Catholic Health helps a grieving Buffalo 3 CHA board execs brief Vatican 7 Cupboards run bare 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
AUGUST 1, 2022
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 12
Health systems find plenty of reasons to play ball with pro franchises Mercy, Trinity Health Michigan, Providence St. Joseph say alliances boost brands
“
This relationship
By LISA EISENHAUER
has been much more
Continued on 4
valuable than just visibility at an arena. It’s really been a kind
Portland Timbers and Thorns
When he became head sports physician at Missouri State University in his hometown of Springfield and where he had been a standout slugger and infielder in his college years, Dr. Brian Mahaffey says he met his career aspirations. “I was able to do that for 16 years and would’ve been very happy doing that for the rest of my career,” Mahaffey says. “I’m fortunate in that I got a second dream job.” In 2013, when St. Louis-based Mercy signed its first contract to provide mediMahaffey cal services to the Cardinals, Mahaffey was called up to the big leagues. The sports medicine specialist was drafted to lead a team of physicians overseeing the care of the players for one of professional baseball’s
Providence Health & Services in Oregon has naming rights to the home stadium of the Portland Timbers and Thorns pro soccer teams and its doctors take care of the athletes, team staffs and their families. The high-profile sponsorship attracts patients with sports injuries or athletic aspirations to Providence’s sports medicine physician practices.
of a foundational point where we get our wellness message across to a greater community.” — Rob Casalou, Trinity Health Michigan and Southeast Regions
Ministry clinicians help new parents navigate baby formula shortages Truveta says its Impact of scarcity is falling hard on Black, low-income and rural families platform could speed medical research, inform treatment decisions By JULIE MINDA
National baby formula shortages that began early this year have abated slightly but remain a concern for new parents across the U.S. Pediatricians and a lactation consultant from the Catholic health ministry say they’ve been particularly attuned to the amplified challenges low-income, rural and minority families have been facing in securing sufficient formula to feed their infants. A June report by Kaiser Family Foundation on the impact of the formula shortage states that infants from low-income households, infants living in rural areas and infants of color are more likely to be fed formula diets exclusively or as a supplement to breastmilk than are white babies born to higher-income families. “In addition to being more likely to use formula, low-income families also may have less resources to search for and purchase in-stock formula,” and those living in Continued on 5
Courtney Elliott feeds her newborn daughter as her 3-year-old son gives the baby a pat at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. Elliott contracted COVID-19 toward the end of her pregnancy and, after an emergency cesarean delivery to relieve her breathing, she developed a lifethreatening blood clot. She credits the hospital’s clinicians with saving her life.
By JULIE MINDA
Mackey Roberson, the lactation consultant at CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, shows a breast milk pump to a new mother. Roberson says a recent slight uptick in moms choosing to breastfeed may be related to concerns with baby formula shortages.
“Saving Lives with Data.” It is a bold vision statement. Truveta, a health system-led company, says the integrated health data platform it is building will help save lives. It will enable researchers to find treatments faster, clinicians to ferret out root causes of disease and families to make better health care decisions. Dr. Nick Stucky, Truveta vice president of research, says that the company and its 20 member health systems have prioritized health equity as a top focus area. Stucky says Truveta’s data bank and data analysis tools hold the potential to give researchers a solid grasp of why certain marginalized Continued on 2
All-out effort at Mercy Oklahoma City saves mother of newborn By LISA EISENHAUER
K
eeping Courtney Elliott alive during a COVID-19 nightmare that started just after New Year’s Day and stretched into mid-March took an all-hands-on-deck effort at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. “Basically every service in our hospital had some degree of interaction and care with Courtney, because that’s what was required,” said Dr. Jennifer Strebel, one of three physicians who shared their memories of the colossal lifesaving effort in a press release and YouTube video. Continued on 6
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD August 1, 2022
Truveta
WHY SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH?
From page 1
Insights from socioeconomic data can be used to:
communities have poorer overall health and health care outcomes as compared to other groups, and to help reveal the most effective ways to tackle those inequities. Stucky
Elucidating data The inspiration for Truveta came from Providence St. Joseph Health around 2018 as leadership sought a way to harness the power of big data in plumbing pressing questions in health care delivery. Providence, Trinity Health, Advocate Aurora Health and Tenet Health joined to launch Truveta as an independent, for-profit company in September 2020. Truveta refers to participating health systems as “members” and says its member health systems deliver over 16% of clinical care in the U.S. Trinity Health, CommonSpirit Health, Bon Secours Mercy Health and Providence St. Joseph Health each have a representative on the Truveta board of directors. The health system members and Microsoft are the investors in Truveta. All Truveta member systems contribute their patient data to the pooled data platform. Dr. Daniel Roth, executive vice president and chief clinical officer of Trinity Health, explains the usefulness of the pooled data this way: “Now that we have this big data set, we can do a better job of understanding what drives different health conditions, of elucidating risk factors for certain diseases and predicting who is at higher risk for those diseases. And we’ll Roth get a better understanding of what contributions social influences and racial influences, for example, have on health inequities. “If we are to attack racism as a public health crisis, we need to have a better understanding of it and we need to maximize the investments we make” to address
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Predict risk Medical care determines only 20% of overall health while social, economic and environmental factors determine 50% of overall health
Identify barriers to care and proactively engage at-risk patients
Reduce cost and improve health outcomes
• Access to transportation • Health literacy • Neighborhood safety • Social isolation
25¢ of every health care dollar is spent on the treatment of diseases or disabilities that result from potentially changeable behavior if barriers to care were addressed
Sources: americanactionforum.org and risk.lexisnexis.com
Mining Truveta’s data platform may yield a better understanding of how social, economic and racial factors influence the onset and trajectory of disease.
it, Roth says.
Deidentified and normalized In January, Truveta entered a strategic partnership with the health care business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The Truveta data platform includes the member systems’ deidentified clinical data on morbidity and mortality. Lab results, diagnosis codes, procedure codes, clinical notes and pathology reports are part of the cache. The agreement with LexisNexis allows the integration of aggregated data from member systems with information harvested by LexisNexis from 40% of all Medicare and Medicaid insurance claims and 70% of all commercial medical insurance claims. The LexisNexis data set includes information from that company’s access to public and proprietary data, such as property records, vehicle title records, address changes/location, auto and home claim records, public education records, census data, death records and more. According to information that Truveta provided by email as well as information that appears on the Truveta website, this data set enables access to comprehensive socioeconomic data on every adult American. This deidentified data enables researchers to understand the impacts the type of transportation, housing and education patients have access to, as well as their income level, stressors they may be experiencing and the number of people living in their household might have on patient outcomes.
LexisNexis says its patent-pending technology called Gravitas provides the ability to join that information with “deidentified patient records that would otherwise go unmatched, thus providing consumers of this data with a more comprehensive and complete view of an individual, while maintaining strict compliance with security and non-reidentification requirements.” The Truveta platform with the integrated LexisNexis data contains deidentified patient data for about 50 million people in the U.S. — and counting. Stucky says that many health care databases oversample white patients because people of color often have worse access to health care. He says the combined Truveta and LexisNexis data will be more representative of the racial composition of the U.S. population. In a March 8 blog post, Truveta Chief Executive Terry Myerson says the company’s data platform “is updated daily and continuously flowing to be responsive in pandemics, quickly staff clinical trials, and to provide the most up-to-date picture of U.S. health.”
Answering complex questions The main user groups for the data platform are data scientists and other researchers employed by Truveta, the member health systems and life sciences companies. According to information from Truveta, when health systems and life sciences companies are members of or clients of Truveta, they have full access to the Truveta data platform to conduct their own research and
benchmark performance against a national average in the data platform. Roth says the Truveta platform could provide insight into a wide variety of vexing questions. For instance, he says, health care providers assume that screening for the social determinants of health and then responding to the unmet needs for food, housing and other life essentials will have a positive impact on patients’ health and well-being, including for members of minority populations. But it’s been hard to establish and document a causal relationship and a measurable impact in part because it’s difficult for researchers to tease apart variables undermining health and longevity. Roth says the data platform will allow researchers to answer complex questions such as the extent to which housing insecurity and food insecurity impact the ability of diabetic patients to manage their disease. Roth says Trinity Health and many of the other Truveta member systems are acutely interested in delving into such questions as they pertain to racial minorities. “We know outcomes are worse for Black people for many conditions, and this platform will help us understand the key drivers and address them,” he says. Roth sees potential for community benefit staffers to partner with data scientists and use Truveta data to identify the most effective ways to deliver community health programming. “We’ll be able to identify who are the first people we should reach out to. In our communities where people are experiencing poverty and are underresourced it’s hard to understand their needs — they are so complex. This will help us understand the contributors better.”
The big picture In addition to his role with Truveta, Stucky is a practicing infectious disease physician and researcher at Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon. He agrees that having access to a large database that draws connection points between health conditions and demographic background and socioeconomic status could give researchers and clinicians valuable insights. He sees much promise in better comprehending some of the socioeconomic drivers of cancer, maternal and child health, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease, among many other illnesses. He believes the learnings can inform health facilities’ interventions with patients. “Actually, I think every study is a health equity study,” says Stucky. “We’re getting at root causes — the socioeconomic factors that underlie disease.” Visit chausa.org/chworld for highlights of recent Truveta research. jminda@chausa.org
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August 1, 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
3
Catholic Health aids community members, employees traumatized by mass shooting By JULIE MINDA
‘Everyone is grieving’ According to news reports, the alleged gunman, an 18-year-old white man, had staked out the Tops Friendly Markets store in the predominantly Black East Side neighborhood of Buffalo. He posted a racist screed online and entered the market carrying an assault rifle and wearing body armor and a helmet. The gunman is in custody and faces prosecution on dozens of state criminal counts as well as federal hate crimes and firearms charges. Upon learning of the shooting, Pryor pulled a list of employees in and surrounding the ZIP code where Tops is located and human resources staff checked in with them on their safety and well-being. Three employees lost members of their immediate families, says Pecht. She says that with 8,000 associates in Catholic Health's five-hospital network, many had some connection to someone who had died. Many employees who shopped at that Tops had personally known the security guard who died. One employee had gotten help and support during personal struggles from victim Pearl Young, 77. Pecht says, “Everyone is grieving. For weeks after the shooting, people were crying in meetings.”
Joshua Bessex/Associated Press
The May 14 racially motivated mass shooting that left 10 Black people dead traumatized the Buffalo, New York, community. Buffalo’s Catholic Health system has been helping people process their shock and grief and overcome practical challenges that have arisen in the tragedy’s wake. “Our community is absolutely devastated,” says William Pryor, Catholic Health executive vice president and chief administrative officer. Pryor “People don’t feel safe.” “Buffalo is a really tightknit community; the loss of 10 lives had an impact on all of us,” says Thea Pecht, Catholic Health manager of community and media relations. Catholic Health has been offering emotional and spiritual support to employees and community members and practical aid to people living in the East Side neigh- Pecht borhood where the gunman shot 13 people at Tops Friendly Markets. Catholic Health reached out to the community with words of support on its Facebook page: “This expression of racist hate has no place in our city — the City of Good Neighbors — and we will come together as a community, to mourn, comfort, heal and remember the lives” of those who died. The system went on to say that its mission to reveal the healing love of Jesus to all “will help us all rise above the grief and anger we are feeling and take action to support each other and work towards a greater understanding of one another to spread love to all.”
eral employees shared that many do their grocery shopping on Saturdays, so the Saturday shooting of shoppers had shattered their sense of well-being. Pecht says, “We’re having conversations without judgment. Our diversity brings new perspectives to light, and we are learning from people with different life experiences, and it is opening minds.”
These houses are in the East Side community in Buffalo, New York, near the grocery store where a May 14 mass shooting occurred. Tops Friendly Markets is the only supermarket for miles and has been a neighborhood hub, residents say. The store was closed for about two months after the shooting.
“Our community is absolutely devastated. People don’t feel safe.” — William Pryor
because they were afraid there might be a copycat shooting.” Pryor says employees are concerned with security. "Our hospitals are open 24/7, and all sorts of people come in.” He says the hospital is reviewing and hardening its crisis response and security, including by updating its active shooter training and rolling it back out to all staff.
East Side aid Pryor says Buffalo’s East Side is a community with great socioeconomic challenges, and since the murders, Catholic Health’s diversity, equity and inclusion committees have been exploring how to ramp up the system’s direct involvement and aid. Tops is the sole grocery store on Buffalo’s East Side. It closed immediately after the shooting — it reopened July 15. Recognizing that community members had no convenient place to buy food, Catholic Health’s diversity committees and leadership organized food drives. Contributions filled a semi-truck with over 3,200 pounds of nonperishable food for the FeedMore WNY aid agency. FeedMore distributed the food through its emergency distribution sites in the East Side neighborhood. Catholic Health recruited 75 staff to volunteer to help deliver to East Side residents over 6,000 hot meals prepared by celebrity chef Darian Bryan and The Plating Society. Pryor says Catholic Health is doing its best to understand and respond to the needs of its associates and community. Pecht adds, “It’s all mission led at the core. And everyone is willing to help.” Visit chausa.org/chworld to view a video about the food aid delivered to Buffalo’s East Side.
Listening hearts Pryor says he and Catholic Health President and Chief Executive Mark A. Sullivan ‘Not who we are’ sent an email message to all employees Pryor says staff also have been talking pledging to stand against the horrible act in the listening sessions about the racial and to support employees and the broader nature of the tragedy. Everyone agrees that community. Catholic Health also posted “this is not who we are in Buffalo. We are all that message to its employee intranet. disgusted, upset and devastated.” The hospital is providing grief support Pryor adds that in listening sessions sev- jminda@chausa.org through face-to-face and online counseling, and spiritual care from in-house chaplains. Chaplains at Catholic Health host prayer services and, on alternate Tuesdays, virtual support group meetings that are open and free to staff and the broader community. Every weekend Catholic Health chaplains provide free counseling to East Side families at a pavilion in that neighborhood. The system’s mission department hosts listening sessions for employees at all its hospital campuses, which Pryor says were like group therapy for employees. Participants have talked about their connections with the victims and the feelings they’ve been processing since the mass shooting. “Some associates are still afraid to go to the grocery store,” Pecht said in late June. “Some did not go to the Catholic Health of Buffalo partnered with the nonprofit FeedMore WNY to collect nonperishable items and emergency Juneteenth Festival in Buffalo relief for the East Side Buffalo neighborhood where the mass shooting took place.
SLUCare Physician Group becomes part of SSM Health in St. Louis SSM Health has taken over ownership of SLUCare Physician Group from Saint Louis University, bringing 1,200 new providers, including about 600 who are academic physicians, into its fold. The SLUCare group will be a parallel one to the existing SSM Health Medical Group. Jeremy Fotheringham, regional president of St. Louis-based SSM Health, said most of the SLUCare providers are specialists or subspecialists and about half of them are doctors who are on the faculty at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He said their skills and expertise will
complement those of the SSM Health Medical Group, whose members are mostly primary care physicians or specialists. “By adding an academic division, we add a whole lot of subspecialty care,” Fotheringham said. “If you’re a patient, now the continuum of care is much easier to navigate. We can align care processes and systems of care to make it much easier to go from primary care to a specialist to a subspecialist and back to your primary care physician.” Most of the SLUCare doctors already have a relationship with SSM Health because SSM Health Saint Louis Univer-
sity Hospital is the teaching hospital for the Saint Louis University medical school. SSM Health acquired the hospital in 2015. Saint Louis University is a private Jesuit research institution. Speaking at a reception at the hospital to formally mark the handover, Dr. Christine Jacobs, dean of the School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs at Saint Louis University, said: “Your colleagues at SLU School of Medicine are so glad to see that our many years of partnership have reached this inflection point. We’ve formed strong relationships with all of you in this
process and we know that we will be better together.” Fotheringham said acquiring the SLUCare group means SSM Health can advance its goal of providing value-based care in several ways, including by streamlining some operations, curtailing duplicate procedures and reducing waste. He said that having the academic group within the system also will bring new opportunities to tap their knowledge to educate and train clinicians across the SSM Health system, which operates in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD August 1, 2022
Dr. Brian Mahaffey has led the clinicians in charge of providing medical care for the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization since Mercy’s alliance with the franchise began in 2013. He balances his work for the professional baseball team with his sports medicine practice.
Sports sponsorships From page 1
premier franchises. This spring, Mercy and the Cardinals re-upped the contract. Mahaffey will continue to be a fixture in the dugout from the preseason through the postseason until at least 2032. “There are days that are frustrating and then I walk into Busch Stadium and go ‘Wow,’” he says. “I still have to pinch myself. It never gets old to do that.” Mercy’s alliance is one of several between Catholic health systems and professional sports teams. Mahaffey and others who are involved in the partnerships say some of the benefits are by design and others are unexpected.
Partners on wellness Rob Casalou is president and chief executive of Trinity Health Michigan and Southeast Regions. Trinity Health Michigan, which recently replaced the Saint Joseph Mercy Health System and Mercy Health System names, has been the official health and wellness Casalou partner of the Detroit Red Wings since 2015 when the hockey team was prepping to play in the newly built Little Caesars Arena. Under the contract, Trinity Health Michigan’s logo appears on health-related signage in the arena’s concourse, such as one that tells guests how many laps add up to a 1-mile walk. Before a Red Wings game, a video with advice about how to stay healthy from Lisa McDowell, Trinity Health Michigan’s director of lifestyle medicine and clinical nutrition and the Red Wings’ team nutritionist, plays on the Jumbotron. During games, the system’s brand is on electronic messaging boards that surround the rink. As part of their pact, the system and the team jointly promote health-oriented events within the community such as 5K runs and yoga classes. Casalou says unlike many alliances between health systems and sports franchises, the one between Trinity Health Michigan and the Red Wings doesn’t include medical services for the team. Rather, he says, his system is making use of a popular venue and the reputation of a renowned team “to put out our message around health, wellness and good nutrition.”
Relationship payoffs The alliance has led to teamwork beyond the boundaries of the contract, Casalou notes. For example, as the COVID-19 pandemic was widening, Red Wings team captain Dylan Larkin made public appeals for masks, gloves and other scarce supplies for Trinity Health Michigan facilities. Several star players paid visits to the system's hospitals to boost staff morale. Before the Red Wings restarted play at the arena, the team asked Trinity Health Michigan for advice to tamp down the risk of viral spread. The system’s chief of infection control and other specialists provided guidance on how to screen people for COVID symptoms as they entered the building, what signage to post and which air filtration system to purchase. “That was never contemplated, never part of the contract,” Casalou says. “It’s just part of the relationship that we have.” The two also have partnered on giving patients the thrill of attending a Red Wings game as guests of the team. One of the patients who got special recognition in April was a student who had been hospitalized for weeks at Trinity Health St. Joseph Mercy Oakland after she was injured in a mass shooting at a local high school in November that left four people dead. As part of her fan experience, the student got to ride the Zamboni machine that resurfaces the ice.
Kylie Ossege sports a Detroit Red Wings jersey at a game where she was the pro hockey team’s honored guest and got to ride on the Zamboni. The teenager was wounded in a school shooting in Michigan that left four dead. She had a long hospitalization at Trinity Health St. Joseph Mercy Oakland.
‘Team behind the team’ Providence Health & Services in Oregon, part of Providence St. Joseph Health, gets visibility for its brand by having naming rights for the home stadium of the Timbers and the Thorns, Portland, Oregon’s pro men’s and women’s soccer teams, respectively. Providence Park, with a seating capacity of 25,218, often sells out for the teams’ matches. The system’s name also appears on Thorns’ players’ jerseys. Providence’s Dr. Breanne Brown is a family and sports medicine specialist and head team physician for the Thorns. Brown is at the stadium along with other Providence care providers at most home matches to address any Brown injuries for the Thorns or their opponents. Providence providers also are stationed at the Timbers’ home games. Brown coordinates care among Providence providers across specialties for the players on both soccer teams, the teams’ staffs and the players’ and staffs’ families. She calls those specialists, who have been vetted on their skills and their willingness to provide care on an expedited basis if needed, “the team behind the team.” She says Providence’s alliance with the teams is clearly a draw for some patients with sports injuries or sports aspirations. “There are a lot of people who seek out our sports medicine physicians who are affiliated with the team,” Brown says. Early in the pandemic, the Timbers and the Thorns asked Brown to help educate their players and staff on how to deal with COVID. She assisted them in setting protocols for practice and training well before public health officials recommended any. She went on to lead a task force that recommended COVID protocols for the National Women’s Soccer League. Even before it put its name on the stadium, Providence had opened the Providence Sports Care Center there. The 12,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art sports medicine and orthopedic center is the rehabilitation clinic for Timbers and Thorns athletes and is open to the public for care. The alliance between the health system and the teams extends outside the park. They jointly sponsored the revival of the Special Olympics Oregon Fall Games. They partner on soccer clinics and other community-based events. One of those events is the annual Rose City Road Trip in which players travel to rural communities for a soccer camp with kids, a community service project, and a hospital visit or other local appearance.
Providence is not the only Catholic health system to have naming rights to a major sports venue. Dignity Health Sports Park in suburban Los Angeles is home to the LA Galaxy, a pro men’s soccer team; the United States Tennis Association’s HighPerformance Training Center; and the national team training headquarters for the U.S. Soccer Federation. Dignity Health is part of CommonSpirit Health.
Visible results Under its latest contract with the Cardinals, Mercy is expanding its visibility at Busch Stadium, the team’s home turf. The system will get exclusive advertising rights inside the stadium among medical service providers and have its brand on two weekly TV shows produced by the team, “Cardinals Insider” and “Cardinals Kids.” Mahaffey says Mercy has a nurse practitioner at the stadium. The system provides concierge-style care to Cardinals superstars like Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols and about 300 other athletes who are on the Major League squad or part of the franchise’s farm system. Team staff, front office workers and families of players and staff use the Mercy care. Mercy bills the patient’s insurer for medical care. Mahaffey is on hand during spring training in Jupiter, Florida, and at most of the Cardinals’ 80-plus home games. Like the other Mercy physicians on the Redbirds medical team, he maintains a separate medical practice. He says the Cardinals invest to keep their players in prime condition and the team tracks how various aspects of conditioning across the continuum, including nutrition, cardio and orthopedic health, and the quality of players’ sleep and mental health, affect performance. Managing that investment has advanced the state of sports medicine across Mercy, Mahaffey says. “That experience most certainly transforms back into how we take care of our patients in the office, how we take care of our high school athletes at all our high schools that we have athletic trainers at, at our club teams that we work with,” he says. “It makes a huge difference, no doubt.” In the years since Mercy began its partnership with the Cardinals, Mahaffey notes that the system’s overall market share across its four-state footprint has grown tremendously. He says Mercy is sure that having its name paired with one of the Midwest’s most recognizable and storied brands is helping drive that boost in business. “It’s hard to measure, but we know that it exists,” he says. leisenhauer@chausa.org
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“This relationship has been much more valuable than just visibility at an arena,” Casalou says. “It’s really been a kind of a foundational point where we get our wellness message across to a greater community. The Red Wings have been just an outstanding partner for us to do that with.”
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The Saint Joseph Mercy Health System brand is prominent on signage at Little Caesars Arena, where the Detroit Red Wings play. (The system changed its name to Trinity Health Michigan in the spring.) The health system and the team have a partnership to promote community wellness that dates to 2015.
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August 1, 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
From page 1
rural areas may have fewer retailers to fall back on when their regular store runs out, the researchers said. “There is a health equity aspect to these (formula) shortages,” said Dr. Ashanti Woods, a pediatrician with Mercy Family Care Physicians in Baltimore, which is Woods affiliated with Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center. “The formula shortage hits people of all demographics. Populations with lower rates of breastfeeding will be hit harder than those with higher rates," said Dr. Kara Bruning, a pediatriBruning cian with Avera Medical Group in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Recall According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pandemic-related supply chain issues that impacted formula availability were exacerbated by a formula recall early this year by Abbott Nutrition, one of the largest makers of formula in the U.S. The company recalled three brands of dry formula mix made at its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, and temporarily closed the plant in February after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cited safety and sanitary concerns with formula production at the plant. Several babies became sick and two died from a bacterial infection. Abbott says the specific contaminant that caused the infections had not been found in the Sturgis plant at the time of the closure. The plant shutdown set off widespread shortages well beyond the formulas produced at the Abbott plant. News reports based on information collected by Datasembly from 130,000 stores showed shortages continued to grow in late May. About three out of four stores were out of stock on formula the week ending May 28. Abbott restarted some of its production in early June, but in less than two weeks, it was forced to shut down again to clean up from a flood. It reopened July 1, according to published reports. To ease shortages, the Biden administration launched Operation Fly Formula, which lightened restrictions on importing formula from overseas manufacturers, and it sent military cargo jets to haul formula back from Europe. It activated the Defense Production Act May 18, requiring suppliers to provide manufacturers with the ingredients they need to produce the formula more quickly. In early July, the FDA reported shortages were abating. Scrambling Woods said during the worst of the shortages — in April and May — parents of his patients scrambled to find formula and his practice gave families in a bind canisters of formula from its in-office supply. Mackey Roberson, the lactation consul-
CHRISTUS facility runs support group to address culture-based hesitancy to breastfeeding
BREASTFEEDING DISPARITIES Percentage of infants born in 2018 exclusively breastfed through 3 months, by race/ethnicity
H
ealth care practitioners advise that for moms of color. She believes breastbreast milk generally is the best nutrifeeding rates have been relatively low tional source for babies in the first year of among Black women for decades because their lives. However, some women of the wide availability of formula who physically can breastfeed may and because of the legacy of struggle with the decision to do so, slavery. due to cultural concerns. Roberson explained that female That is according to Mackey slaves were forced to be wetnurses Roberson, the lactation consultant for the infants of slave owners. “So, at CHRISTUS Highland Medical women’s breasts were weaponized Roberson Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. against them.” She leads a support group for Black, An aversion to breastfeeding has been Latina and Asian moms who “have trouble passed down through generations, she with lactation from a historical and social said. Only recently have breastfeeding perspective.” rates been rising among Black mothers. The Centers for Disease Control and A November 2016 article in Nursing Prevention breastfeeding facts show Black Research and Practice indicates that infants are less likely to ever be breastfed although Latina moms in the U.S. initiate as compared to Asian, White and Hispanic breastfeeding at a higher rate than the infants. national average, they are less likely than Using grant dollars from Louisiana in other groups to breastfeed exclusively. partnership with Cafe Aulait, CHRISTUS The article notes that the World Health Highland began the support group sevOrganization recommends breastfeeding eral years ago and provides a space as a be the exclusive source of nourishment community benefit. Roberson, who leads and hydration in the first six months of the group, said about 10 to 15 women life. attend at a time. Attendees are predomiThe study authors wrote that there are nantly Black moms, says Roberson. Parmany reasons Latina mothers supplement ticipants can choose to attend in-person breast milk with formula. Among them: or virtually. Inadequate knowledge of breastfeedRoberson said the group talks through ing. the stigma and barriers to breastfeeding Cultural beliefs that “breastfeeding
39%
Black
50%
51%
Asian
White
43%
Hispanic
Source: National Immunization Survey, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
is a practice of the poor” who can't afford formula. The cultural axiom that a heavier baby is a healthier baby may cause a woman to worry whether she will produce sufficient milk to nourish her baby. Women in low-wage jobs who aren't able to take unpaid time away from work nor pump milk while at work may have little choice than to rely on formula. Among other recommendations, the study authors say there is a need for greater education by perinatal nurses, lactation consultants and other obstetric health practitioners on the benefits of breastfeeding exclusively. Roberson provides that education and said the women in her support group encourage each other in their breastfeeding. — JULIE MINDA
a lapse post-birth. Roberson said she thinks more women are choosing to breastfeed because of the difficulty of getting formula.
Jason Bergman/Sipa USA via AP Images
Baby formula
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In June, shoppers at a Walmart in Carmel, Indiana, had limited choices of baby formula as a national shortage dragged on. The shortage peaked in April and May and began to ease in early summer after the Biden administration lifted some restrictions on formula imports and took steps to stimulate domestic production and one of the country’s biggest infant formula manufacturing plants came back online.
tant at CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, said that while the supply has stabilized as more formula is being produced, spot shortages were still happening in mid-July and were a concern for parents she works with. Woods, Bruning and Roberson suggest parents navigate the shortages by enlisting friends and family in the hunt for baby formula. They recommend that families connect with each other on social media in the hope that posts will flag stores with avail-
Dr. Ashanti Woods, a pediatrician with Mercy Family Care Physicians in Baltimore, examines a patient. He has been advising new parents about how best to navigate baby formula shortages.
able supplies. Pregnancy resource centers and Community Action Agencies may have formula or know where to get it. And local breast milk banks could be another resource for desperate families. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ guide for navigating the infant formula shortage advises parents that it’s generally OK to substitute different brands of formula, including store brands, as long as they have the same base — like cow’s milk or soy — as the baby is accustomed to. The guide says any substitution should be done with the supervision of a health care provider. Diluting formula to stretch the supply, using expired formula or making homemade formula are considered unsafe practices, according to the guide. Woods has been spreading these tips through media interviews. Many ministry facilities have been sharing advice through their websites and social media.
Boost for breastfeeding Roberson said as a lactation consultant she has seen an increase in the number of women interested in breastfeeding, including some who had not breastfed their previous children, and some who initially wanted to bottle-feed but who changed their minds after being discharged from the hospital. Sometimes women can begin breastfeeding if there has not been too long
‘Dangerous spot’ Woods said that there are barriers to breastfeeding for low-income women. Without paid parental leave, they may need to return to work shortly after they give birth and they may be in a work environment that does not allow the time or provide a place for pumping milk, and pumping is necessary to maintain a milk supply for breastfeeding. Also, the most efficient and convenient milk pumping machines are expensive, he said. Getting formula amid a shortage can be much more difficult for the poor. With gasoline prices at or near all-time highs, Woods said people with low-wage jobs or little money or family support may not be able to afford to drive around to multiple stores. Roberson said families who live in neighborhoods without groceries and other stores won’t have many choices for where to get formula. Bruning said the distance to shops is a big concern for families in rural areas. Formula can be very expensive, and Roberson said working-class families may not be eligible for subsidies for formula. Woods added that even families who get benefits through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and/or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are being stung by the formula shortages. That is because WIC benefits only can be used for certain brands of formula. If those brands are out, families may use precious SNAP dollars to buy other brands, diverting funds needed for other food for the family. Woods said Mercy has asked WIC to relax the requirements during the formula shortage, as has been done in some states. The infant feeding experts said thankfully they have not yet seen babies in their practices suffer ill health due to the formula shortages. But, Woods said, “There is a great risk to babies” if they are not fed properly, and so he and other providers are continuing to educate parents about the issue. Visit chausa.org/chworld for more information and to view media interviews Woods has done on this topic. jminda@chausa.org
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD August 1, 2022
One CommonSpirit system expands, another plans replacement hospital CommonSpirit Health system’s Centura Health has acquired hospitals in Colorado and Kansas and its CHI Memorial system announced plans to build a replacement hospital in northwest Georgia. Centura Health grew its network of hospitals to 19 with the purchase of the 50-bed Colorado Plains Medical Center in Fort Morgan, Colorado, and the 99-bed Western Plains Medical Complex in Dodge City, Kansas. On May 1, Centennial, Coloradobased Centura acquired the two secular hospitals from LifePoint Health system for $135 million. LifePoint, a for-profit health care company based in Brentwood, Tennessee, is owned by Apollo Global Management. The hospitals it sold to Centura now operate as nonprofit Catholic hospitals and adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Centura renamed the Fort Morgan facility St. Elizabeth Hospital. Josh Neff is St. Elizabeth’s chief executive. The Dodge City hospital is now St. Catherine Hospital — Dodge City. Centura is recruiting a chief executive for St. Catherine and Centura’s two other Kansas hospitals. According to a release, Centura hired all employees in good standing at the two hospitals. Centura functions under a joint operating agreement between CommonSpirit and
AdventHealth. Chicago-based CommonSpirit is a 140-hospital, nonprofit Catholic system. AdventHealth is a faith-based, nonprofit with headquarters in Altamonte Springs, Florida. It has 50 hospitals.
Replacement site In 2017, CHI Memorial, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, acquired a license to run Hutcheson Medical Center, a hospital in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, that it renamed CHI Memorial Hospital Georgia. Hospital leadership promised at that time to build a new hospital to replace the aging facility. CHI Memorial has received a certificate of need to build that new campus in Ringgold, Georgia, which is about 5 miles from the current campus. CHI Memorial expects to open the $110 million Ringgold campus in fall 2024. The new hospital will have 64 inpatient beds — the legacy campus is licensed for 179 beds. The new facility will have an intensive care unit, emergency department, operating rooms and imaging center. The hospital will be collocated with facilities that CHI Memorial opened since 2017 in Ringgold, including a cancer institute, imaging center, breast center and multispecialty clinic. CHI Memorial has had a presence in northwest Georgia since 1994, when it opened a primary care clinic there, and it has grown since.
CHA’S ETHICS APP
Ethics Info at Your Fingertips! FOR CHA MEMBERS
CHA’S ETHICS APP is a valuable collection of ethics information for clinicians who are providing patient care and for the ongoing education of ethicists, mission leaders, ethics committees and clinicians in Catholic health care.
A photo of the blood clot, a life-threatening complication of COVID-19 infection, that a doctor removed from Courtney Elliott’s chest this spring. Elliott arrested during the emergency surgery and twice after in the intensive care unit. One of her doctors said every service line in the hospital played some part in seeing her through a nearly two-month hospitalization.
Lifesaving effort From page 1
As Elliott’s delivery doctor, Strebel was among the first to recognize how direly COVID had impacted the 33-year-old’s health. Elliott was 36 weeks along when she tested positive for the virus on Jan. 3. Strebel examined Elliott on Jan. 11 and moved up to the next day a cesarean section that had been planned for Jan. 25. “She was having a really hard time breathing,” Strebel recalled. “I consulted with her maternal-fetal medicine specialist, and together we decided the baby was full term. If we could just deliver the baby, her uterus would decompress and allow her lungs to work more effectively.” The procedure went fine. Parker Elliott weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Mom and baby girl went home to Elliott’s husband and 3-year-old son on Jan. 16. Elliott’s return home was brief. Even with supplemental oxygen, breathing became difficult. Within two days, she went back to Mercy by ambulance. “When she got to the ER, her oxygen levels, which should be 92% or more, were at 45%, which I truly didn’t know was possible for someone who was still awake and talking,” Strebel said. Doctors admitted Elliott to a step-down intensive care unit, where they tried several oxygen delivery systems in hopes of keeping her off of a ventilator. When Elliott’s horrible cough lingered and the complications of COVID continued to weaken her after a week, the doctors moved her to the ICU for closer monitoring. A week later, Elliott’s care team decided she was strong enough to move back to the step-down unit. At the behest of an ICU nurse, they delayed the move for one day. On what was to have been her last day in ICU, Elliott’s oxygen levels deteriorated so rapidly that her doctors intubated her and hooked her up to a ventilator.
“When she got to the ER, her oxygen levels, which should be 92% or more,
CONTENTS INCLUDE:
Complete searchable version of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services
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Collection of relevant articles and resources addressing important clinical issues in Catholic health care To download the app, visit chausa.org/EthicsApp (member login required)
were at 45%, which I truly didn’t know was possible for someone who was still awake and talking.” — Dr. Jennifer Strebel “Her blood pressure dropped so low, and the nurses immediately jumped in, but everything we tried to do to intervene medically wasn’t working,” said Dr. Maroun Tawk, medical director of the ICU. Although Tawk had suspicions about what was behind Elliott’s severe down-
turn, his patient was too unstable for a trip to the lab where imaging could offer a clear diagnosis. In consultation with Dr. Aaron Graham, interventional radiologist at Mercy, Tawk ordered a mobile X-ray and echocardiogram to Elliott’s bedside stat. The images were cloudy but Tawk said they reinforced his concern that Elliott had a blockage between her lungs and her heart. “This was a huge risk,” Tawk said. “We had no idea what we were dealing with or what Dr. Graham would find if she even survived the short trip down the hall to the cath lab, but we had to do something. She was dying.” In fact, Graham said Elliott’s heart stopped as he was performing the catheterization. When nurses jumped in to start compressions, Graham ordered them to stop. “I knew I had to get the blood moving again,” Graham said. “As soon as I was able to get a portion of that clot out, her heart started right back up, and it was a mad dash to pull out as much of the remaining clot in her heart and lungs as possible.” Once the catheterization was done and the full clot was removed, Graham and his colleagues were stunned by the size of the ropey mass pulled from Elliott’s chest. It was about 8 inches long with shorter tendrils. The mass had been completely obstructing blood flow in her heart and lungs, according to a press release from the hospital. Elliott was returned to the ICU to recover. Over the next few days, her cough remained so severe that her lungs collapsed twice, causing her heart to stop. Each time the ICU team was able to revive her. After Elliott’s third cardiac arrest, her care team performed a tracheotomy to install a temporary breathing tube in her neck. After five weeks, her condition began to improve. On March 3 she was strong enough to move to Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Oklahoma City. She stayed there until March 11, learning to stand, walk and bathe herself — skills she had lost along with much of her memory during her nearly two months of hospitalization. After she went home to the suburb of Yukon, she got visits from nurses and therapists for a few weeks. By mid-May, Elliott said in an interview that she felt she was 90% back to her preCOVID condition. What lingered, she said, was arthritis-like pain in her hands and feet, which she attributed to muscle atrophy. Elliott said that while she wasn’t conscious for much of her medical odyssey, she is well aware of the extraordinary effort by the Mercy Oklahoma City team who saved her. “I don’t think that I could ever thank them enough for everything that they’ve done,” she said. leisenhauer@chausa.org
August March 1, 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
7
CHA leaders brief the Roman Curia on the U.S. Catholic health ministry Leaders of the executive committee of the CHA Board of Trustees visited the Vatican in late June to share their perspectives on the issues impacting Catholic health care in the U.S. with officials from four dicasteries within the Roman Curia. Visits included a meeting with staff from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, of which CHA President and Chief Executive Officer Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, is a member. The meeting resulted in planned collaborations among the participants on issues of mutual concern. Dicasteries are administrative offices of the Vatican that support and advise the pope. The group also met with Joseph Donnelly, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See and his staff. Pictured, from left, are Laura Kaiser, president and chief executive officer of SSM Health and CHA board chair; Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, a member of the CHA executive committee; Sr. Mary; Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary
of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Bishop George Leo Thomas of Las Vegas, immediate past member of the CHA executive committee; Lydia Jumonville, president and chief executive officer of SCL Health and a CHA executive committee member; Damond Boatwright, president and chief executive officer of Hospital Sisters Health System and CHA vice chair and chair-elect; and Dr. Rhonda Medows, president of population health management at Providence St. Joseph Health, immediate past chair of CHA. She is speaker of the association's membership assembly. “It is important for the Roman Curia to understand the U.S. reality and the challenges we are facing given COVID along with economic, governmental and societal changes,” Sr. Mary said. “It is equally important for our members to understand the responsibilities of the Holy See for the global church. It is clearly a time to foster relationships, build trust, and advance our collective work of furthering the healing ministry of Jesus.”
COMMUNITY BENEFIT 101:
KEEPING UP
THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF PLANNING AND REPORTING COMMUNITY BENEFIT OCTOBER 25, 26 & 27, 2022 Each day from 2 to 5 P.M. ET
Join us for the Virtual Program! CHA’s Community Benefit 101: The Nuts and Bolts of Planning and Reporting Community Benefit, a virtual conference, will provide new community benefit professionals and others who want to learn about community benefit with the foundational knowledge and tools needed to run effective community benefit programs.
Attendees will receive a copy of CHA’s A Guide for Planning and Reporting Community Benefit.
“CHA has great resources that were used as part of the program and I can already use the information presented in my day to day activities.”
“The information about the CHNA and CHIP was so essential and will be invaluable in my role.”
What you will learn: Taught by community benefit leaders, the program will cover what counts as community benefit; how to plan, evaluate and report on community benefit programs; accounting principles and a public policy update.
Who should attend: New community benefit professionals who want a comprehensive overview of all aspects of community benefit programming. Staff in mission, finance/tax, population health, strategic planning, diversity and inclusion, communications, government relations, and compliance who want to learn about the important relationship of their work and community benefit/community health. Veteran community benefit staff who want a refresher course to update them on current practices and inspire future activities.
NEW 22! FOR 20
SPECIAL OFFER FOR COMMUNITY BENEFIT REPORTERS
We’ve added single day registration with special pricing for community benefit reporters who want to focus on what counts, accounting and how to tell the community benefit story. Whether you are new to reporting or need a refresher, check out this option!
WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! LEARN MORE AT CHAUSA.ORG/COMMUNITYBENEFIT101
Henry
Flores
PRESIDENTS AND CEOS Daniel Bjerknes to regional president and chief executive of Avera St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He was president of CHI St. Alexius Health — Williston in North Dakota. Dr. Anthony Torres to president and chief executive of Yavapai Regional Medical Center in Prescott, Arizona, part of CommonSpirit Health. He was Yavapai Regional Medical Center chief medical officer.
ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES Dr. Adreain Henry to president of Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa. The school is part of CommonSpirit Health. Gerardo “Jerry” Flores to chief nursing executive for CHRISTUS Health of Irving, Texas. Scott Richard to vice president of finance for Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
GRANTS AND GIFTS The Glacier Hills Foundation accepted a $1 million gift from the estate of a former resident of the Glacier Hills Senior Living Community in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The resident and his wife had lived in the Life Plan Community at Glacier Hills. Glacier Hills plans to use the funds for projects that would fit well with the couple’s passions for travel and the arts. Glacier Hills is part of Trinity Health Senior Communities. French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, California, has received a gift of $500,000 from Steve and Barbara Hearst to advance a $150 million French Hospital Medical Center expansion project. That project includes the addition of a patient care tower and a heliport. The medical center is part of CommonSpirit Health. Steve Hearst is a great-grandson of the late William Randolph Hearst, an American newspaper magnate and New York congressman.
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD August 1, 2022
Inflation drives up need for food assistance By LISA EISENHAUER
During the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank set up distribution events that drew up to 2,000 people to claim a bag of groceries. Mike Manning, the food bank’s president and chief executive, says demand for food assistance spiked as the nation went into lockdown and jobs vanished. Once government supports kicked in and the economy got back Manning on track, requests for aid ebbed, although not quite to pre-pandemic levels. Early this year, the demand began to rise again. “We’re anticipating that we’re going to see the number of people coming to us for help continue to increase as gas prices stay high, as food prices continue to go up, utility costs continue to rise, etcetera,” says Manning. His organization assists 11 parishes in Southeastern Louisiana and works with dozens of partners, including Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, part of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. People who oversee food banks or meal programs elsewhere in the nation report a similar recent surge in requests for aid. They cite the rise in the cost of living — especially for housing and fuel — as well as the tapering off of pandemic assistance as drivers of the increased need.
‘Need is not abating’ Data that confirms the upswing is hard to come by. However, the Capital Area Food Bank released a report in June on the sustained need. The report, based on surveys done in February and March, says that onethird of the households in the District of Columbia and in the areas of Maryland and Virginia the food bank covers self-identified as being food insecure. “Last year, the Capital Area Food Bank distributed more than 64 million meals — a higher number than any single calendar year in its history, and more than double the levels of 2019,” the report says. “Today, in the face of rising inflation and ongoing shifts in the global economy that continue to affect many people, that need is not abating.” Feeding America, an umbrella group that supports 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs across the nation, estimates that 53 million Americans turned to those food programs for assistance last year, about one-third more than in 2019, before the start of the pandemic. Zuani Villarreal, Feeding America’s
FOOD INSECURITY BY HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS IN 2020
are among the nation’s highest, many working families are struggling. As part of its food-assistance efforts, Providence is working with a food bank to establish a distribution point at a Providence hospital campus to provide staples and fresh foods to both caregivers and the community.
The prevalence of food insecurity varied considerably among household types. Rates of food insecurity were higher than the national average (10.5%) for the following groups:
Agencies feel pinch Food banks are experiencing the pinch 14.8% All households with children of rising costs and the scarcity of some 15.3% Households with children under age 6 items. Most of FOOD for Lane County’s supplies come from a mix of public and 27.7% Households with children headed by a single woman private donations. It gets support from Chi16.3% Households with children headed by a single man cago-based Feeding America. 21.7% Households with Black, non-Hispanic reference persons* Mulhern says pre-pandemic, less than 17.2% Households with Hispanic reference persons 1% of his organization’s budget went for 28.6% Households with incomes below 185% of the poverty threshold** food purchases. More recently, because of inflation and supply chain issues, close to 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 10% of its budget is being used to shore up * A household reference person is an adult household member in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented supplies. ** The federal poverty line was $26,246 for a family of four in 2020 In Baton Rouge, Manning says his food Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture bank wasn’t able to give away a hen to every family in need for the winter holidays last director of communications, says a survey “What we’re seeing in recent months is year as hoped. Its order for thousands of done this spring found that 80% of the agen- with the rising cost of food, which is now birds was canceled when the supplier ran cies in its network saw increased demand accompanied by the rising cost of gas, that short. This year, the food bank put its order compared to the month before. “So the naturally people’s income and resources in early and plans to get the hens in multiple trend is going up, not down,” she says. aren’t lasting as long,” he says. “People are shipments and store them. Villarreal points out that food insecu- running out of food and running out of Jane Stenson, vice presirity exists in every community to varying money earlier in the month.” dent of food and nutrition degrees and its impact is disparate. For He notes that unlike other expenses, and poverty reduction stratexample, she says, two-thirds of house- such as rent and car payments, food costs egies for Catholic Chariholds that report lacking access to adequate are flexible for most families. “They exercise ties USA, says it can be diffood have children; compared to white that flexibility out of necessity and the end ficult just keeping staples Americans, Blacks are 3.2 times more likely, result is kind of substandard diets for many on shelves at food banks. Stenson Native Americans 3 times more likely and people, not because they’re not aware She recently visited one of Latinos 2.5 times more likely to be food but because of economic reality,” he says. the 167 agencies under her organization’s insecure. “They’re making the best choices they can umbrella and learned that its New York City given their economic situation.” facility was challenged in having enough Recovery undercut rice, beans and oatmeal on hand to meet Tom Mulhern is executive director of Helping their own demand. FOOD for Lane County, which is based in Josh Brinkley is director of community Eugene, Oregon, and counts Vancouver, health improvement for St. Louis-based From temporary to permanent Washington, based-PeaceHealth among SSM Health, one of many Catholic health In addition to helping agencies within its its partners. He credits federal pandemic systems that have expanded support network operate their food programs with aid and policies, such as for food assistance programs during the optimal effect, Catholic Charities USA does stimulus funds, increased pandemic. advocacy work to influence national policy Supplemental Nutritional He says food insecurity is a priority on food aid. Stenson says one of its current Assistance Program benfor the health system because it regu- priorities is keeping the pandemic-related efits, rental assistance, larly shows up as a need in community benefits in place. unemployment benefit health needs assessments and because the Among those that have been especially extensions and the eviction link between nutrition and health is well helpful, she says, are the boost in SNAP allomoratorium, with keeping Mulhern established. cations and the expansion almost nationthe public health emergency from creating “There’s an opportunity for us through wide of what had been a pilot program in a wider social crisis. some of these programs and through some just two states. The program allows SNAP “That was a success story that really of our broader efforts to get more upstream recipients to use electronic benefit transfers hasn’t been told, I don’t think, to a great in helping folks address their social deter- to make food purchases online. SNAP users degree,” Mulhern says. minant of health needs,” he explains. can then arrange for curbside pickups or As the pandemic eases, that targeted Brinkley says the volunteers who work at deliveries. assistance is vanishing or is expected to. food distribution sites that SSM Health sup“If people qualify, we really encourage Even if some of it stays in place, Mulhern ports report that requests for the aid are on them and try to support them to get SNAP,” says inflation is chipping away at the effects. the rise. At food giveaways SSM Health has Stenson says. “It’s just a tremendous way set up in partnership with the St. Louis Area to not be so reliant on the food pantries Food Bank, including at two SSM Health because often their assistance can only sites, some of the people picking up food come once a month.” boxes are part of the system’s workforce. Villarreal says Feeding America also is That is in spite of the fact that SSM urging policymakers to retain food program Medical Center in Apple Valley, California, Health is among the many Catholic health expansions that were put in place as tempois a founder and continuing supporter of systems that last year raised its minimum rary responses to the pandemic. “We can’t the collaborative. hourly wage to $15, more than double the take anything away right now,” she says. Last September, Our Lady of the federal minimum of $7.25. “We need to provide everything we can Lake Regional Medical Center began part“We’re doing our best to address the because families are still struggling.” nering with the Greater Baton Rouge Food needs of all members of our communities leisenhauer@chausa.org Bank as part of a program called Geaux and in some cases that does Get Healthy. Patients who indicate during include members of our staff,” an intake screening that they are food Brinkley says. insecure get a 20-pound box of healthy Erica Phillips, community foods individually built by the food bank’s health investment manager for nutrition services team and information Providence St. Joseph Health, to help them source food through one of says her system also is aware of the bank’s member agencies. some of its own workers seekIn December, PeaceHealth Sacred ing out food assistance in the Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in High Desert region of CaliforSpringfield, Oregon, began a Family nia where she is based. Meal Kit project with FOOD for Lane Like SSM Health, ProviCounty. The kits provide families of dence’s lowest wages are well pediatric patients who are experiencing above the federal base. Phillips A staff member sorts canned goods in the warehouse of the food insecurity enough food for a day, points out that in a state like Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank in Louisiana. Across the U.S., resources on where to get more and California where the average food banks like this one, which supply food pantries and soup referrals to a pediatric social worker. gas price was above $6 a gallon kitchens in their communities and sometimes distribute food in early July and housing costs directly, have seen requests for groceries rise as food prices soar.
S
everal Catholic systems across the country started new food assistance programs or joined collaboratives addressing food insecurity during the pandemic and plan to keep the programs in place even as the health emergency wanes. Here are a few of those programs: SSM Health partnered with the University of Illinois Extension Service in spring 2020 to start a Mobile Markets program that once a month distributes produce, dairy products and healthy recipes to two communities in Southern Illinois. In 2021, the markets gave away more than 5,500 food boxes. Providence St. Joseph Health, through its charitable arm St. Joseph Community Fund, in early 2021 provided funding to the High Desert Food Collaborative in Southern California. Among the collaborative’s initiatives are to set up a central food bank for nonprofits to get food at a lower cost. Providence St. Mary
Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank
Catholic health systems step up food support