Firm footing in Anchorage 2 CommonSpirit’s Lofton to retire 6 Art with attitude 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
FEBRUARY 1, 2020 VOLUME 36, NUMBER 2
SHHHH: Hospitals take steps to quiet nuisance alarms By LISA EISENHAUER
By LISA EISENHAUER
Monitor technician Alle Broom watches medical alarms as part of Mercy Virtual’s vAlert program on the campus of Mercy Hospital St. Louis in suburban Creve Coeur, Missouri. Mercy staff working in the facility check alarms from patient monitors at hospitals as part of a program to mitigate alarm fatigue for clinical staff on nursing units.
hospital floors from having to respond to “nonevents.” In a six-month period, the more than 10 million alarms that the vAlert technicians
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CREVE COEUR, Mo. — In an average month, a team of remote technicians at Mercy Virtual monitor roughly 1.7 million alarms from rooms with about 800 patients at Mercy hospitals. Until the team, part of Mercy Virtual’s vAlert program, was set up about six years ago, those alarms would have sounded on the hospital floors, creating noise that could annoy and even overwhelm patients and staff and requiring a response from nurses or medical technicians. Thomas Emerson, the manager of vAlert, said Mercy Virtual data confirm that most of the alarms sounding at bedsides are clinically irrelevant. Many of them are caused by patient movement or sensors that have become loose Emerson and so can be quickly dismissed by the remote monitor technicians, who get 280 hours of training on how to read the information sent by the sensors. The technicians spare the staffers on the
monitored resulted in about 5,800 calls to the wards. “It’s a tremendous amount of alarms that we prevent from ever reaching Continued on 5
Catholic health care associates tap into joy of serving others By JULIE MINDA
Erica Johnson says patients, visitors and staff tell her that joy is palpable at the four Hospital Sisters Health System hospitals she works with in her role as communications manager for HSHS’s Central Illinois division. “People say you can feel it when you walk the halls and when you interact with our team members — you can feel that joy and that extra touch of care.” HSHS is among several Catholic health systems and facilities that have joy as a core value. Ministry staff demonstrate joy in many ways that lighten the load and lift the spirit of others. Staff organize community food drives and sponsor needy families. They host department
Providence designs digital tools to improve access and care for all
Surgical technician Makita Johnson-Hunt, left, and supervisor Becky Patterson of Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside in Jacksonville, Florida, join in a hospital celebration of a new caregiver experience model. That model in part is aimed at rejuvenating colleagues. That aim ties in with Ascension’s value to “Dedication: Affirming the hope and joy of our ministry.”
celebrations of quirky holidays like National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. They perform acts of kindness and build human connections — a nurse who sits and talks with a lonely patient and a genial cafeteria employee spread joy. Whatever way it is shown, the joy these associates are acting upon “is not superficial,” says Sr. Joan Marie Stelman, OSB, mission integration leader at Essentia Health. “We find that what we do in health care is a calling and there is a deep satisfaction and peace that comes from helping others — and whatever we do to express that, we can see that the sense of joy can carry us all through some of the hard days” in health care.
Catholic health care systems, which provide special consideration for the poor and the vulnerable, must be steadfast in ensuring those populations benefit from technical innovations that can improve access to high-value care. Catholic Health World talked to Sara Vaezy, one of CHA’s 2019 class of Tomorrow’s Leaders and the chief digital strategy officer for Providence, about how that technoVaezy logically innovative system makes sure its patient-facing digital platforms are accessible to low-income patients, including those insured through Medicaid. Vaezy leads the development of the health system’s digital strategy and road map, digital partnerships and business development, and technology evaluation and pilots. Prior to coming to Providence, she worked for The Chartis Group, a health care management consulting firm. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in physics and philosophy and from the University of Washington’s School of Public Health with master’s degrees in health administration and public health focused on health care policy. How can digital innovations address disparities in the delivery of health care? Anytime we talk about disparities in health care, I think technology, generally speaking, has huge potential to democratize health care and make it widely available. It’s just a matter of making sure we’re directing our resources appropriately to serve the folks who are more vulnerable.
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Continued on 4
St. Mary’s hosts medical mission from Japan to study, honor survivors of atomic bombings By KATHLEEN NELSON
Remember the horror. Honor the survivors. Learn from the past. As it has for the last quarter century, Dignity Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco aided and honored the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings by hosting a medical mission from Japan researching the aftereffects of the bombings that ended World War II. “This was a defining moment for the Japanese people,” said Sr. Mary Kieffer, OP, who up until recently was vice president of mission integration at St. Mary’s,
part of CommonSpirit Health. “Through the mission, we hope to repair that damage, physically and emotionally.” Three dozen survivors, known as hibakusha, gathered at St. Mary’s for the three-day biennial conference in late October, some traveling more than six hours from their homes in northern and central California, circumventing the path of forest fires in the region. A seven-member team from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki prefectures collaborated with volunteers from St. Mary’s to conduct hematology tests, urinalysis, liver function tests, diabetes screening,
Dr. David Klein, right, president and chief executive of Dignity Health St Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, greets Nobuaki Nishikawa, of Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Survivors Support Division, at a conference held at St. Mary’s in October to support survivors and research the medical aftereffects of exposure to radiation from nuclear bombs.
thyroid gland function testing and serum cholesterol measurements. Also included in the exams are blood pressure screenings, weight and height measurements. Perhaps the most meaningful moments of the visit, though, are the one-on-one consultations with Japanese medical team physicians and interviews with the representatives from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who are eager to hear the stories of the survivors. “The hibakusha were very grateful for the fellowship,” Sr. Kieffer said. “They appreciate the continued interest from the Continued on 7
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD February 1, 2020
Providence Alaska distributes ice cleats to vulnerable people A bad slip on the ice can cause ‘life-changing’ injuries By JULIE MINDA
The average high temperature is below freezing for four months of the year in Anchorage, Alaska, and freezing temperatures are a possibility PROVIDENCE at any time of the year, according to data from the Weather Channel. Icy streets and sidewalks are part of the package in the city of nearly 300,000, and that ice presents a particular risk for the approximately 1,000 people in Anchorage who are homeless — as well as for other vulnerable populations. That is why Providence Health & Services Alaska has been donating hundreds of ice cleats every year since 2013 to people who are homeless as well as to other people in need. The cleats, which strap to the bottom of shoes or boots, have spikes that provide traction on slick ice. According to information from Sara Penisten Turcic, injury prevention outreach coordinator for Providence Alaska, the cleats can help people to avoid falls that can lead to serious injury. Through the cleat distributions, she said, “We hope to prevent these falls, which can be life-changing if they result in serious injuries. Especially for people who are on the margins, and don’t have adequate medical insurance,” falls can be ruinous.
Brainstorm The cleat donation program found its genesis in 2013 efforts by Penisten Turcic and colleagues to transition Anchorage’s Providence Alaska Medical Center, which
The ice cleats attach to the bottom of shoes to increase traction and reduce the risk of falls.
Sara Penisten Turcic, a nurse and injury prevention outreach coordinator for Providence Health & Services Alaska, fits a client with ice cleats at Bean’s Café, an Anchorage facility that serves people who are homeless.
is the flagship of Providence Alaska, to a Level II trauma center. To achieve that designation, the hospital had to demonstrate increased attention to injury prevention across multiple generations of community members. Data analysis conducted in relation to that work confirmed that falls were the top cause of traumatic injury for patients, and the data revealed that falls increase in winter. Penisten Turcic recalled: “We wondered, ‘What in the world could we do to impact fall numbers?’” In brainstorming answers, she and her colleagues came up with the idea of distributing ice cleats to people at high risk of falls due to their living situations. The Providence Alaska Foundation agreed to purchase the cleats, and the inaugural distribution in the winter of 2013 and 2014 at Bean’s Café provided hundreds of cleats to homeless people. Bean’s Café is a homeless services agency in Anchorage. Since the cleats are reusable, Providence Alaska has been aiming to reach new recipients each year by expanding the groups it works with for the distributions. This year, Penisten Turcic said, Providence Alaska has
distributed cleats through numerous organizations, including: Twenty faith community congregations, through their faith community nurses. Catholic Social Services’ Refugee Assistance & Immigration Services unit. Catholic Social Services’ Clare House, an emergency shelter for women and children. The Anchorage Literacy Project. The Veterans Affairs’ Domiciliary program. The Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis domestic violence shelter. The Providence Horizon House eldercare residence, part of Providence Alaska. Penisten Turcic estimates the foundation, which funds most of the cleat donations, spends around $10,000 per year to buy about 600 pair of cleats for a per-unit cost of less than $20.
Dangerous streets In most cases, Penisten Turcic trains volunteers and staff at the agencies on how to fit clients with the right-sized cleats. Sometimes, she’ll do the fittings herself. She also instructs the volunteers and staff on how to explain to the clients how to safely walk with cleats. This is the first year the Abused Women’s
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Aid in Crisis shelter has received cleats, and shelter case manager Fabienne Smith said the cleats have had “an amazing impact” with dozens of vulnerable women receiving them. She explained, “Our town is so spread out, and so when these women need to use our bus system to get to different agencies for help, they often need to walk to the bus stops. It can be quite a journey in winter.” Walking on ice while pregnant or while carrying a baby or child increases the fall risks for all involved; the cleats provide for increased traction on ice-slick surfaces. Smith said that for women who have been abused, the cleats provide an extra measure of safety in the event they feel threatened and need to flee. “They’re in an alreadyscary situation. This gives extra comfort, and they can feel empowered that they can get where they need to go safely.” Penisten Turcic noted that new members of Anchorage’s immigrant community may be unaccustomed to cold weather and to walking on ice, and so the cleats and the information on safe walking is very helpful to them. Penisten Turcic said the program has been very well received and well appreciated. “Ice cleats are a simple way to build healthy communities together,” she said.
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February 1, 2020 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
Joy of serving others
Systems value joy S
From page 1
everal ministry systems include the
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Spreading joy concept of joy in their values stateTo make associates mindful of how ments. Here is a sampling of how those intention and attention to joy and other systems articulate those values: Ascension, St. Louis: Dedication: values improve patient care and workAffirming the hope and joy of our place culture, Springfield, Illinois-based ministry HSHS; Duluth, Minnesota-based Essentia; Franciscan Missionaries of Our St. Louis-based Ascension and Baton Lady Health System, Baton Rouge, Rouge, Louisiana-based Franciscan MisLousiana: Joyfulness of Spirit — An sionaries of Our Lady Health System have awareness of being blessed by God in extensive onboarding, formation and misall things sion education activities that include reflec Hospital Sisters Health System, tions on values. Springfield, Illinois: Joy is the manner in Ascension introduces job candidates Amanda Peabody, nursing educator at HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois, serves herself a which our colleagues and all who join to its system values during the recruit- complimentary slice of cheesecake on National Cheesecake Day in July. This is one of the many events us in our ministry seek to perform their work — the internal fulfillment of carment and interviewing phase, when hir- that St. John’s puts on for its colleagues in line with Hospital Sisters Health System’s joy value. ing for others. It is an essential ingrediing managers are assessing ent in bringing a sense of hope to those to joy and found more than 100. The patron whether applicants are a good who suffer saints of ministry founding congregations fit for the organization. For SCL Health, Broomfield, Colorado: modeled joy in service to others as did the instance, interviewers might Good Humor — We create joyful and women religious who came after them to ask, “Where do you find joy welcoming environments carry on the mission of easing the burdens in your work or vocation as a of the poor and vulnerable. Pope John Paul nurse?” II, Pope Francis and Mother Teresa all have hospital staff. Ascension supervisors focused on joy in their words and writings, Hayden says that the big and small ways continue to weave opportusays Sr. Stelman. that staff live out the joy value draw people nities for new employees to St. Francis, a patron saint of the found- in — in fact, many community members reflect on Ascension’s “essential behaviors,” including resses of HSHS and FMOLHS, prized joy in will come to the hospital even if they do not practicing self-awareness, creation and in relacommunicating transparently tionships with othto “speak the truth in love” Steven Gee, director of food and nutrition at HSHS St. John’s ers; and St. Benedict, a and proactively engaging fully Hospital of Springfield, Illinois, and hospital board member Megan patron saint of Catholic with others. DeFrain display diapers and wipes collected at the Springfield Sam’s facilities within EssenDuring performance re- Club during the hospital’s diaper drive. The donations signal comtia, wrote of the joy of views, Ascension supervi- munity support and joy for families taking newborns home from the obedience to God in service to others. sors explore with their direct hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. And a love of joyful reports how they live out the system’s values in their jobs, including the all made joy a formal value based on the service has been passed down through founding one related to joy. input of leaders and associates. Glover says at Ascension, “determin- congregations’ memJoy in service to others ing how to express the values we share was bers over the years, says FMOLHS’s orientation includes role- a highly collaborative process. Associates Guarisco. “The sisters playing of ways that joy and other values can from across our ministry put into words the lived out joyfulness of be lived out. One FMOLHS facility invites beliefs and lived experiences that mattered spirit every day, and we Andra Ebert, the founder of the nonprofit Heartland Mini Hoofs, escorts have witnessed that and mini horse Winnie, for visiting rounds at HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital associates to jot down ways they live out sys- deeply to them. “From their words, in the stories they we continue to learn in Springfield, Illinois, in July. Facilitating such visits is in line with HSHS’ tem values on Post-it notes that they affix to shared, came the language of the six values from their example.” joy value. message boards in their departments. Brian Blasco is com- that continue to guide our ministry, includhave a medical reason to do so, just to spend munications director and ing the value of ‘Dedication — affirming the Differentiator archivist for the Hospital hope and joy of our ministry.’” Lorrie Hayden is a manager of the health time there and perhaps grab a meal in the Sisters of St. Francis, the Cultivating and spread- information and patient registration depart- cafeteria. Hayden says when the staff is doing their legacy sponsor of HSHS. ing joy has deep roots ments and a mission leader at HSHS Good He says as part of the forin Christianity, and in Shepherd Hospital in Shelbyville, Illinois. work in a joyful way, “It makes people feel Catholicism particularly. Hayden, who worked at the hospital before comfortable being here, and they can feel mation process, many Jesus was joyful, says it was acquired by HSHS in 2017, says the core values by the way we take care of staff and clinicians at all Blasco Glover. Sr. Stelman adds HSHS’s intentional focus on joy makes for them.” HSHS organizations have To view audio of Sr. Stelman talking that the scriptures are a welcoming culture. Joy spreads through the opportunity to visit a spirituality center replete with references acts of kindness and inclusion such as the about joy as a value, visit chausa.org/ on the grounds of the sisters’ motherhouse Sr. Stelman to joyfulness. She did a breakfast for veterans hosted by hospital chworld. to learn from him, the sisters and others count of words in Psalms alone connected volunteers and the donut day hosted for all jminda@chausa.org how the system’s mission and values are lived out. He relates anecdotes about the lives of sisters to demonstrate that joy is not about happiness alone — when inner peace maniost activity in health care must be Glover says the nursing fests through service to others, those acts are measured, and that is no less true center is “developing meaexpressions of joy. “We bring Christ’s healsures that will be early indiwhen it comes to ensuring associates are ing presence, and we do this through the cators of joy and burnout in adhering to the systems’ values. values. We’re continuing a story that began its nursing workforce, and it Leaders at Springfield, Illinois-based with Jesus and it’s up to will be rolling out initiatives Hospital Sisters Health System; Duluth, us to express this goodto increase joy and reduce Minnesota-based Essentia Health; St. ness and joy and sense of fatigue.” Ascension Medical Louis-based Ascension; and Baton Rouge, peace.” Group is engaged in similar Louisiana-based Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System say their efforts “to create an enviSimilarly, says Pete ronment that restores the systems use such measures as employee Guarisco Jr., senior vice well-being of practice and engagement scores, patient satisfaction president of mission for supports our physicians scores and employee retention rates to FMOLHS, that system’s and advanced practice progauge how well their values “take” in their Guarisco associates learn that the fessionals in finding deeper cultures, including the joy value. kind of joy that the health meaning in their work.” When systems focus on the value of system prizes is that which Ascension established joy and invest in employees’ well-being, Here, in 2018 at Springfield, Illinois’ HSHS St. John’s Hospital, is lived out in connection they often will see a payoff in terms of Sr. Joseph Wu, OSF, visits with Brian Blasco, center, director of com- a Clinician Engagement with others, and also in increased employee engagement and munications and archivist for the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, and and Well-Being Council and relationship with God. developed a Clinician Wellstaff retention as well as improved patient Paul Scherschel, foundation manager and senior gift officer for the Timothy Glover, AsBeing and Engagement satisfaction, says Erica Johnson, comPrairie Heart Foundation. At HSHS, Blasco speaks with colleagues munications manager for HSHS’ Central playbook, a guide for clinicension’s senior vice presiabout how sisters including the late Sr. Wu, lived out joy and the cal leaders that includes Illinois division. dent of mission integrasystem’s other values. Sr. Wu died last year. Glover best practices intended to Linda Lee Palmer, a respiratory theration, adds, “As we participist who is a 50-year employee of HSHS Timothy Glover, Ascension’s senior vice support personal resilience and well-being pate in the loving ministry of Jesus as healer St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, says “if president of mission integration, says the among practicing physicians. we do so joyfully and imitate Jesus’ joy. Such you take care of employees, they’ll take Ascension Nursing Center of Excellence and Ascension surveys its associates joy does not deny challenges, obstacles or care of you” and that also will be felt by the Ascension Medical Group are engaged throughout the year on their level of joy suffering. Rather, joy serves as a resource to patients. in efforts to restore the joy of practice for and satisfaction, and the system solicits us in such times.” Ascension counters burnout with doctors, nurses and other clinicians as a input on how to effect these measures.
Systems assess ‘joy’ through employee retention, patient satisfaction measures
M
Rooted in joy Essentia, Ascension, HSHS and FMOLHS
programs aimed at restoring joy in clinical practice.
counterbalance to the pressing problem of burnout.
— JULIE MINDA
CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD February 1, 2020
Access to digital tools From page 1
Do patients insured by Medicaid have access to personal technology and the technical literacy to make the most of digital tools such as DexCare? (DexCare is the Providence St. Joseph platform that gives patients the ability to book a same-day care appointment in a retail clinic, participate in a direct video visit with a provider or schedule a provider visit in the home.) Our research and the research of a lot of other people who have looked into this would indicate that they do. Most folks have smartphones and are very plugged in. But (patients who are low-income) do have challenges and circumstances that need to be taken into account. What are some of those circumstances? For instance, while most Medicaidinsured people have smartphones, what they don’t have is really rich data plans because data can be very expensive. So, data and data plans are an area where digi-
tal needs to be very sensitive. Therefore, digital tools need to be efficient in their usage and requirements for data. There are many technologies, for instance, that are SMS (short message service) or text-based, which is a very low-data way of communicating with patients. Could the use of digital tools significantly improve access to care for patients insured by Medicaid? It could improve access to care, but it could also improve access to things like information and trackers to manage health that keep patients engaged even when they’re between actual visits. For example, prenatal care is not just the 14 or so recommended physician visits, but it’s all of the nutrition information and questions that emerge between those appointments. One of the ways in which digital tools are helping with this is through our partnership with a company called Wildflower Health. Wildflower provides personalized engagement for women and family health. In particular, Wildflower helps guide women through all the things they need to know
leaders within this space. We have a Women and Children’s Institute that’s doing some amazing work. One of their main pillars, which crosscuts with our Medicaid regional improvement plan, is supporting our Medicaid-insured moms to deliver their babies to term. One of the ways it’s guiding women to do that is by ensuring that they get the prenatal care that they need and that they adhere to all the recommendations. If we can do that Providence St. Joseph Health considers the challenges of — help moms deliver their babies low-income people when developing digital tools, includto term — what that could mean is ing smartphone apps like this one. fewer neonatal intensive care unit and do during their pregnancy with con- days, lower morbidity and mortality, and tent, trackers, and reminders among other that can certainly reduce the total cost of things that support them in getting the pre- care. natal care they need and following their Do digital tools remove the human elecare plans. ment from care? No, we are meeting patients and providCould digital tools cut the cost of Medicaid? ers where they are. The sacred encounter is Yes. Just to give a little context, Provi- what we’re striving for in terms of making dence has made maternal and child health that experience where the patient and the a top priority. We’re one of the national provider are together, either physically or virtually, as rich and meaningful and supportive of both sides as possible. Courtesy of Providence St. Joseph Health
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Ascension to sell central Wisconsin hospital, divest of other investments Ascension Wisconsin plans to sell its 99-bed hospital in Weston in central Wisconsin and to divest of its interest in a nearby critical access hospital and diagnostic and treatment center. The buyer is the nonprofit Marshfield Clinic Health System of Marshfield, Wisconsin. Ascension Wisconsin and Marshfield Clinic have signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding on the deal, which will require regulatory and church approval. Under the deal, which is expected to close this spring, Ascension Wisconsin would sell substantially all assets and related operations of Ascension St. Clare’s Hospital in Weston to the Marshfield Clinic system. Ascension Wisconsin also would sell its interest in the 25-bed Flambeau Hospital in Park Falls, Wisconsin, and the Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Weston to Marshfield Clinic. Currently, Ascension Wisconsin and the Marshfield Clinic jointly own Flambeau Hospital as well as the Diagnostic & Treatment Center. St. Clare’s had been part of Ministry Health Care, which Ascension acquired in 2013 as part of a larger merger with Ministry’s parent, Marian Health System. Ascension Wisconsin had/ sold legacy ATLANTA JUNEanother 7–9 Ministry site, Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hos-
pital of Marshfield, Wisconsin, to Marshfield Clinic in 2017. That site now is called Marshfield Medical Center – Marshfield. In a press release on the St. Clare’s sale, Bernie Sherry, Ascension senior vice president and Wisconsin ministry market executive, said Ascension Wisconsin made the decision to sell St. Clare’s in the context of the “rapidly evolving health care landscape in Wisconsin and nationally.” Dr. Susan Turney, Marshfield Clinic’s
chief executive, said the acquisition would help Marshfield Clinic to better integrate care in central Wisconsin. She said Marshfield Clinic now is scrapping previously announced plans to build a new hospital in the area. Ascension Wisconsin operates 24 hospital campuses and a network of other care sites in the state. Marshfield Clinic owns or partly owns eight hospitals, including a children’s hospital.
Are digital innovations particularly important to Catholic health systems, given their focus on caring for those who are poor? I think we can, as Catholic health care systems, leverage digital tools to care for people who may have limited access to transportation, or might be unable to take time off work to get medical care. Low-wage workers have these and other impediments to health care access. Digital tools can bring the care and information they need to them.
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February 1, 2020 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
Quieting nuisance alarms in hospitals
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Daniel Morgan/Courtesy of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center
Sid Hastings/©CHA
its wards to reduce the noise barrage on its floors. “Basically, one size does not fit all, so we talked to our medical staff and we came up From page 1 with a plan to individualize our telemetry alarms to every single patient,” said Barbara the bedside,” Emerson said. J. Moran, chief nursing officer at the hospiRemote monitoring is one of many steps hospitals have taken in recent years tal that is part of the Sisters to address the constant beeps and buzzes of Charity Health System. emitted by medical devices. The Joint ComInstead of using the manufacturer’s baseline, mission, citing the cacophony of alarms a personalized baseline as a safety concern, in 2017 urged hospiheart rate is determined tals “to develop a systematic, coordinated for each patient. Nurses approach to clinical alarm system managethen consult with the ment” as one of its national patient safety Moran patient’s physician to set goals. The accreditation group said up to alarm perimeters specific to that patient. 99% of alarms are “nuisance alarms” that In the about two years since the change, don’t indicate an actual emergency. “CliniMoran said, telemetry alarms are down by cal alarm systems are intended to alert care- Supervisor Ken Quinton, center, talks with staff members Sarah Allgood, left, and Amanda Downey in 67%. Mercy Virtual’s vAlert offices on the campus of Mercy St. Louis in suburban Creve Couer, Missouri. vAlert givers of potential patient problems, but if Moran said the din of alarms was one they are not properly managed, they can staff working in the facility monitor about 38,000 alarms per day from Mercy St. Louis and three other of the first things she noticed when she compromise patient safety,” the Joint Com- Mercy hospitals in Missouri. started her job in mid-2017, prompting her mission warned. and other clinical leaders to do an in-depth According to a recent story by Kaiser make the determination if the alarm is real up or merely shift their weight in bed. “We have found that a soothing voice analysis. “We looked at every single possible Health News, no national data exists on or if it’s false.” whether progress has been made in reducIn the relatively few cases when an rather than an alarm going off helps sup- thing related to an alarm,” Moran said. “We immediate response is needed, with one port our patients,” James said. For some looked at nurse fatigue with alarms, nuiing the prevalence of false and unnecesclick on their computer the monitor tech- patients, however, the remote system is not sance alarms, how it affected the patient, sary alarms. Emerson and others who have helped direct alarm mitigation efforts at nicians can call the cell phone of the nurse insurance enough of their safety, so alarms the healing environment.” are still used. several Catholic hospitals are certain their assigned to the patient. After telemetry machines, which moniefforts have achieved results. While all the monitor technicians tor electrical activity in the heart as well as undergo in-house training to start, more Overwhelmed technicians oxygen saturation, pulse and other vital senior positions at vAlert require certifiMitigating alarm fatigue vSitter, Mercy’s telesitter program, also signs, the highest offenders included IV incorporates AvaSure. vSitter has contracts monitors and beds. In addition to personalEmerson said the primary motivation cations, such as in rhythm analysis and with 18 Mercy hospitals and some non- izing the alarms on the telemetry machines, for the creation of Mercy Virtual’s vAlert advanced cardiac life support. Mercy ones. vSitter technicians can moni- the analysis’ findings prompted several “was to mitigate alarm fatigue for our bedother changes, among them, for IVs, nurses side partners,” which researchers describe Telesitters tor up to 10 patients at a time. make sure pumps are properly set and the as sensory overload when clinicians are Though the technicians’ sole jobs are to Providence hospitals also have turned exposed to so many alarms that it can result to remote monitoring as one way to quiet monitor medical devices and not render perimeters for alerts are correct. In addiin desensitization to alarms and missed some of their nursing units in recent years. actual care, even they can tion, IVs are moved when alarms. Mercy Virtual is a telehealth pro- Michelle James, executive director of Provi- be overwhelmed by the “We have found that a possible from any place where they can be easvider owned by Chesterfield, Missouri- dence Nursing Institute in Renton, Wash- barrage of alarms. Emersoothing voice rather based Mercy. ington, said a telesitting son said Mercy Virtual ily occluded, such as the At vAlert’s hubs at Mercy Hospital St. system called AvaSure is now looking at ways than an alarm going antecubital area of the Louis in Creve Coeur and Mercy Hospital has reduced the num- to address alarm fatigue forearm. St. Vincent CharSouth, in south St. Louis County, techniamong the remote staffber of alarms soundoff helps support our ity nurses follow “purcians monitor centralized telemetry such ing in the places where ers, such as by improving patients.” as EKGs and pulse oximeters for the host it’s used. James said the the customization and poseful rounding” prohospitals plus for Mercy hospitals in the system is used for some precision of telemetry tocols to help ensure — Michelle James Missouri cities of Springfield, Troy and patients who need to be machines so that fewer that patients’ safety James Washington. Emerson said the monitor watched for various rea- alarms are produced. That would mean the and comfort needs are met, specifically technicians are trained to evaluate the sons, including those who are fall risks and monitor technicians could “spend more related to pain management, toileting and information generated from the telemetry patients who are confused and might pull time diligently monitoring patients and less access to personal belongings. Rounding units issuing alarms to determine if the out IVs. time validating alarms that are about 98% of nurses also check that equipment within warning indicates an “administrative” issue the room is working properly. Overall, this Through AvaSure’s 360-degree cameras the time false,” he said. such as a dead battery or a medical emer- and two-way speakers, staff at remote staapproach has resulted in a decreased need for patients to use the call bell to summon gency that needs immediate response. tions can watch and talk to patients. Hav- Fine-tuning the instrument “The monitors will notice something that ing the remote monitors means that nurses Customizing alarms is just one of a assistance, contributing to decreased noise triggers algorithms embedded in their soft- don’t have to hook up bed alarms that number of steps St. Vincent Charity Medi- levels on the nursing units. St. Vincent Charity is replacing all 438 ware,” he said. “Our monitor technicians sound when patients who are fall risks get cal Center in Cleveland has taken within beds in stages with beds that have several different setting options to minimize the potential for falls. Rather than alarming each time a patient changes position, the beds have three settings. The nurse selects the option best suited to the needs of the patient. For example, one option is a verbal prompt instructing the patient to remain in the bed and reassuring the patient that someone is coming to provide assistance. Also, three circles of light illuminate the floor below the footboard, to alert the caregiver if the bed settings are at baseline and if potential safety issues need to be addressed. Moran recalled how the relative peace and quiet soothed one patient who had taken numerous spills at a nursing home and whose daughter had warned nurses that the woman had a tendency to get confused at night. “The daughter said her mother was so much more calm without all that beeping going off,” Moran said. “In addition, she had not a single fall while she was with us.” Last year, the hospital did what Moran called a “mini lookback” at patient complaints. From the year before, overall patient complaints were down 66%. Complaints about noise had dropped to zero, she said, from the 20 that were reported in 2018, the year the changes began. “I think they’ve accomplished what we set out to do,” Moran said of the changes, “which was to really provide a much calmer Donna Tizzano, director of medical-surgical, bariatric and telemetry services at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland, checks on Darrell Thompson. healing environment for the patient.” Three circles of light shine below the footboard of patient beds to alert caregivers if bed settings need to be addressed. Such visual cues have contributed to significant alarm noise reduction in the hospital.
leisenhauer@chausa.org
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD February 1, 2020
Lofton to retire as one of CommonSpirit’s chief executives By LISA EISENHAUER
Kevin E. Lofton is retiring as chief executive of CommonSpirit Health, the Chicago-based health system created last year from the merger of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. His retirement will be effective June 30, the health care system announced Jan. 22. Lofton, 65, and Lloyd Dean both are chief executives of CommonSpirit. Dean will continue as CommonSpirit’s sole chief executive after Lofton’s retirement. In its announcement, CommonSpirit said the two-chief executive structure was created to successfully integrate CHI and Dignity Health and was never intended to be permanent. Lofton had been chief executive of CHI before the Feb. 1, 2019, merger created CommonSpirit, a 142-hospital system with $29 billion in revenues. It is the largest nonprofit health system in the country based on revenue. At CommonSpirit, Lofton has been
responsible for advocacy, compliance, digital, information technology, international business, legal, philanthropy, mission, sponsorship and governance, and system partnerships. Dean, the former president and chief executive of Dignity Health, said in the statement announcLofton ing Lofton’s retirement, “It has been an honor to share the creation of CommonSpirit Health with Kevin and there is no question that all of us have appreciated the gifts that he brought forward. I will forever cherish the opportunity to have been a part of this journey with him.” Lofton assumed the chief executive post at CHI in 2003. When he leaves CommonSpirit, he will have logged 17 years as an executive within CHI or the combined systems and 42 years total as a health care leader. He started his career in health care as an emergency department administra-
tor in Jacksonville, Florida, and eventually became the hospital’s chief operating officer. Prior to joining CHI, he was chief executive of two university hospitals. He is a past member of CHA’s board of trustees as well as its Leadership Task Force. He served on several CHA board committees, including the committee on diversity and health disparities. CommonSpirit noted in its release that Lofton has had “broad impact across the health care landscape, increasing the number and influence of minority health care executives and physicians, eliminating disparities of care and improving the overall health of people and communities.” Part of that work was as chairman of the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association. He also was founding chairman of the association’s Equity of Care Initiative, which was formed in 2008 to help address disparities in care for ethnic and racial minorities. Lofton has served on several other health system, medical school, bioscience,
retail, professional association, civil rights and community-based boards. He will continue on the boards of Gilead Sciences, Rite Aid and the Georgia State University Foundation. Lofton was named to Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” list 15 times. “Kevin Lofton is an exceptional leader and one of the most influential in health care,” Tessie Guillermo, chair of the CommonSpirit board, said in the press statement from the health system. Guillermo said Lofton will be given the honorary title of chief executive emeritus of CommonSpirit “in recognition of his many significant accomplishments and lasting imprint on our organization and the health care industry.” She added that the board is confident that under Dean’s leadership “we will be well-positioned to transform how we deliver care across the 21 states we serve.” leisenhauer@chausa.org
Push to end human trafficking, treat victims grows within CommonSpirit By LISA EISENHAUER
More Dignity Health sites and some Catholic Health Initiatives sites are adopting training for care providers on how to best treat human trafficking victims and other victims of violence, thanks to the systems’ merger into CommonSpirit Health. Dr. Ron Chambers and others developed a model at the Mercy Family Health Center — part of Dignity Health Methodist Hospital of Sacramento in California — to provide trauma-informed care to trafficking victims. He said Mercy Family Health Center is sharing the best-practices guides and other tools that are part of the Medical Safe Haven model with residency programs and primary care centers across CommonSpirit. Chambers is director of the family practice residency program at Methodist Hospital and medical director of the Mercy Family Health Center. He spoke during a networking phone call on human trafficking on Dec. 12 that was set up by CHA and moderated by Julie Trocchio, CHA’s senior director of community benefit and continuing care. Residency programs at Dignity hospitals in Redding and Northridge, California, are replicating Mercy Family Health Center’s care model for victims of trafficking, Chambers said. Based on meetings he has had with graduate medical education leaders from ministries across CommonSpirit, he expects other residency programs to soon do the same. He also expects the resident training will mean that more primary care sites will soon embrace the model. “We’re expanding and have big hopes to spread the Medical Safe Haven clinic model
more and really be able to provide comprehensive care to this patient population, which extrapolates to core concepts that apply to all of our patients that have experienced trauma,” he said. Chambers said the Mercy Human Trafficking Clinic run by the health center is providing services, with about 60 patient visits for victims and survivors per month. While the treatment model the health center developed is only a couple of years old, he reports that the clinic has collected evidence that the treatment helps to greatly reduce the likelihood that patients will return to trafficking situations. Also, CommonSpirit is merging a CHI and a Dignity program related to human trafficking and violence into a pilot program with elements of each. The CHI program called United Against Violence will be blended with a human-trafficking response model developed by Dignity. “Our programs were so complementary to each other, they really allowed us to create a newly aligned model that would be very holistic in nature,” said Laura Krausa, system director of advocacy programs for CommonSpirit Health. She also spoke during the CHA networking call. The blended model will have elements of United Against Violence, which supports public policy, community-based initiatives, shareholder advocacy and education, and Dignity’s response program, which trains care providers on how to appropriately treat trauma victims. “Putting these programs together really allows us to close the on-ramps — and we’re working on human trafficking first — and open the off-ramps so that we help
people avoid ever becoming victims but also for those that have, helping them to exit into healthy, good, happy lives again,” Krausa said. Pilots of the new model will be tested at three sites, she said. Two already have prevention pieces in place, so the response piece will be added. At the other, the pilot will start from the ground up. Details of the CHI and Dignity programs are available on CHA’s website. Go to chausa.org/human-trafficking/overview and then click on the resources heading. Also during the networking call, Caroline Boden, shareholder advocacy manager for Mercy Investment Services, reported that conversations with leaders of several corporations had led to new trafficking-related measures this year. (Mercy Investment Services oversees socially responsible investing for Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.)
Southwest Airlines has made a commitment to train all 59,000 staff members on trafficking awareness and prevention. Boden said American, Delta and United airlines have made similar pledges. In addition, the trucking firm Penske Automotive Group adopted a policy on trafficking and slavery that encourages employees to “report any concerns within the organization, its vendors or suppliers, including any circumstances that may give rise to an enhanced risk of slavery or human trafficking.” The trucking company U.S. Xpress announced a partnership with Truckers Against Trafficking to train about 7,000 drivers to recognize trafficking and alert authorities, Boden said. The next CHA networking call on human trafficking is set for noon (ET) July 17. leisenhauer@chausa.org
FAITHFULLY UNITED AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
We the people of Catholic health care can: • Raise awareness about human trafficking • Care for those who are victims • Advocate public policies that bring solutions Learn more about human trafficking and available resources for Catholic health care at chausa.org/human-trafficking
An image from the Truckers Against Trafficking website details the group’s activism since 2009.
February 1, 2020 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
Scanlon to retire as CommonSpirit’s chief advocacy officer Colleen Scanlon is to retire June 30 as executive vice president and chief advocacy officer of Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health. She has worked in advocacy leadership for one of Com-
Scanlon
monSpirit’s two predecessor organizations, Catholic Health Initiatives, for more than two decades. Kevin Lofton, chief executive of CommonSpirit, said that Scanlon “has dedicated her career to giving voice to the voiceless and to advancing the wideranging advocacy efforts that helped to
CHA appoints first chief operations and finance officer Loren Chandler, a veteran hospital executive, is joining CHA as its first chief operations and finance officer. He will take over financial oversight of the organization from Rhonda Mueller, who is leaving her position as senior vice president, finance and operations after almost 20 Chandler years. She will be relocating to Switzerland to be with her husband who is on a five-year work assignment. Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA president and chief executive officer, said the newly created position reflects the emerging needs of CHA. “In this role Loren will expand on current efforts to strengthen operational effectiveness through enhanced departmental alignment and integration, which will provide greater value to our members,” Sr. Mary said. Chandler has worked as a senior execu-
tive in both for-profit and not-for-profit health care organizations. In more recent years he was chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago. He kept those titles when he was promoted to executive vice president at Sinai Health System when that system acquired Holy Cross in 2013. “I am very excited to join such an outstanding organization that partners with equally outstanding Catholic health providers who come together to improve health care for our communities served,” Chandler said. “The opportunity to join the exceptional leadership team of Catholic Health Association is such a blessing and I am looking forward to joining them to advance the mission of Catholic health care.” Sr. Mary said Chandler “demonstrates a strong commitment to the mission of Catholic health care and tremendous experience in leading effective teams.” He will start his new job Feb. 3.
Survivors of atomic bombings
vors versus the general population as early as 1947. Yet treatments for many of the ailments that arose because of the bombings were not covered under Japanese health care laws, and terms of the San Francisco Peace Treaty prevented victims from suing the United States for damages. Survivors also faced discrimination as the lack of research led to fears of the effects of radiation on future generations. Providing aid for treatment and erasing the stigma of the hibakusha has taken decades within the country. The medical mission is an outreach of that effort.
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prefectures and that we open our doors to host.”
Research of a lifetime Both in and outside Japan, hibakusha suffered for years with limited medical assistance. Doctors in Japan noticed a higher incidence of leukemia among survi-
define CHI, and now CommonSpirit.” At CHI and CommonSpirit, Scanlon has focused on building healthy communities, public policy, environmental stewardship, socially responsible investing and health and social justice. She helped to develop and direct CHI’s advocacy programming to prevent violence and to raise awareness of human trafficking. Scanlon chaired CHA’s board of trustees in fiscal year 2009-2010, playing a key role in the association’s pivotal advocacy work for the Affordable Care Act. CHA awarded Scanlon its Sister Concilia Moran Award in 2018. That award is for leaders who exhibit creativity and breakthrough thinking that advances the ministry. Scanlon began her health care career as a registered nurse and worked in palliative care. She holds a master’s in gerontology and a law degree, with a certificate in health law and policy. Prior to joining CHI, she was director of the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights in Washington and a clinical scholar in the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center. Lofton said in his announcement of her retirement that her “imprint on changing health care in America has been extraordinary, and we will miss her wisdom, leadership and humanity.” Shelly Schlenker, system senior vice president of public policy and advocacy, will lead CommonSpirit’s advocacy efforts upon Scanlon’s departure.
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Dr. David Klein, left, president and chief executive of Dignity Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, and Dr. John Umekubo, an internist affiliated with St. Mary’s who has taken part in several Hiroshima/Nagasaki medical missions.
The innovative program is offered through a distinctive partnership with Georgetown University Medical Center, The Catholic University of America and the Catholic Health Association of the United States.
Every other year since 1977, the mission has traveled to the United States to conduct research and reconnect with survivors in such cities as Honolulu; Los Angeles; Seattle; Vancouver, Washington; and San Francisco. St. Mary’s became regional host in 1995 and continues because of its alignment with the hospital’s mission to serve the vulnerable. “You want to honor the survivors and remember the mistakes of the past,” Sr. Kieffer said. Working with a local organization called Friends of Hibakusha, Sr. Kieffer coordinated volunteers from St. Mary’s security, admitting and community health departments as well as the imaging and infusion centers. Friends of Hibakusha provided volunteers who speak the Hiroshima and Nagasaki dialects to communicate with the mission members as well as the survivors. “These survivors are getting quite old and are thrilled they got to talk to clinicians and volunteers in their original dialect,” she said.
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Shared research The medical mission shares its data with the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, a cooperative U.S. – Japan research organization, in what is known as the Life Span Study of survivors and a study of their children, the F1 study. The most significant
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KEEPING UP
Mullen
Maine
PRESIDENTS/CEOS Andrew Bagnall to president and chief executive of Hospital Sisters Health System – Wisconsin, overseeing operations at six of HSHS’s hospitals. He was president and chief executive of HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. HSHS is conducting a nationwide search for a new head of HSHS Sacred Heart. In the meantime, Bagnall will fulfill that responsibility. Thomas R. Mullen plans to retire as president and chief executive of Mercy Health Services of Baltimore effective July 2020. He joined Mercy 28 years ago. Mullen will be a senior adviser through December 2021. Dr. David N. Maine will succeed Mullen as president and chief executive. Maine was executive vice president of Mercy Health Services.
findings of the Life Span Study revealed that the amount of radiation a person received standing 0.8 mile from the epicenter of either of the blasts increased the likelihood of leukemia by 4.92 times that of the general population of Japan. The risk remained elevated even 65 years after the blast. The findings show that radiation exposure also increased incidents of: Breast and uterine cancer, especially among young women at the age of puberty when they were exposed to the radiation. Cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, lung, ovary, brain, thyroid and bladder. Elevated blood lipids. Cardiovascular disease. Cataracts. Uterine fibroids. The Life Span Study also showed that the bombing had the most profound health effects on the young. The incidence of most of the cancers was higher in younger survivors than in older ones, and lower levels of cognitive function were eventually discovered among those in utero at the time of the blasts. The study of the survivors’ offspring, however, unearthed no evidence that the next generation was at a higher risk of developing cancer than offspring of unexposed parents. For that reason, the children of survivors were excluded from this medical mission for the first time.
Fewer voices to tell the stories The Atomic Heritage Foundation estimated in 2016 that about 174,000 hibakusha remained alive, fewer than 500 in the United States. Given the dwindling number of survivors and the end to research on their children, some fear that awareness of the medical dangers from nuclear weapons will wane. Sr. Kieffer, however, said both St. Mary’s and members of the medical mission intend to continue their biennial research. (Sr. Kieffer, a Dominican Sister of San Rafael, recently left St. Mary’s to become administrator/moderator of Our Lady of Lourdes Convent in San Rafael, California, just north of San Francisco.) “It’s almost an antiwar statement,” Sr. Kieffer said of the medical mission. “You have to keep these memories alive so you don’t forget and don’t repeat the past.”
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD February 1, 2020
Playful art that lights up, sounds off and reacts enlivens children’s hospitals By LISA EISENHAUER
do we make them as comfortable as possible while they’re going through not the easiest time in their life?” Condon says.
B
efore visitors enter the main lobby at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, they pass under a glass and metal canopy where tinted panels transform sunlight into a dazzling array of colors. Speakers spread beneath the framework release the chirps and splashes of the Louisiana bayou. On the columns that support the 4,000-squarefoot canopy are colorful handprints that, when touched, set off musical serenades with melodic flourishes of flutes, marimbas or acoustic guitar. The artistic installation at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hospital is called Harmonic Grove. Dr. Shaun Kemmerly, chief medical officer, says the artwork sets the kidfriendly tone of the Kemmerly six-story hospital that opened in October. “It draws you in,” Kemmerly says. “It’s an intuitive way to bring kids and families onto our campus and make it a less scary space. It’s just kind of fun from the outset.” The playful tone is carried by other features at the hospital, including vivid paint schemes and animal mascots inside and parklike play areas with benches and paths outside. The hospital is part of Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health, a network within Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System.
New art for new spaces Harmonic Grove is one of at least three art installations at Catholic children’s hospitals that incorporate sound and light and, in two of them, interactive elements. Each of the hospitals are newly built or renovated. CHRISTUS Health’s The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio has been undergoing extensive renovations and expansion for about eight years to convert a downtown community hospital building into a freestanding pediatric hospital. The city’s biggest tourist draw, the San Antonio River Walk, is just a few blocks away. The “Spirit of the River” brings the river’s pulse inside as an art installation. The structure’s lights fluctuate between green, blue and purple in an artistic recreation of the path and flow of the San Antonio River from the city toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Artist Christopher Janney touches a handprint that triggers a melodic response at Harmonic Grove, the colorful and soundenhanced entry to the main lobby at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Janney designed the interactive installation.
Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart in Pensacola, Florida, which moved to a new four-story building in May, has an interactive art installation in its lobby. Bursts of color and random moving images with various shapes like hearts and flowers are keyed to the movement of people standing in front of the artwork and appear on its 10-foot-wide floor-to-ceiling screen. Leaders at each hospital say the installations were part of the decor plans early on to add color, amusement and, in the San Antonio and Baton Rouge works, a sense of place. For Baton Rouge, that place is the bayou. The speakers in the Harmonic Grove canopy are programmed to play sounds from the slow-moving streams and marshes that crisscross Louisiana and are home to an abundance of wildlife and vegetation. The artwork’s glass panels are largely in the same blue and green color scheme picked up inside the hospital and meant to reflect the shades of the Mississippi delta. The interactive wall in Pensa– cola is mostly about fun rather than fitting specifically into the hospital’s city-centric decor, which includes murals of the nearby Gulf beaches and Naval air base. Artist Christopher Janney designed Harmonic Grove. He says he was commissioned after someone connected to Our Lady
Balancing priorities At The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, Dana Rohman, associate chief nursing officer, was among employees who weighed in on the plans for the Rohman extensive renovations that continue there. “We’ve tried to balance two different priorities,” she says. “One is kids and fun and what’s intimidating and not intimidating but also to highlight our religious and faith-based ministry.” The Spirit of the River is on two floors of the 12-story hospital. On the first floor, the wall’s blue, green and purple lighting is a vivid contrast to the stark white round chapel that dominates the main
Children engage as the interactive wall responds to their movements at Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart in Pensacola, Florida. The wall is one of the playful design features in the hospital’s new building.
of the Lake saw his Soundstair installation at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. That piece uses photoelectric sensors to emit melodic and natural sounds in time with the steps of people as they ascend or descend a staircase. Janney installed a similar piece at Boston Children’s Hospital. “I say that my work is good for children of all ages, 2-92,” Janney says. “I think it’s a great way to stimulate creative play. That’s a very good thing to have, I think, in a children’s hospital
The “Spirit of the River” wall casts a changing pattern and hue of blue, green and purple light on two floors of The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio. The art installation mirrors the course of the San Antonio River, which flows nearby.
environment.” Harmonic Grove includes a “riddle” that’s on a small plaque. When someone deciphers the riddle and touches the handprints in the pillars in a certain order, the piece answers with a short “dance” of flashing colors and sound.
Pleasant distractions When children dance, stomp or move at all on a section of tile floor in front of the interactive art wall at Studer Family Children’s, their motions are picked up by sensors in the ceiling that trigger flowers, splashes of color and other imagery on the wall. Will Condon, president of Studer Family, jokes that the more scuff marks there are on the tile floor, the better. “Anything we can do Condon to get the kids up and moving we love to do, and this whole new technology has really helped with that,” he says. Dallas-based HKS Inc., the architecture and interior design firm for the new hospital, installed the wall. Other kid-centric design features include colorful murals and playrooms. “The full intent of the design was how do we distract the kids from why they’re really here? How
lobby. That section of the wall is 152 feet long. On the second floor, another section stretches 104 feet. On both sections, resin ribs with curving contours are reminiscent of the San Antonio River cutting through its bed. The installation was designed by Atlanta-based EYP Architecture and Engineering. Rohman says the wall and the dramatic design and prominence of the chapel are key features of the renovations that have updated the 150-year-old hospital. “People come in with a preconceived notion that this is the old hospital and then they’re overwhelmed with how modern and beautiful the hospital, especially the front lobby, is,” she says.
Ever-changing attraction Kemmerly, of Our Lady of the Lake, says the new children’s hospital is a big hit with patients and staff. She says people tell her: “I’m so happy here.” She says part of the hospital’s popularity is due to its colorful and playful features like Harmonic Grove, which casts an ever-changing splash of colors from the entryway into the lobby. “If you come into the hospital in the morning you may experience it one way and if you go out at a different time of day it’s a different experience,” Kemmerly says. “It’s just pretty remarkable.” leisenhauer@chausa.org