept at the respite center depict a more joyous
outlook with colorful hearts and houses. She sees the happy pictures as evidence of the children’s resilience. “To limit only to those dark pictures of their experience is to reflect one aspect only and in truth I see life and I see hope in the faces of the children once we give them a chance to laugh, to draw, to paint, and to have fun,” Sr. Pimentel says. — LISA EISENHAUER
t’s natural for people to want to help out after seeing searing images of a humanitarian crisis, like the one that has unfolded for months as refugees fleeing violence and poverty stream across the southern border into the United States. But those who are familiar with dealing with such massive crises say that impulse should be tempered to ensure that what is given will, in fact, be helpful. Bruce Compton, CHA’s senior director of international outreach, says that a general rule of thumb is that the request for specific aid should come from the people at ground zero. “We usually tell people not to just send things and there’s not typically a fixed list of needed items that can be put out there unless you’re in communication with the organizations that are actually receiving these items, because those needs change so quickly,” Compton says. He says good-intentioned but unhelpful giving can even cause what some experts on emergency relief refer to as the “disaster after the disaster.” That happens when supplies such as used clothing or perishable foods are more burden than aid. Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which is helping care for refugees released from detention centers on the Texas border, has a specific section about donations on its website: catholiccharitiesrgv.org/Donations. aspx. It includes a link to an Amazon wish list. To donate through Catholic Charities USA, visit catholiccharitiesusa. org/border-crisis/. The agency’s executive director in the Rio Grande Valley, Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, says that in addition to money and specific material gifts, volunteer service is much needed and welcomed. — LISA EISENHAUER
they want to do something, and they don’t know what to do,” Khuu says. “This was an opportunity for them to respond.” Khuu’s own family were refugees from Vietnam, and she remembers how Catholic parishes sponsored many Vietnamese families and helped them resettle in the United States. She is Khuu hopeful that churches and other institutions will step up now to embrace the refugees crossing the southern border. “Hearing the stories of migrants and meeting someone who has had to flee a dangerous situation allows us to be sensitized and to humanize a very political issue in our communities,” Khuu says. Rivera herself is a refugee. She and many members of her family immigrated from Mexico. She says the desperation she saw during her week at the respite center in McAllen triggered many traumatic memories and sparked a commitment to speak out about what she terms a national crisis. “I won’t become silent about this,” she says. “I will continue talking about it. I will continue trying to make people uncomfortable because that’s the only way that change will happen.” leisenhauer@chausa.org
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD August 1, 2019
Googling patients From page 1
even occur to them that their health care professionals might be looking for information online about them. Some patients, though — younger patients in particular — may not be surprised at all. In fact, for a few, there may be an expectation that since information about them is already there online, people other than their friends and family may be looking at it. How did TTaPP come about? One of our treatment teams was curious about some events happening within the family of a patient. They decided to search online to find out more and stumbled upon some information that caused them to become conflicted about what to share and what not to share with their patient. This knowledge was about events that the patient’s family had not yet decided to share with the patient or the team, and it had a significant impact on the trusting relationship between the team and the family. As a result of that experience, the treatment team turned to our Behavioral Health Ethics Committee for guidance. After a lot of thought and deliberation, the committee decided to create a tool to help professionals think through whether or not to search online for patient information. Our goal was to explore the ethical dimensions of online searching, and help people recognize the potential benefits and possible risks of harm that might result in the therapeutic relationship if such searches were done without thoughtful consideration ahead of time. For example, the information might give a false impression of the person or may be something the person is not yet ready to share. Knowing there may be a problem with the information found online, what should we be thinking about in order to mitigate any risks of harm to the therapeutic relationship between provider and patient? We set a standard that before deciding whether or not such a search would be ethically justified, a health care professional should check in with a colleague and work through a set of questions — some crafted by our team, and others drawn from the emerging literature about patient-targeted Googling. Those questions include: Is my looking for this patient’s information helpful or potentially harmful to the therapeutic relationship? Is there information online that I need to know in order to move treatment forward for this patient? Can I get this information simply by asking the patient directly? If I do decide to search online, how will I assess the accuracy of information I find? And what do I do with that information? Do I let the patient know what I found? Do I share the information with other care team members? And if I do share, how will that positively or negatively impact their relationship with the patient?
Tool helps providers decide whether to Google patients The Behavioral Health Ethics Committee at CHI Health in Omaha, Neb., has created a tool to help health care professionals discern in collaboration with a colleague whether they should search online for information about their patients. The Together Take a Pause and Ponder resource, or TTaPP, includes these seven areas of general questioning, as well as additional questions to consider in each section: How is my decision to search for online information guided by our mission, core values and standards of conduct? Why do I want to search online for information about this person? Could my online search either advance or compromise treatment? Should I ask permission from this person before searching online for information? Should I share online search results with this person? If I do search online, should I document any information I find in this person’s medical record? How do I monitor my motivations along with the risks and benefits of searching online for information?
of making this type of decision in a much more deliberate way. We also thought a lot about the lines between the public and private lives of our patients. Online searching by health care professionals is one subset of much larger online privacy and confidentiality issues being explored these days. In this digital context, information available online is not solely dependent on my own decisions about what to post and what not to post. It is also driven by the decisions my friends and family make about what to post online, and by decisions made about me and for me regarding where my name or information might appear. Traditionally as patients we have been
Are there times when online searches could be helpful within the therapeutic relationship? There sure are. For example, a provider working with a patient who is struggling
What areas need further research? I think right now we’re making lot of assumptions that patients don’t ever want their online information to be discovered by their health care providers, but that may not be true for everyone. We may get to a time when patients are thinking, why wouldn’t you look at this, and maybe even saying that the information is out there, so you have a responsibility to look at it. I don’t think we’re there yet, and the expectations for privacy and confidentiality may vary from generation to generation, but there might come a time when such online searches are just part of the health care process. What we tried to do with the TTaPP approach is to get health care professionals thinking about what kinds of ethical questions we should be asking related to online information searches. For Catholic health care in particular, it is critically important for us to consider how such activities put respect for the dignity of every person at the forefront. We have to recognize that sometimes the easiest way to find out things may not be the most compassionate way to find them out. That is, if we even need to find them out at all.
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Where do you draw the line about when to search online? When our ethics committee first started the discussion, we thought there was a pretty obvious answer: Never search online. Then we recognized there might be potential benefits of this source of information. For example, we now may be able to search online for a relative or friend of an otherwise-unrepresented patient who cannot speak on their own behalf. But we have to be careful about how, when and where we are using such searches. Are we looking at public records? Or are we searching for friends of friends, or reading various social media feeds? Are we responding to specific concerns raised during our encounters with patients, or are we fishing for information or acting out of mere curiosity? The ethics committee wanted to empower clinicians with a critical thinking tool so they would be in the position
able to decide if and when we were ready to share information with providers. A patient’s story would emerge in an organic way within the context of the therapeutic relationship. Now, with the ability of others to go online to find information about a patient so easily, the control of when and if to share information shifts from patient to care team. I believe this significantly increases the potential vulnerability of our patients.
with boundary issues or online relationships, might sit down with a patient and say, “Let’s take a look together and see what’s online.” In this case, online searching can be a really powerful tool within the context of the therapeutic relationship.
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August 1, 2019 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
IT staff make patient connection From page 1
Her desire to provide a pick-me-up for patients with downtime spurred Redpath to join the Caring Hearts | Healing Minds program set up by Hospital Sisters Health System information technology staffers. She is one of the program’s two leaders at St. Mary’s. The project grew out of an ongoing effort to encourage the hospital system’s IT staff to find ways to more directly affect the patient experience, said Dr. Ray Gensinger, vice president and chief information officer for HSHS. Like many others on the IT staff, Gensinger is Gensinger based at a remote campus near Springfield, Ill., several miles from the nearest HSHS clinical facility. He said that while he encourages his 600-person staff to keep the patient experience in mind, that can be challenging for staffers who don’t interact with patients. To that end, IT staffers were asked during their evaluations to propose at least one idea for how to make the hospital experience better for patients. Gensinger said hundreds of ideas were pitched and, so far, seven or eight of them are in place. The Caring Hearts | Healing Minds program is one.
Ask the expert Gensinger credits Patty Stake for putting it in motion. Stake, human resources information systems IT manager for HSHS, said she and some of her deskbound colleagues knew they wanted to make a personal connection to patients, but they weren’t sure how. They decided to reach out to a nursing supervisor for guidance and Stake set up a meeting with Allison Paul, chief nursing officer for HSHS’ Central Illinois Division. Paul told the IT staffers that while several organizations have programs to offer comfort to patients, most of that kindness is targeted at the youngest ones. “As we were talking, I said I feel like, (for) the adult population, there’s an opportunity to provide some of that same level Hospital Sisters Health System staff, from left, Whitney Brasel, of interaction or activities,” Allison Paul, Patty Stake and Kristen Kemper with some of the Paul said. adult gift packages assembled by IT staff and donated to hospiPaul also noted that studies tals in central and southern Illinois. point to improved outcomes, such as fewer falls, for patients who have In addition to consulting with Paul, access to diversion activities. Stake said she and others who took the lead With that in mind, Stake and her col- in the effort also talked with infection preleagues came up with the idea of putting vention and patient experience staffers to together activity packets that could be ensure that their final project didn’t violate handed out to adult patients. any regulations and that the staff complet-
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ing the projects would observe all necessary precautions for clinical settings. “It was definitely a learning experience for us,” Stake said of the interaction with the various departments.
Puzzles and crafts They settled on a plan to assemble two types of gift packets. One is a game pack that includes a word search, crossword or Sudoku puzzle, a deck of cards, a spot-thedifference challenge and pencils and pens. The other is a craft pack with an adult coloring book, crayons, sketch paper, colored pencils and watercolor paints. Stake said that once an email about it went out to the staff, the project took on a life of its own. The project name was chosen and the specific donations needed for the packets were decided on in March. Bins were set up to collect the goods in April. Volunteers assembled the packs in May and early June. By the middle of that month, dozens of packets were dropped off at St. Mary’s and HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. The packs are also available at HSHS hospitals in the Illinois communities of Effingham, O’Fallon, Shelbyville, Highland and Greenville. “We have received a lot of praise from the hospitals,” Stake said. “They’re very appreciative.” In addition to the goodies, each packet contains a motivational note for the recipient. One of the IT staffers wrote about 15 messages that are randomly added to the packs. Among the messages: “Let your faith be bigger than your fear” and “God is like software — He enters our life, scans our problems, edits our tensions, downloads solutions, deletes all our worries, and saves us.” “I read each one and they are beautiful healing inspirational messages,” Stake said. Redpath said a second phase of the IT staff’s outreach plan is in development. That will involve staffers voluntarily visiting lonely patients on their lunch hours and after work. The idea, she said, is to take patients’ minds off their health concerns for awhile. Gensinger said he would love to see the gift pack program provide a boost in patient satisfaction that shows up in the surveys HSHS does. But equally important, he said, is that Caring Hearts | Healing Minds demonstrates that the IT team members at HSHS “continue to think beyond what their dayto-day (work) is in making a difference to the patients that we serve across our health care system.”
INCLUDING MANY WITH COMPLEX MEDICAL NEEDS
to access affordable health coverage. SOURCE: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF)
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A P R AY E R F O R M I S S I O N FOCUSED MEETINGS
DOERS OF THE WORD O Lord, we gather here as those who wish to be doers, and not only hearers of your Word. In our work here today we ask you to hold the mirror up before us, that we might see in ourselves the potential for doing good that you see in us. Created in your image, we want to know ourselves as collaborators in your plan for a just and charitable society. We ask you to draw near and be with us in our meeting today. Shape the conversation that we have here – gently guiding the steps that we take together as a group, moving us toward a new commitment to serve our communities. For more prayers visit chausa.org/prayers
August 1, 2019 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
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KEEPING UP PRESIDENTS/CEOS
Trinity Health of Livonia, Mich., has made these changes: Michael Slubowski to president and chief executive of Trinity Health, from president and chief operating officer. In December, Trinity had announced that Dr. Richard Gilfillan would depart as chief executive at the end of Trinity’s 2019 fiscal year and that Slubowski would succeed him. Patton Paul Smith Jr. to Bon Secours Mercy Health Mid-American Group president, from president of divisional operations for Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tenn. He succeeds Mike Garfield, who retired. Andy Davis to president and chief executive of Ascension Texas and senior vice president of St. Louis-based Ascension from chief operating officer of Ascension Texas. Facilities within CommonSpirit Health’s Dignity Health have made these changes: Julie Sprengel, president of Dignity Health, Southern California, will lead the new Southwest Division of CommonSpirit Health. The Southwest Division includes nine acute
care hospitals and four “micro-hospitals” in Southern California and Nevada. Dr. Nicholas Testa to chief physician executive of the Southwest Division. Lawrence Barnard, president and chief executive of Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican’s San Martín Campus, will be– come Nevada market leader and president/ chief executive of Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican’s Siena Campus. Barnard succeeds Eugene Bassett, who retired as president/chief executive of the Siena Campus. Kimberly Shaw, Siena Campus chief operating officer, to president/chief executive of the San Martín Campus. Teressa Conley, president/chief executive of Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican’s Rose de Lima Campus, has retired. Tom Burns, chief nurse executive at the Rose de Lima Campus, will take on additional executive duties at the hospital, becoming chief operating officer/chief nurse executive.
Brian Smith named CHA vice president, sponsorship and mission services CHA has named Brian Smith vice president of sponsorship and mission services, effective July 8. He succeeds Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, who became CHA’s president and chief executive officer July 1. As vice president of sponsorship and mission services, Smith will lead and oversee the association’s mission services department, which focuses on mission integration, leadership formation, theology and ethics, ministry formation and sponsorship. Smith joined CHA in 2012 as senior director of mission integration and leadership formation. Over the years, he enhanced the quality of CHA programming for mission leaders, executives and physicians. He led the development of the CHA Ministry Identity Assessment Process and efforts on ministry succession planning for key roles in mission and ethics.
Prior to joining CHA, Smith held various positions in the Catholic health and social service ministry related to theology, pastoral care, mental health and Smith political advocacy. He was a vice president of mission integration at CHRISTUS Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi, Texas, and a vice president of system mission at Mount Carmel-St. Ann’s Hospital in Westerville, Ohio. He worked for 15 years in parish ministry and service at the Department of Special Education of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. CHA is recruiting to fill the position of senior director of mission innovation and integration.
CHRISTUS Health restructures executive team
Bagchi
Generale
CHRISTUS Health of Irving, Texas, has announced three executive retirements and the related restructuring of executive teams. The leaders who are retiring are: Linda McClung, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, who is retiring Aug. 31 Dr. John Gillean, executive vice president and chief clinical officer, who is retiring Oct. 31 George Conklin, senior vice president and chief information officer, who is retiring Dec. 31 CHRISTUS’ new top leadership structure includes a CEO Cabinet made up of individuals who report directly to CHRISTUS Health President and Chief Executive Ernie Sadau. That cabinet includes: Dr. Sam Bagchi, executive vice president and chief clinical officer Paul Generale, executive vice president and chief strategy and network officer Gerry Heeley, executive vice president and chief mission integration officer Marty Margetts, executive vice president and chief administrative officer Jeff Puckett, executive vice president and chief operating officer
Heeley
Puckett
Margetts
Safady
Randy Safady, executive vice president and chief financial officer Additionally, CHRISTUS has named multiple new senior vice presidents who will report to CEO Cabinet members and will be on the CHRISTUS Health Executive Council. They are: Tina Barker, senior vice president of strategy, marketing and digital Kimberly King Webb, senior vice president and chief human resources officer Jon Manis, senior vice president and chief information officer of CHRISTUS’ U.S. ministries Kim Reynolds, senior vice president of finance Gabriela Saenz, senior vice president of corporate services Ryan Thompson, senior vice president of revenue cycle
Sr. Mary Maurita Sengelaub, RSM, paved way for modern ministry health care systems Sr. Mary Maurita Sengelaub, RSM, the first woman religious and first non-cleric to head CHA as its president, died July 6 at the McAuley Life Center in Farmington Hills, Mich. She was 101. A nurse, hospital administrator and health ministry Sr. Sengelaub leader, Sr. Sengelaub headed CHA as its senior-most executive from June 1970 through 1976. The organization was then known as the Catholic Hospital Association. In the early 1970s she conceived of, and, with the help of the CHA staff, she implemented, a leadership development program for the ministry that is credited with helping health care sponsors and executives bring standalone hospitals and long-term care facilities together as systems. She also was instrumental in establishing a center for ethics research to study the implications of emerging health care technologies, an organization that was the precursor of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. She encouraged CHA members to support greater health care coverage for the poor and underserved and she testified before Congress in the 1970s as it considered a national health insurance bill. “As a Sister of Mercy and throughout a six-decade-plus career in Catholic health care, Sr. Maurita committed her life to serve those most in need — the poor, the sick, the dying and the elderly,” said Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA’s president and chief executive officer. “Sr. Maurita’s leadership of the Catholic Hospital Association strengthened the ministry during a time of great change in our church and our country.” Sr. Sengelaub received CHA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. On the occasion of her 100th birthday last year, the CHA Board of Trustees passed a resolution honoring her for work that helped set the association’s course as an advocate for Catholic health care in legislative and regulatory matters and as a force in strength-
ening members’ Catholic identity. Katherine Sengelaub graduated from St. Mary’s School of Nursing in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1940. She worked as a nurse for five years before joining the Sisters of Mercy in September 1945. After a few years she was given the name Sr. Mary Maurita. Having earned a master’s degree in hospital administration from Saint Louis University in 1953, she taught nursing at Mercy College in Detroit (now called the University of Detroit Mercy). She was an administrator at Mercy Hospital in Bay City, Mich., and president of St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, now a part of Trinity Health. Over the years, Sr. Sengelaub served multiple terms in elected leadership for her congregation at the provincial and national level. Her tenure at CHA was bookended by significant accomplishments. In 1969, at the behest of the Conference of Major Superiors of Women (now the Leadership Conference of Women Religious), she helped develop and secure federal funding for a proposal to train community health workers to advance health care literacy and health care access for migrant workers on the East Coast. The program expanded throughout the U.S. and continues today as MHP Salud. Sr. Sengelaub left CHA for health reasons. Once she had recuperated, she again became active in congregational leadership. Her assignments included working with the Sisters of Mercy Health Corp., and she later chaired the system’s Mercy Collaborative Services subsidiary, which became Mercy International Health Services. In 1988, at the age of 70, she moved to Australia to help the Sisters of St. John of God structure that country’s first Catholic health system. She returned to the U.S. to work as justice coordinator for her order’s Detroit Province and entered semiretirement. Interment at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Mich., followed a visitation and Mass at the Sacred Heart Chapel of McAuley Center in Farmington Hills on July 11.
Bishop Emeritus Blaire of Stockton, Calif., advocated for social justice Bishop Emeritus Stephen E. Blaire of the Diocese of Stockton, Calif., died June 18 at his retirement residence at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Modesto, Calif. He was 77 years old. He had served as Stockton’s bishop from 1999 until his retirement in 2018. In his retirement, he helped to create the Whole Person Care Initiative, an effort launched last year in California to help transform the way society cares for chronically and terminally ill people. “He was passionate in promoting the dignity of human life and ensuring social justice for all,” said an obituary from the Stockton diocese. “He constantly assisted the church in speaking out for the rights of immigrants, those in need of health care, inner city education and much more.” Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, immediate past president and chief executive officer of CHA, said, “Bishop Blaire was always so kind and caring, he looked for the good in everyone and always wanted to help in any way he could.” Stephen Blaire was born in Los Angeles, the 12th of 14 children. He earned a bachelor of art in scholastic philosophy and a master’s in secondary school administra-
tion from St. John’s College and Seminary in Camarillo, Calif. After his ordination, he was an associate pastor at a church in California. In 1972 he began his 14-year career in Bishop Blaire education — he was a teacher, administrator or principal at several Catholic elementary and high schools in California. In 1986, he became moderator of the curia and chancellor of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles before being appointed auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles in 1990. From 1995 to 1999, he was regional bishop of Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region. Pope John Paul II appointed him Stockton bishop in 1999. Bishop Blaire chaired or served on United States Conference of Catholic Bishops committees on domestic justice, human development, pastoral practices and ecumenical and interreligious affairs. Within the California Catholic Conference, he chaired committees on legislation and public policy, and environmental stewardship.
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD August 1, 2019
CHRISTUS’ club has patients digging into veggies in Eastern Texas Cardiac recovery program promotes alternatives to a high-fat, meat-reliant diet
“Many of our cardiac patients are diabetics as well, so we try to have low-carb recipe ideas,” says Blair. Among the most popular fare, she says, is a cucumber/ strawberry/onion salad with
By RENEE STOVSKY
M
arshall Huff, 73, of Texarkana, Texas, remembers getting several “whoopings” when he was a child because he refused to eat his vegetables. “I was always a meat and potatoes kind of guy,” he says. Suffice it to say that’s no longer the case. These days, Huff not only eats his veggies — he grows them. And what he doesn’t grow, he buys at a local farmer’s market each Saturday. Huff ’s dietary about-face began after he underwent two extensive open-heart surgeries in 2013. Since then, he’s been a regular at Texarkana’s CHRISTUS St. Michael Rehabilitation Hospital’s cardiac rehab program, getting his heart rate and blood pressure monitored while he exercises to increase his endurance, and listening to dietary lectures to help him decrease his cholesterol level and caloric intake. His dedication to CLIP (the Continuous Life Improvement Program) there comes from a realization that his health depends on his vigilance in fighting a strong family history of cardiac and vascular disease. His mother died of a massive stroke at 53; his father died of a massive heart attack at 55. And he’s outlived one of his sons, who died at 40 of a heart attack, as well. But his newfound enthusiasm for meatless meals comes from the CROP (CHRISTUS Reapers of Produce) Club, begun 2½ years ago by Carol Blair, supervisor of the cardiac and pulmonary rehab department there. Blair, who is also a registered respiratory therapist, has worked at St. Michael for 35 years. Throughout that time, she’s seen at least 150 new patients come
Marshall Huff and Carol Blair tend to one of the raised vegetable beds at CHRISTUS St. Michael Rehabilitation Hospital that are instrumental in enticing cardiac rehab patients to improve their diets. Huff is an active member of the hospital’s CROP Club. Blair, the supervisor of the hospital’s cardiac and pulmonary rehab department, was the impetus behind the gardening program.
having to stoop down. Blair reasoned that if she could entice patients to garden, she could also grow their enthusiasm for embracing a diet that, if not entirely plant-based, would at least increase the amount of vegetables they consumed. “We don’t necessarily advocate pure vegan or vegetarian diets, but most dietitians think meals based on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and chicken are far healthier for our patients than lots of red meat and fried foods,” says Blair.
s) es about 20 ball tes recipe (mak bi gy er en ke No ba nter) (mix well in ce Stir together eal 1 cup quick oatm ax fl nd ou gr p cu 2 1/ ocolate chips 1/2 cup mini ch Add: 1/3 cup honey lla Splash of vani butter ut an pe p cu 2 1/ set dough to e at r Refriger put on wax pape s, Roll into ball Refrigerate
through the cardiac rehab program each year, three days a week for 36 sessions. Too often, despite dietary screenings, she sees many of them complete the program and then return to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy meals that are particularly popular in the region — fried foods, sausage and plenty of gravy.
Growing enthusiasm So, when she saw that a greenhouse — originally built on the hospital grounds for patients receiving occupational and physical therapy — was no longer in heavy use, she asked if her cardiac rehab patients could share it. She also took charge of six raised beds in the hospital’s courtyard that were built at waist level, so patients could tend them without
To that end, she obtained soil and fertilizer from the landscaping company that works for the hospital and started recruiting patients to help sow seeds, transplant seedlings, water, weed and pick crops each spring, summer and fall. Some, she says, were already diehard gardeners. Others were novices who were interested in learning how to plant and grow vegetables year-round — everything from tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, onions and beans in summertime to squashes, cabbages and kale in the fall. Currently, there are five patients who are active in the CROP Club. All the produce the CROP Club grows is shared between members and with the rest of the cardiac rehab patients. Blair also encourages new patients to start
their own vegetable gardens by giving each of them a sprout in a cup. “I tell them the plant represents their rehab and ask them to plant it and watch it grow, just like they will grow through our program. I assure them the plant will produce a vegetable just like they will produce their own results,” she says.
Mother would be proud In addition to gardening, Blair began offering lectures each month where dietitians present a cooking demonstration and recipe giveaway to introduce patients
to food items like pizza made with cauliflower crust or lasagna made with zucchini noodles instead of pasta.
balsamic vinegar and a protein ball made with peanut butter. Kale chips, on the other hand, “didn’t go over very well,” says Blair. “I’ve learned a lot, along with the patients, by doing this,” she adds. “They bring in cooking and gardening books all the time. I’ve been introduced to things like rape green, a smooth-leaved, mild-tasting green that’s delicious, and a variety of jalapeño peppers.” For his part, Huff says the cardiac rehab program keeps him exercising every Monday, Wednesday and Friday since his retirement in 2015 from the U.S. Postal Service. And his involvement in the CROP Club — he comes to the hospital grounds to water almost every day in the late afternoon — has inspired him to become a home gardener and a cook as well. “I’ve got tomatoes, pepper plants and okra growing in my backyard now,” says Huff. And among his favorite dishes are grilled zucchini, skillet squash and a salad fixed with raw cauliflower, onion, celery, black olives and low-calorie mayonnaise. Huff says he still “likes his meat now and then,” but he also likes the mustard, collard and turnip greens, beets and brussels sprouts that he finds at the local farmers’ market when they are in season. “My mother would never believe it, but I even eat spinach now,” he laughs.
CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System dietitian Janet Sumner provides regular dietary lectures for groups of cardiac rehab patients.