PeaceHealth marks centennial in Ketchikan, Alaska

Feb. 22 was the 100th anniversary of the official start of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace health care ministry in Ketchikan, Alaska. On that date in 1923, Bishop Joseph Crimont, the vicar apostolic for Alaska, dedicated the Little Flower Hospital to the island community, and that hospital served as the foundation for the sisters’ ministry that since has expanded significantly in Ketchikan.

PeaceHealth will be commemorating the centennial with a historical display at PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center this spring, an April event at a local museum, and a community barbecue in August. The health system produced a documentary on its 100 years of serving the Revillagigedo Island community. The borough has a population of nearly 14,000.

Three Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace were dispatched to Ketchikan to staff Little Flower Hospital. The sisters sold $10 tickets to loggers that entitled the purchaser to health care services for a year.

By the 1960s, Little Flower Hospital had become outmoded. Sr. Andrea Nenzel, CSJP, a director of the PeaceHealth board and the congregational leader of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, explains in the documentary that the sisters and the city of Ketchikan entered into an agreement that had the city building and owning a new hospital and the sisters running it.

Tim Walker, supply chain manager at PeaceHealth Ketchikan, says in the video that the city “understood the value of hav- ing the sisters here, so they created a unique facility among all the PeaceHealth facilities — where we’re owned by and belong to the community.”

In the 1970s, the hospitals that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace had founded across the western U.S. — the Ketchikan hospital included — incorporated under a system structure. In 1994 that organization was named PeaceHealth.

Since 2011 the Ketchikan facility has been called PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center. Today the hospital is a 25-bed critical access facility with 29 long-term care beds. The hospital has an average daily inpatient census of 10 patients. The hospital employs 468 people and has a medical staff of 54. Among the services the facility offers are emergency medicine, general surgery, orthopedic surgery, obstetrics, laboratory services and home health care.

Multiple commentators in the documentary note that PeaceHealth Ketchikan is much better staffed and equipped than most hospitals that are in small, remote communities. They attribute this to several factors. For one, given the island’s long history of dangerous industries — including mining, timber harvesting and commercial fishing — the hospital has had to build up strong trauma capabilities.

Since the island is only accessible by air, the sisters and the community continually have pushed for the hospital to get advanced technology not commonly available in small community hospitals on the mainland — often the upgrades were funded by community philanthropy.

Lanetta Lundberg, PeaceHealth Ketchikan foundation board chair, says in the documentary that the sisters’ strength, determination, tenacity and commitment to Ketchikan propelled the medical center and helped make it the impactful facility it has been for a century.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

The Catholic Health Association seeks an experienced journalist to fill an associate editor position at Catholic Health World, its awardwinning, tabloid format newspaper. Published up to 20 times annually in print and online, the specialty newspaper has content that advances the Catholic health ministry’s work in caring for people and communities. CHA’s members comprise the largest group of nonprofit health care providers in the nation and operate more than 600 hospitals, numerous outpatient facilities and 1,600 long-term care facilities as ministries of the Roman Catholic Church.

This position is based in CHA’s St. Louis office, where the association’s publications are produced. The primary function of the CHW associate editor will be as a senior staff reporter covering the Catholic health ministry. Strong writing skills are essential. The associate editor must be a self-starter with a beat reporter’s capacity to generate compelling stories tailored to an audience of senior hospital executives. Working in close communication with the CHW editor, the associate editor reports and writes clear, accurate and engaging features, news, and analysis pieces on deadline; writes headlines; and edits and proofreads copy.

The associate editor produces multimedia content for CHW’s online edition and social media accounts.

The associate editor performs some administrative tasks essential to the production of CHW and its web edition. This position generates story ideas for execution by self or others and solicits story ideas from members and CHA’s content leaders. Some travel is required.

A minimum of five years’ reporting experience on newspapers, newsletters or other rapidly recurring publications required. Knowledge of nonprofit health care, the health care industry, health policy and Catholic teachings on health care and social justice is desired. Experience in social media and video storytelling is a plus.

This position requires a bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in journalism or communications.

Interested parties should direct resumes to

Attention:

Cara Brouder Sr. Director, Human Resources Catholic Health Association CHA is an equal opportunity employer and offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package.

To view a more detailed posting for this position, visit the careers page on chausa.org.

For consideration, please email your resume to HR@chausa.org