Surgeon General calls gun violence public health crisis
Catholic health leaders urge conversation, action
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
Catholic health leaders are voicing support for the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on firearm violence released earlier this summer, noting that they also have long believed the issue is a public health crisis.
“I think it’s a thoughtful report, and a very, very important topic of discussion,” said Mike Slubowski, president and CEO of Trinity Health. “One of the questions is: Is anything going to change as a result of it?”
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s advisory, “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America,” was released June 25. It came
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“All Americans deserve to live their lives free from firearm violence, as well as from the fear and devastation that it brings. It will take the collective commitment of our nation to turn the tide on firearm violence.”
“Catholic social teaching is about the common good, and you can’t speak to the common good unless you can talk about physical and psychological safety from gun violence.”
— Mike Slubowski, Trinity Health president and CEO
ATTENDING TO THE NEEDS OF MOMS
Milwaukee’s Ascension St. Joseph offers free child care so patients can get to appointments
By JULIE MINDA
Milwaukee-area mom Ajah Lott knows how important it is to get to her prenatal appointments as she nears the September due date for her twins’ arrival. But as a busy mom of six who also lacks child care, it would have been extremely difficult for her to get to those appointments were it not for the free child care that her doctor’s office provides.
Since 2020, Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital — St. Joseph Campus in Milwaukee has been providing child care in its Women’s Outpatient Center at no cost,
“
Making sure these moms can get to their necessary medical appointments without worrying about child care is a
great
way to remove at least that barrier.”
— Molly Meihak
By LISA EISENHAUER
SAN DIEGO — SSM Health is replicating across its four-state footprint a screening program to identify and address social needs that affect health among maternal care patients.
“We need to continue to invest in these women because it’s the right thing to do and should become the new standard of care,” said Elizabeth Voss, an SSM Health obstetrics nurse navigator based in Madison, Wisconsin, where the program started.
During a session at the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly here, Voss and Stacy Dorris, an SSM Health obstetrics nurse navigator in St. Louis, shared why the system
Mercy’s volunteer time off benefit enables staff to build bonds with one another, community
By JULIE MINDA
Several years ago, the Mercy health system repeatedly heard through co-worker feedback that associates want to benefit their community through volunteerism. But, given their busy work schedules, it can be very difficult to take the time to do so.
The Chesterfield, Missouri-based system is making it easier for employees to serve their community by offering a volunteer time off benefit. Both full- and parttime employees are eligible to take up to eight paid hours off annually, either individually or in groups.
Ayanna Pierce, Mercy vice president of benefits and talent relations, says, “Paid time off is golden — it’s what co-workers value. We wanted to enhance paid time off, especially coming off the pandemic when employees couldn’t take as much time off. But we wanted the new paid time off to be aligned with our mission, vision and values.”
The benefit has been in place since 2022. Employees are finding numerous ways to volunteer in their communities. Pierce says, “We are getting to see service to the community in action.”
Rare offering
Pierce says in the past, individual departments or units within Mercy allowed paid time off to volunteer, but there was no systemwide policy in place. When Mercy learned from co-worker feedback several years ago that staff would value this type of benefit, the system worked with its employee benefits committee and a benefits consultant to come up with a systemwide offering.
‘CARMEL EMBODIES THE CORE VALUES OF HOLY CROSS’ Holy Cross Health honors 97-year-old seamstress for six decades of volunteer work. Page 11
— Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General
Nursing student Molly Meihak plays with Ayden Lott while his mom is at a doctor’s appointment at Ascension St. Joseph in Milwaukee in May.
Voss Dorris
Back-up shelter
Ministry of care
Fr.
CHRISTUS hospital joins with nonprofit to offer remote food locker
Kiosk assists people who are hesitant or schedulechallenged to use a food pantry
CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Health System in eastern Texas has partnered with a Marshall, Texas, food pantry to open a remote food locker. Community members who are experiencing food insecurity can go online and complete a form to place their food order. They then receive a code that they can enter into a keypad on the locker. That code allows access to a particular locker unit containing the foods they ordered.
The kiosk, which has 16 refrigerated compartments, is located outside of a CHRISTUS rehabilitation center in Marshall.
The locker is designed to assist people in need of food who might be embarrassed or otherwise hesitant to go to a traditional food pantry. The locker also is an option for people who — because of restrictive work schedules and other barriers — are unable to visit traditional food pantries during those facilities’ open hours.
CHRISTUS Good Shepherd’s partner in the effort is Mission Marshall, which operates a food pantry and social services hub for people in need. CHRISTUS Good Shepherd and Mission Marshall have partnered
on past community efforts, including a program that gave free bikes and bike helmets to third-grade students who demonstrably improved their reading.
In fiscal year 2022, CHRISTUS awarded a $94,000 grant to Mission Marshall through the CHRISTUS Community Impact Fund for a food program for poor and vulnerable people. Subsequent discussions between CHRISTUS Good Shepherd and Mission Marshall led to the idea for the remote food locker, which the partners unveiled early this month. Mission Marshall plans to offer another food locker at Wiley University in Marshall in the future.
Mission Marshall staff and volunteers pack and load the food that goes into the lockers. Fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and nonperishable food items are available. A key goal of the health system and food pantry is to provide healthy foods through the locker system.
Community members are eligible to order from the kiosk if they already qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, reduced or free lunch program, Supplemental Security Income program or Medicaid. They also can qualify if they meet certain income guidelines or are experiencing a food emergency.
Executive Director Misty Scott said in a press release that Mission Marshall, a nonprofit organization, is excited to offer the increased level of privacy that some people
desire in accessing free food. Jamey Brogan, CHRISTUS Good Shepherd vice president of mission integration, said in the release that “when people eat healthy, it helps keep them healthy and away from the hospital,” thus potentially reducing preventable admissions.
Fr. Uchenna Uzoechi, a chaplain within the Longview, Texas-based CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Health System, speaks at a launch event for the remote food locker.
Family Nourishment Room gives NICU families one less reason to worry
By DALE SINGER
When a newborn needs intensive care, the baby is not the only one who requires special attention.
For a family distraught over their child’s condition, basics like healthy food, occasional distractions and the knowledge that help is near can make a harrowing experience easier to handle.
That kind of relief is what the Family Nourishment Room at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, is all about. The room gives families with babies in the nearby NICU 24-hour access to food options that are far better than lastditch choices from vending machines and more convenient than those at the distant cafeteria.
The room, which opened in February, began with the realization that support was needed beyond the NICU itself.
“There was a family that was from a couple of hours away,” recalled Christine Neugebauer, manager of integrative care at Covenant Children’s. “They did not have a lot of family support or family resources, and they were staying in a nearby hotel with their other kids. There was only so much that we were able to offer for food support and supplements, and I remember saying if only we could start a food pantry.”
The room has a microwave and a full-size refrigerator and a standing freezer stocked with meals full of lean proteins and whole grains and intended to give energy and well-rounded nutrition. Some of the ready meals include salads, lasagna and Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes. Yogurt, cheese sticks, fresh fruit and vegetables and other healthy snacks are available, too. Cabinets are stocked with a variety of foods such as oatmeal, mac and cheese and peanut butter crackers.
‘Powerful connector’
The NICU admits close to 500 patients each year from across West Texas and eastern New Mexico. Patients stay an average of 30 days.
Dina Jeffries is chief executive of the area’s South Plains Food Bank, a partner in the nourishment room. Jeffries knew some NICU families were dealing with the inconvenience of buying or bringing meals.
“I saw families trying to sustain themselves just by eating food out of vending machines and bringing in sacks from convenience stores,” she said. “Their whole world is their critically ill child in the neonatal unit, and even if you give them a free voucher to go to the cafeteria to get food, they don’t want to go three floors down away from their baby.”
Jeffries sees food as a “powerful connector” that draws people together. “That’s really what the family unit needed at that time,” she said. “So what started out as a little closet of food — kind of grab-and-go snacks — turned into just an amazing space that families could just go sit, relax, breathe. It’s a respite.”
Welcome lifeline
Such a helpful escape was a welcome lifeline for Elisabet after her daughter
arrived prematurely in January. Elisabet, who wanted only her first name used, and her husband live an hour’s drive from the hospital and were unable to stay with their newborn as often as they would have liked.
“Towards the beginning, I would try to be here as much as I could, so I would rarely go down to the cafeteria to get food,” she said. “The nourishment room is right by the NICU, so that’s really convenient. Otherwise, I would just have to go get food from all the way downstairs, so I would have to miss being with my daughter.”
As a pioneer in the use of the room, Elisabet watched as more families took advantage of it. The families grew into a close-knit group and agreed the convenience of the food options provided one less problem to worry about.
“They’ve been treating us just the best that we could hope for,” she said of Covenant Children’s. “I think they’re trying to make it as good as they can with it being an incredibly tough situation.”
Maintaining dignity
Efforts to address families’ food needs started truly small, the size of a closet, according to Emilia Garcia, NICU project manager at Covenant Children’s.
“When we say closet,” she said, “we literally mean an office supply closet that we halfway cleared out to make room for the dried goods that we bought with our first grant.”
As the effort grew, Garcia added, one thought was foremost in organizers’ minds. “Our concern was making sure that we continued to support and preserve the dignity of our families,” she said. “That’s why we decided to offer it to all of our families as opposed to singling out people because like, OK, you are lower socioeconomic income, so you qualify for the food pantry.
“Being in the NICU is a very traumatic experience. It’s always about maintaining dignity, keeping it open to everyone and never assuming that we know best or we know what people’s needs and issues are outside of this unit. We don’t want to bring any shame to anyone; it’s difficult to say, ‘We don’t have food in our house.’”
To help make sure families in need are treated fairly, organizers of the nourishment room consulted with the hospital’s Family Advisory Council, Neugebauer said.
“We asked, how would this work?” she said. “They were really adamant about having access where you don’t have to ask somebody first if you can go in or have anybody monitoring what they take.”
And, Jeffries said, having healthy food available fits a growing trend of food as medicine.
“Here in Lubbock, we are just really lucky to be part of a medical community and know the needs of this area,” she said. “How do we get food out into the rural
areas, where not everyone can come to the food bank, or if they’re in the hospital for two weeks, or two months, with their critically ill child, when they leave they haven’t been home, and their cabinets are empty?”
‘Everyone is welcome’
Garcia noted that as part of the Providence St. Joseph Health system, Covenant Children’s wanted to exemplify the values of Mother Emilie Gamelin, founder of the Sisters of Providence. In her charity work, Mother Gamelin served meals to her community and turned no one away. The story of Mother Gamelin is posted in the nourishment room, in English and Spanish, to educate and inspire the NICU families.
“We are serving our community, and part of the ministry is through food,” Garcia said. “Everyone is welcome. There’s no shame. There’s always dignity.”
To transform the space for the nourishment room from what had been a waiting room, some remodeling was needed. A grant from insurance provider Wellpoint and other partnerships made money available. To enhance the room’s welcoming nature, artwork was commissioned from a local artist who had been a NICU baby herself.
And the room is big enough for a children’s area, where siblings can play and the family can share both food and time together.
What’s next? Garcia said the hospital hopes to expand access to the nourishment room to pediatric families and prenatal patients, whose facilities are on the same floor as the NICU. The hospital is also collecting data and interviewing families after they take their newborns home, to get feedback on how the effort is working.
“It’s not just we’re only going to treat you and make sure that you have food when you’re inpatient,” Garcia said. “We want to make sure that those specific families with genuine food insecurity have their needs met once they are discharged home.”
It’s an effort that looks at nourishing families in a variety of ways, the organizers said.
“Nourishment has different meanings because our hospital cares,” Neugebauer said. “We have the mission to care for the body, mind and spirit in our mission statement, and I love that nourishment really encompasses all of that.”
Avera Research Institute receives $5.4 million federal grant to support maternal and infant health
A five-year, $5.4 million federal grant awarded to the Avera Research Institute will help provide more services to pregnant South Dakota mothers and support them after childbirth.
The grant, announced in May, will create Avera Bridging Inequities Regionally Through Healthy Start, or Avera BIRTHS. The grant was awarded through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Healthy Start Initiative: Eliminating Health Disparities in Perinatal Health. The grant
is one of several the research institute has received in recent years to address maternal and child health, including Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes funding of $47 million over seven years.
“We work hard to ensure every dollar is used to improve the health of the people we serve,” Amy Elliott, the chief clinical research officer at Avera Research Institute in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to move forward with the Avera BIRTHS project, which will work
in unison with other grants received by Avera Research Institute.”
The infant mortality rate in South Dakota is higher than the national average, with 6.3 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021 statewide compared to 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births nationwide, according to the South Dakota Department of Health. Overall, the rates of American Indian infant deaths have increased over the past 10 years, with a rate 3.5 times higher than the white infant mortality rate in 2022. In South Dakota, more
than 56% of counties are considered maternity care deserts, compared to more than 36% nationally, according to the state.
The grant will build on Avera’s Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies program that is focused on increased access to obstetrics services and improved delivery outcomes. Avera BIRTHS will provide money to develop, launch and operate an education, social support, and maternity care program from pregnancy up to 18 months postpartum.
Refrigerators in the Family Nourishment Room at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, are stocked with salads, fresh snacks and ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat meals. A cupboard in the room holds other snacks. The room is open to family members of patients in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
A table and colorful décor in the nourishment room give families a welcoming space to gather. All the tables in the room were crafted by a local firefighter who is also an artisan.
3D lab at SSM Health hospital advances care in new ways
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
ST. LOUIS — Just inside the 3D Printing Center of Excellence at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, wall shelves display dozens of colorful plastic models. At first glance, they look like toys.
Each model represents an effort to help or potentially change the life of a patient, many of them children. Pink, red and turquoise models of hearts represent those that need repair. A twisted green spine represents that of an infant with severe scoliosis. A white skull with multicolored pieces around the nose represents a plan for repair after a traumatic injury.
Working in three dimensions makes it easier for almost everyone — surgeons, residents, patients, and their families — to understand what’s needed for treatment.
“These are my kids. I do facial things. All the skulls and stuff are mine,” explained Dr. Kevin Chen, head of pediatric plastic surgery at Cardinal Glennon and the surgical director of the 3D lab, as he motioned toward the shelves. “You can imagine that it’s totally different for a trainee, or even me, to understand the cuts that I have to make to separate the front of the face from the back of the face. You can spin it around and look at it. It’s hugely different to have something tactile as opposed to just spinning it in your three-dimensional computer space.”
Limitless uses
The lab is another evolution of what 3D printers can achieve in the medical field. In recent years, the printers have become a ubiquitous hobby tool available for homes and in libraries. But in hospitals and labs, they’re used to print learning tools for in the classroom, produce equipment like stethoscopes and tourniquets to use in the field, and customize aids for radiation therapy.
During the pandemic, people used the printers to make hard-to-come-by supplies like face shields and face masks. Researchers are exploring how to 3D print drugs and even potentially print human tissues and organs. One day it may be commonplace to print skin tissue and organs on-demand.
At Cardinal Glennon, Chen works with engineers
Vicky Karamouzi and Stanley Dsa to develop and print 3D models for clinicians. The models are usually used for presurgical and preprocedural planning for complex conditions like structural heart defects, spine abnormalities, and congenital facial and skull deformities.
More precision
Cardinal Glennon established the center in 2017. The center printed the first congen-
ital heart model in Missouri in collabora tion with Saint Louis University. The center also created the first in-house printed surgi cal guides in Missouri.
About 60% of its work involves mak ing models; 30% is making surgical cut ting guides that can be placed inside the patient in the operating room, and 10% is patient-specific treatment, such as a nasal conformer for a patient with a cleft nose. Prefabricated conformers are symmetric, and a cleft nose is inherently asymmetric, explained Chen. A custom one made for a patient fits better.
“And so far I think my results have been better with these very, very customized, patient-specific treatments,” he said.
For patients who need certain types of craniofacial surgery, Chen can create a skin overlay to decide how much he wants to push a patient’s facial bones forward to stretch the skin. “So I kind of have an idea of what the skin change is going to be like,” he said. “This part is for how to cut the skull. And the skin overlay was to help me to decide how much to move it.”
Quelled nerves
The patients and their families often see the 3D models, which helps them bet ter understand their treatment and surgery. Sometimes, they get to take the models
home.
Dsa said this can help quell nerves, especially with the parents of younger patients. “Otherwise, parents would look at the CT scans and they wouldn’t understand,” said Dsa. “They look at the 3D models, they have a sense of hope. They have more confidence.”
“It makes it look less scary,” added Karamouzi.
Chen also shows residents the models, especially ones from complex cases. “For a trainee, it’s pretty much impossible to visualize unless they have something like this, to see it,” he said. “As many senses as you can engage while learning is better.”
Making the models can translate into decreased wait times for surgeries. The center’s staff can get something printed in a matter of hours rather than the weeks it would take if they had to contract the work out. That’s extremely helpful in a case that involves something that needs quick treatment, like crushed facial bones from a car crash.
Chen says that without 3D printing, his job would be a lot more difficult: he likens it to having an impression made of his teeth before getting braces as a teenager. Now, orthodontists use a 3D scanner to do the same work.
“It’s getting applied everywhere, and we’re just trying to push the limits of how we can apply it in the medical-surgical space,” he said, adding that 3D printing for the medical-surgical space is relatively new, so not much has been established or written about it. “There’s no limits. We’re just kind of limited by our own creativity.”
vhahn@chausa.org
These models were used for spinal surgeries, with the green and pink model to the right based on the spine of a baby who has severe scoliosis.
Shelves of models at the 3D Printing Center of Excellence at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis show the variety of ways clinicians use the models to treat patients.
3D-printed skulls help surgeons with patients who have craniofacial injuries after vehicle accidents and who are born with craniofacial disorders.
Models like this can give clinicians a tactile three-dimensional portrayal of the complex vascular anatomy of the brain.
Chen
Dsa
Karamouzi
Photos by Valerie Schremp Hahn/@CHA
After implant of 3D-printed ankle joint, Holy Name patient can walk without pain
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
One reason Holy Name podiatric surgeon Dr. Peter Iannuzzi is still practicing in his 70s: He was able to help a woman walk without a limp by repairing her foot and ankle with a custom, 3D-printed, titanium implant.
“Technology is great,” he said. “Things I can do now, I was not able to do before. It seemed more barbaric. Now, it’s more refined and technologically advanced. We have all the tools to do it.
I think it’s great, and I am loving it more than ever.”
Late last year, Iannuzzi implanted the 3D-printed bone during surgery on a woman in her 50s who had hurt her ankle about three years before. It’s the first time he or anyone in the Holy Name system had performed a surgery using a 3D-printed foot and ankle. Holy Name is in Teaneck, New Jersey.
Iannuzzi added that he has not done any more 3D-printed bone surgeries since, mainly since insurance would not cover it due to the cost, nor have any other doctors in the Holy Name system.
The woman’s injury amounted to a sprain, but she had chronic pain that was getting worse. An MRI revealed a vascular necrosis, a decrease in blood supply to the bone.
“So the bone, essentially, was dying,” he said.
Options included micro drilling, through which Iannuzzi could puncture the bone to see if the blood supply returns — something that’s usually unsuccessful, he said. Another option would include removing the dead bone, putting in a bone graft, and infusing the heel bone to the graft to the tibia, he explained. The graft is usually genetically engineered, and he manually models it to fit the bone during the surgery.
But just two weeks prior to meeting with
the woman, he read about the possibility of 3D printing a titanium alloy bone and ankle joint for the woman.
He contacted a company he had used before, Denver-based Paragon 28, and learned it could create one for her. Iannuzzi presented the option to the woman, and she was willing.
The woman had CAT scans on the area to get the measurements and also underwent a gait analysis. It took several weeks to fabricate the bone. During that time, Iannuzzi was in touch with the biomedical engineer to make variations.
“This is so technologically advanced, it’s incredible,” he said, adding the implant is exactly the same as the joint that he had taken out. This allowed him to better plan for what to do during surgery and reduced the risk of complications for the patient.
The big difference in making the implant, Iannuzzi said, is that he was able to give the patient a new ankle joint, which allows her to move her ankle without pain.
“Without this surgery, this patient would have limped for the rest of her life,” he said.
Mercy Medical Center surgeon uses mixed reality technology in shoulder replacement surgery
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
An orthopedic surgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore is taking shoulder replacement surgery “to the next level” by donning a pair of mixed reality goggles that overlay the patient with a holographic image to help guide the operation.
Dr. Gregory Gasbarro, of The Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist and Hand Center at Mercy, is the sixth surgeon in the United States to perform shoulder replacement surgery using the new technology, called the Blueprint Mixed Reality Guidance system.
“It just gives you confidence during the surgery that you’re actually executing the (preoperative) plan that you’ve created, which ultimately should hopefully improve the patient’s outcomes,” he explained during an online press conference about the surgery.
While virtual reality is like an immersive video game, Gasbarro said mixed reality blends that and real life.
He explained that 20 to 30 years ago surgeons used X-rays to figure out an orthopedic issue and how to fix it in the operating room. “So it’s very qualitative, and you’re really just sort of eyeballing things,” he said.
Then, CT scans became more common, and those scans were eventually used to plan surgery virtually. Then, patient-specific instrumentation evolved, and 3D-printed guides were created that matched individual patients and helped surgeons place implants properly.
“But as we’ve evolved now from patientspecific instrumentation to this new realm of mixed reality, that 3D plan in the software program can now be uploaded into a set of goggles and projected via holograms into the real world,” Gasbarro explained.
At the point in surgery where he would have used the guide, an assistant fits Gasbarro with a pair of goggles, a Microsoft HoloLens 2. While he wears the goggles, he uses voice and gesture commands. He registers the patient’s anatomy through the workflow and then places the glenoid, or socket, pin, which assists with implant placement. With the goggles allowing him to see the holographic overlay, he can get the pin in place within 2 millimeters of the planned site and within two degrees of the desired angle. Even if a surgeon uses a guide — the most recently developed technology for such procedures and a tool which takes two to three weeks to prepare — the placement of the implant can be off by four or more degrees, he said.
As of early July, Gasbarro had performed five surgeries using the technology, the first one in early June. It has taken
an average of 11 minutes of surgery time to work with the goggles in those five cases. A typical shoulder surgery takes about 45-75 minutes, he said.
Potential advantages of the mixed reality tool include shortening the learning curve and improving implant placement for surgeons who don’t perform shoulder replacement surgery as often. The plan for the surgery is in place and the goggles act as a guide, he explained. Gasbarro is hopeful the technology also will reduce costs and errors and improve outcomes.
It’s too early to know what long-term results will be, but the science behind the technology has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and has been around for at least five years, he said.
“I’m hoping, with this added layer of accuracy, that I continue to see good results with patients having a stable joint that’s long lasting, with good range of motion over their head and especially behind their back, and, to make them happy and return to all the things that they love,” Gasbarro said.
He said he’s part of a small group of surgeons who are working with Stryker, the company that makes the Blueprint 3D planning and mixed reality software, and giving suggestions for improvements. “I think it’s going to be something that is going to be very commonplace within the shoulder specialist world,” he said.
vhahn@chausa.org Watch
Video shows how a surgeon is able to manipulate a holographic image to help guide shoulder replacement surgery using mixed reality technology. chausa.org/chw
Holy Name podiatric surgeon Dr. Peter Iannuzzi replaces a woman’s ankle joint with a custom 3D-printed titanium implant.
Dr. Gregory Gasbarro of Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore poses with a pair of goggles he uses to perform shoulder replacement surgery with the Blueprint Mixed Reality Guidance system. He is the sixth surgeon in the country to perform the surgery using the new technology, which helps guide him with a holographic overlay.
Jeff Rhode/Holy Name
Jeff Rhode/Holy Name
Iannuzzi
This is the implant Iannuzzi used to repair a woman’s foot and ankle. This is the first time Holy Name used such an implant.
Workers inspire Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady’s employer branding
By LISA EISENHAUER
When Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System decided to brand itself as a go-to employer, it settled on “We are people inspired” and turned for help to those checking pulses, assisting in surgeries and otherwise serving patients in its hospitals and clinics.
“We are a community of diverse and compassionate people whose individual and collective talents are valued as gifts,” said Nicole Hidalgo, vice president of communications. “We want to really convey that message and all that we do across the board.”
Last fall, the system began rolling out its newly crafted employer brand — its vision of how it wants to be seen by potential employees — with what Hidalgo said will be a long-running series of team member spotlights. The series is made up of profiles of employees from across the system, which is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and has 10 hospitals across its home state and Mississippi and more than 18,000 employees. The profiles have written narratives and videos.
Team members who have been featured so far include a certified nursing assistant in surgery whose career with FMOLHS began in a hospital kitchen; a longtime nurse who started with the system as a diabetes educator and is now in a neonatal intensive care unit; and a recent graduate with a master’s degree in social work who is in a case management department.
Each worker talks about the talents they brought to FMOLHS and how the system has helped them flourish. “This is a way to really give someone who may not be familiar with our ministry or our mission a realistic job preview,” Hidalgo explained.
Support and inspiration
One of the team members spotlighted is Natalie Sims, a nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe, Louisiana. Sims was introduced to the hospital while pursuing her associate degree.
“We did a lot of clinical rotations at this facility and the support from team members, even when you’re in nursing school, was very impressive, just as well as the care they provide to their patients,” Sims said in an interview.
Since hiring on with St. Francis as a nurse in a medical-surgical unit two years ago, Sims has completed her bachelor’s degree. She said her managers assisted her advancement by giving her the flexible hours and hands-on experiences she needed.
She has continued to take advantage of the system’s opportunities for professional growth through specialized courses. For example, she has completed a class on trauma care after resuscitation and gotten advanced cardiac life support certification.
In her online profile, Sims said she is motivated by her St. Francis teammates and patients. “People’s strength in times of need has inspired me to be thankful for many things in my life and not take my health for granted,” Sims said in the profile. “The resil-
ience of my teammates as we care for really sick patients inspires me as we support each other and the patients we care for.”
In-house production
The “We are people inspired” brand and team member spotlights sprung from a collaboration between Hidalgo’s communications and marketing team and FMOLHS’ human resources, operations and mission staff. The system did not use outside consultants.
Hidalgo said the collaborators researched how best to show job candidates that the system is a welcoming and supportive place to work and one where they would see people much like themselves.
As it crafted its brand, FMOLHS convened focus groups of prospective job candidates to ask what they looked for in an employer and of current team members to ask what they valued about their workplace.
Among the learnings for FMOLHS, Hidalgo said, was how working for a mission-based employer factored into job pursuits and employee retention. “What we determined from talking with potential job seekers and even our own team members is it wasn’t our mission that drew them to our ministry,” she said. “It’s what keeps them at our ministry.”
Hidalgo said that since FMOLHS sees its Catholic mission as a highlight of its work environment and one that differentiates it from other potential employers, the system had to figure out how to make its mission a selling point.
“We wanted to attract more people into the ministry of Catholic health care and part of our mission is about sharing our unique gifts and talents,” Hidalgo said. “That’s why we kind of landed on our own team members to share this story for us.”
Before posting the spotlights on social media and using them for digital ads, Hidalgo said FMOLHS shared them internally to ensure that the profiles rang true with current team members. “With an employer brand, what we learned in our research, is it really needs to be true to who we are as a ministry and resonate with our current team members,” she said.
The internal response to the spotlights,
she said, has been resoundingly positive.
To measure how well the employer brand is having the desired impacts, Hidalgo said FMOLHS is monitoring staff turnover, applicant numbers and other metrics. She said the strategy is too new for conclusive results, but the early findings have been good.
“We are in a position now where our overall turnover is the best it’s been in quite some time,” she said.
leisenhauer@chausa.org
Natalie Sims, a nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe, Louisiana, is spotlighted as part of the “We are people inspired” employer branding done by Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System.
Hidalgo
True to mission
A screenshot from Mark McWhorter’s video profile, in which he shares how he worked his way from the kitchen to a position as a certified nursing assistant at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi.
Saint Francis hosts nonprofit that helps women after incarceration
By JULIE MINDA
Saint Francis Hospital of Wilmington, Delaware, is helping to support a local nonprofit called the HOPE Commission in its efforts to aid women who have been released from prison as they transition back into the community.
The HOPE Commission’s Women’s Reentry program is the third and most recent tenant of the Healthy Village at Saint Francis Hospital. The Healthy Village is a space on Saint Francis’ campus that the hospital has been repurposing over the past few years that social service organizations can use to meet the needs of poor and vulnerable people.
Lillian Schonewolf, executive director of the Healthy Village, says Saint Francis and its parent Trinity Health “see the Healthy Village model as an opportunity to change how we do health care, especially in areas where we are part of the safety net.”
Eye-opener
Schonewolf says the inclusion of the HOPE Commission’s Women’s Reentry program in the Healthy Village resulted from a call she received from Delaware state Sen. Darius Brown, who has been the executive director of the Wilmington HOPE Commission since 2021. The commission began in 2014. Brown explained to Schonewolf the commission’s work providing social services to men reentering society and asked how the commission could partner with the Healthy Village to extend such
“We give them an outlet and support. And some of this is about just being there to listen to them. And I just want them to know that I see them as a person.”
— Keyanna White
REENTRY PROGRAMS NEEDED FOR WOMEN
Women reentering society ll after being incarcerated face a ll variety of challenges and need ll programming to complete ll that transition successfully. ll
About 200 women are released from incarceration in the U.S. each day.
Most women who are incarcerated are parents to children under age 18, and many had sole custody prior to incarceration and plan to resume their parenting role post-release.
Women in the criminal justice system are more likely than others to suffer from multiple mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Women who commit crimes are more likely than their male counterparts to report both substance use and prior mental illness and to be diagnosed with co-occurring conditions.
Upon release, women can encounter a variety of challenges including those related to employment, addiction, mental illness, housing, transportation, family reunification, child care, parenting and poor physical health.
and Gender-Responsive
“Female
services to women.
Schonewolf says she visited the facility where the commission provides services to men. “It was eye-opening for me,” she
The National Institute of Justice recommends that reentry programs for women:
Include needs assessments and services tailored to women.
Offer integrated treatment for co-occurring disorders.
Use a group-based therapeutic environment for substance use intervention.
Provide case management.
Include medicationassisted treatment for addiction.
Provide peer recovery support.
Offer skills and employment training.
Address housing needs. Seek to help with family reunification.
recalls. She saw that the men were struggling and dealing with extreme pressures of all kinds as they tried to restart their lives outside of prison, and they were getting the
help they needed from the commission. She recognized that women reentering society face similar pressures and need similar resources. Subsequently the Healthy Village and the commission partnered, prepared the space and opened the Women’s Reentry services in November.
Life skills
Keyanna White is the coordinator of the Women’s Reentry services. Since the facility’s opening last year, she has been going to probation meetings of women who are about to be released from prison. She makes them aware of the services she can offer. When women become Women’s Reentry clients, White meets one-on-one with them to understand their goals, their plans for their life after release, their challenges and the most pressing concerns they will face upon release when it comes to the social determinants of health.
White offers a wide variety of services — all of them free. She can connect women with local social service providers, including those who can help the women access transportation, housing, food aid, child care and other resources. She also can provide one-on-one and group life skills coaching, such as about how to pursue and interview for a job. White and Schonewolf say they are looking into how Women’s Reentry may build clients’ interest in jobs at Saint Francis, including as certified nurse assistants. White stays in frequent contact with the women who are her clients, including after they stabilize their lives.
While the Women’s Reentry services are designed for women rejoining society postincarceration, any woman can be a client. Schonewolf says that she sees great potential for Women’s Reentry to make an important difference in its clients’ lives. She says she’s hearing clients say that they like Women’s Reentry because they don’t feel judged when they go there.
White says, “We give them an outlet and support. And some of this is about just being there to listen to them. And I just want them to know that I see them as a person.”
jminda@chausa.org
Healthy Village houses needed social services in hospital’s unneeded space
The Healthy Village is part of a much broader restructuring that has been happening over the last several years at Saint Francis Hospital.
For much of Saint Francis’ 100-year history in Wilmington, Delaware, it had been expanding rapidly to meet growing demand — with little competition. That has changed as more providers have entered the region. Saint Francis’ catchment area includes not just northern Delaware but also parts of northeast Maryland, southern New Jersey and southeast Pennsylvania.
James Woodward is president and CEO of Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, Saint Francis’ parent. Woodward says in connection with the shifts happening in the market, “we have gone through a watershed change in which we’ve had less and less demand for inpatient care and more and more demand for outpatient care.” So, hospital leadership has been restructuring services accordingly. That has left much empty space at the campus.
Woodward says hospital leaders also recognized that there is great, unmet need for social services by patients and other community members. Community health needs assessments and anecdotal evidence from emergency department patients have
borne this out.
So, says Woodward, hospital leaders decided to adopt the Healthy Village model that has been used for about 25 years on a limited basis around the world to house community-based social service providers.
Lillian Schonewolf, executive director of the Healthy Village, notes that as Saint Francis was developing plans for this use of space, she and other leaders toured another Healthy Village and immediately saw the value of the model — people’s socioeconomic needs were being addressed by nonprofits, and that was increasing their stability and decreasing their need for emergency department services at local health care facilities.
Saint Francis worked with a consultancy called Dynamis Advisors to develop, design and help finance the Healthy Village.
Mission alignment
Since it began implementing the Healthy Village concept in March 2023, Saint Francis has been seeking Wilmington-area organizations to be tenants. The organizations must be aligned with Saint Francis’ mission, vision and values; and they must address one or several priorities Saint Francis has identified based on local need. Those priorities are economic stability, safe neighborhoods, education, food security, social support and health care.
Saint Francis has built up the Healthy Village space on its campus using grants, including from Trinity Health. Tenant organizations pay nominal rent that in turn becomes an investment into Saint Francis.
Woodward says there is a compelling mission connection in that “we are seeking out opportunities to elevate community members out of poverty.”
Woodward says that it has taken a long time to get buy-in for the Healthy Village, including among community members, potential donors and local leaders, because the concept is so new to Delaware and unfamiliar to most people there.
Woodward notes that he is unaware of another instance in which an acute care hospital has adopted the model.
Room for growth
Schonewolf says the Healthy Village approach is a way to use underutilized space at the hospital to address the social determinants of health for community members in need. The first two tenants to move into the Healthy Village were the Mer-
akey behavioral health provider and Delaware Hospice. The latest was the Women’s Reentry program.
Schonewolf notes that there is a sense of camaraderie building among the Healthy Village’s three tenants and Saint Francis. The tenants can refer their own clients to the other organizations and to Saint Francis. Being located on the Saint Francis campus, these organizations can handhold their clients as they seek health care services at the hospital.
Woodward notes that there already are plans to partner with a senior services provider to establish a facility at Saint Francis, and there are plans to add more tenants to the Healthy Village, including perhaps service providers for youth.
Trinity Health is very interested in the Healthy Village model, Woodward adds, and is considering using the concept in other markets with hospitals that are seeing decreased use of inpatient space.
Woodward says hospital leadership expects that providing on-site access to social service organizations in this way will help to reduce hospital readmissions and preventable emergency department use. But there also is a compelling mission connection, he says, in that “we are seeking out opportunities to elevate community members out of poverty.”
— JULIE MINDA
Source:
Reentry
Programming, Recommendations for Policy and Practice,” May 2021, National Institute of Justice, Department of Justice.
Schonewolf
White
Woodward
CommonSpirit takes pride in high scores on LGBTQ+ index
By LISA EISENHAUER
SAN DIEGO — The high scores of CommonSpirit Health hospitals on an index that rates LGBTQ+ friendliness reflect the system’s efforts to put out the welcome mat, says Shelly Schlenker, executive vice president and chief advocacy officer.
The Healthcare Equality Index is based on evaluations by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which funds advocacy efforts on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. The foundation describes the index as a “rigorous benchmarking tool that evaluates health care facilities’ policies and practices related to the equity and inclusion of LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and employees.” The 2024 index lists scores for 1,065 hospitals or federally qualified health centers.
Schlenker noted that CommonSpirit includes Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals. Forty-five of the system’s about 150 hospitals are on the index. All CommonSpirit hospitals on the index are scored as either “equality leader” or “high performer,” the highest rankings.
During a session at the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly here and in later comments, Schlenker discussed the monthslong process involved in a Healthcare Equality Index application. Despite the undertaking’s demands, she said CommonSpirit considers the effort essential as a system committed to treating every patient with dignity and respect.
“We serve everyone, just like all of you do, inclusive of background or beliefs, but we need to say it to the LGBTQ+ community and prove it so that they can hear,” she told her audience.
Underpinnings of effort
Being on the forefront when it comes to equality in care for LGBTQ+ patients is a continuation of other historic efforts by the Catholic health ministry, Schlenker said. She mentioned, for example, that the ministry was the first to respond to the nation’s HIV/AIDS crisis.
“If you look at all of the major clinics that were stood up, both on the West Coast and on the East Coast, at the beginning of the epidemic, many were tied to religious orders and Catholic systems because it was about meeting the need,” she said.
She also shared that she feels it is important for CommonSpirit and other Catholic systems to stand with the LGBTQ+ community. She cited various findings from the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, such as that 20% of youth in that community are threatened with or injured by a weapon and that adults who identify as LGBTQ+ are more likely than others to delay or not seek medical care.
Protections, progress
Sheila Stinson, CommonSpirit director of engagement management, also spoke at the Assembly session. Stinson guides hospitals through the application work required to get onto the Healthcare Equality Index.
She discussed the criteria the index cov-
ers. The index’s website explains the criteria this way:
Ensure foundational protection for patients, visitors and staff in patient and staff policies and provide cultural competency training on LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Demonstrate progress toward inclusion on LGBTQ+ patient care and support.
Cultivate an inclusive workforce by providing LGBTQ+ inclusive employee support and benefits.
Demonstrate public commitment to the LGBTQ+ community.
Applications for the index are submitted every other year. Stinson said the process of applying is best started by a hospital the December before an application year. One of the first steps she takes is to meet with the hospital president and to request a facility lead for the process.
“This needs to be someone who is not afraid to speak up, who is not afraid to learn and is not afraid to help us make change as we move forward,” Stinson said.
In the spring of the application year, she meets with the facility lead to discuss the process, including how much work is involved, and to set expectations. Stinson said the time requirements for training and information gathering vary. One big factor is whether a hospital is making its first application, which is more time consuming
because a new framework is being established. Once that framework is in place, the reapplication process is simpler.
Also in the spring, a hospital making its first application must submit the names of five executives — from the C suite, nursing, registration, patient experience or human resources — who will undergo mandatory training on LGBTQ+ patient-centered care.
The training, developed by the Human Rights Campaign, lasts two hours and 45 minutes. It must be completed before the application is submitted in the fall.
Keys to success
Stinson said the application itself involves confirming or establishing LGBTQ+ friendly policies and practices. To get a high ranking, a hospital must show in its application that leaders are trained on those policies and practices.
Among the keys to succeeding in the process and achieving a high score, Stinson said, are for hospitals to be open to learning, have a strong executive sponsor or champion, and designate a system lead to manage the process and hold office hours to walk through the application with everyone involved.
An especially important aspect, Stinson and Schlenker said, is that the people filling out the application for a hospital under-
stand and agree on policies and answer the questions related to those polices in a standard way. Examples of such policies are offering an LGBTQ+ patient advocate and implementing standardized family and bereavement guidelines that recognize same-sex couples and children of same-sex couples.
“It is an important dialogue internally, both with leadership and our facilities, to get everyone to understand that this is what we can do, and this is within the scope of the Ethical and Religious Directives (for Catholic Health Care Services),” Schlenker said. “Every CommonSpirit hospital is dedicated to providing high-quality primary and secondary care to all patients who come in our doors, inclusive of LGBTQ+ patients.”
Final scores on the index get posted in the spring after the applications are submitted.
Commitment to accompaniment
To boost its LGBTQ+ friendly efforts, CommonSpirit has created a systemwide steering committee to ensure standardized training and policies related to best practices for preferred pronouns, genderneutral restrooms, and family visitation. The policies and trainings count toward the continuing education requirements of Healthcare Equality Index applications.
“We know that discrimination and the social determinants of health disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ patients,” Schlenker said. “No one should be afraid to seek the care they need.”
CommonSpirit started its index applications at its hospitals in California. The system has since widened the process to its hospitals in Nevada, Arizona and Washington state. It also has facilities in 20 other states.
“The HEI process underscores our commitment to accompaniment for our LGBTQ+ patients,” Schlenker said. “Every day across our ministry, members of the LGBTQ+ community seek care in our facilities, and everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”
leisenhauer@chausa.org
Trinity Health Grand Rapids helps veterans access care, related services
Through multiple efforts, Trinity Health Grand Rapids is helping to ease veterans’ access to health care and related services.
About a year ago, it began a pilot program to offer office space on campus for a veteran service officer from the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. The hospital now has made that arrangement permanent. This is part of a much broader effort by Trinity Health Michigan to better understand veterans’ needs and to provide health care that is tailored to meet them.
According to a press release, Trinity Health is the first private health system in Michigan to provide its employees and patients who are veterans with on-campus access to a representative who can help them navigate the benefits systems of Veterans Affairs. The veteran service officer can aid veterans as they apply for Veterans Affairs benefits, determine their eligibility for service-related compensation, obtain documentation and seek out health care providers. Trinity Health Grand Rapids
says it provides a “zero-dollar lease of office space” to the Michigan VA so that the officer can be on-site at the hospital.
According to the Trinity Health Grand Rapids release, there are more than 550,000 veterans in Michigan, but fewer than half are linked to VA benefits. Top goals of the VA — Trinity Health Grand Rapids partnership are to connect veterans with benefits they might otherwise miss out on and to remove barriers to care access.
Trinity Health also has developed a pro-
gram called Trinity Health MilVet. Trinity Health facilities in nine states participate. Through that programming, Trinity Health has mandated that employees complete a 15-minute learning module to understand some of the particularities of providing health care to veterans. Colleagues also have access to additional cultural competency training on working with veterans. Information on Trinity Health’s MilVet services is available at trinity-health.org/ military-and-veterans-health-program/.
Left, Shelly Schlenker, executive vice president and chief advocacy officer at CommonSpirit Health, discusses the system’s effort to create a welcoming environment for the LGBTQ+ community during a session of the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly. Right, Sheila Stinson, CommonSpirit director of engagement management, talks about the criteria involved in the Healthcare Equality Index.
Photos by Jerry Naunheim Jr./@CHA
The Healthcare Equality Index is produced every two years by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health offers consultation to independent hospitals, health systems
By JULIE MINDA
Independent health care facilities are facing challenges, especially financial ones. Many are at risk of takeover or closure.
The leadership of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health of Tacoma, Washington, believes these independent hospitals and clinics serve a vital and essential role in their communities, and so that health system is offering services that can bolster and stabilize those facilities.
The health system, part of CommonSpirit Health, has established a subsidiary called the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Care Network. The network offers consultation, mentoring, peer-to-peer guidance, interim executive and leader placement, access to group purchasing arrangements, access to telehealth and virtual care platforms, and other resources.
"We have benefits that we can scale and extend to others so that they can be stronger," says Tom Kruse, chief strategy officer of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.
Gun violence
From page 1
less than a month before the assassination attempt July 13 that wounded former President Donald Trump and left the nation in shock. The attack at a rally for Trump killed one spectator and wounded two others. Authorities say it was committed by a 20-year-old with a rifle.
Murthy’s advisory explained that since 2020 firearm-related injury has been the leading cause of death for American children and adolescents ages 1-19, even surpassing motor vehicle crashes, cancer, and drug overdose and poisoning.
The problem is growing: The advisory says that in 2022, 48,204 people died from firearm-related injuries, over 8,000 more deaths than in 2019 and over 16,000 more than in 2010. Those deaths include suicides, homicides and unintentional deaths.
It’s a problem particularly prevalent in the United States: In 2015, the overall firearm-related death rate was 11.4 times higher in the U.S. compared to 28 other high-income nations.
“Firearm violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief for far too many Americans,” said Murthy in a statement. “We don’t have to continue down this path, and we don’t have to subject our children to the ongoing horror of firearm violence in America. All Americans deserve to live their lives free from firearm violence, as well as from the fear and devastation that it brings. It will take the collective commitment of our nation to turn the tide on firearm violence.”
The advisory argues that a public health approach must be applied to change the conditions and circumstances that lead to a higher risk of firearm violence and its mental health and emotional impacts. Past public health approaches have contributed to a more than 70% decline in cigarette smoking in adults and improved motor vehicle safety over decades, according to the advisory.
“Taking such an approach to firearm violence prevention has the potential to curb the alarming trends of firearm-related injury and death in America and the resulting health impacts,” the report says.
The advisory is the first publication from the Office of the Surgeon General dedicated to the issue.
Catholic health care support
In policy briefs, CHA has called for supporting safer communities by requiring background checks for the sale or trans-
System benefits
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health was formed in 2021 when CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason health systems combined. Ketul Patel, CEO of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and president of CommonSpirit Health's northwest region, says that since the merger, the 10-hospital system has gained a reputation for quality and innovation, and that reputation spurred many independent facilities to turn to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health for guidance and support.
system is providing the services at cost and not looking to make a profit. The clients can choose from among multiple services, which are provided by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health staff.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health already had forged various types of consultancies and similar relationships with independent facilities in its region when leadership decided to standardize the services and make them available on a much broader scale. Currently, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health offers the services to about a dozen health care providers.
Now, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health is offering those services and more under the Care Network umbrella. Kruse says the
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health will not own nor operate the partners and affiliates that will be its clients in the Care Network. But Virginia Mason Franciscan Health will give those clients access to its resources, which will enable those clients to benefit from the expertise on Virginia Mason Franciscan Health's staff, its technology platforms and the economies of scale it has built. The clients also will get access to the knowledge repository of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health's clinical network and to the research capabilities of the system and network.
Patel foresees this having a lasting impact on the communities the network will serve. Facilities in Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Montana can be clients of the Care Network.
Protective partner
According to a press release from Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, indepen-
“The idea that we believe health is a human right and everybody has the right to reach their fullest potential is inherent in what we do every day.”
— Dr. Arpan Waghray, CEO of Providence's Well Being Trust
“As Americans, we need to balance individual rights with our responsibility to promote the common good, which includes the safety and security of our communities.” — Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, president and CEO of CHA
dent hospitals fill a critical gap for their communities, yet they are more vulnerable to the challenges of today's health care landscape than other providers. This is especially true of rural, independent facilities. The release cites the American Hospital Association, which said 71% of hospital closures from 2017 to 2023 were rural.
Kruse says it is important to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health to help rural facilities remain independent because when they are vulnerable to closure, their leadership often feels compelled to accept acquisition bids by much-larger providers. Some systems that take over small facilities reduce health care services and access at those facilities, and that can be bad for the community.
Kruse notes that many rural hospitals are subsidized by their community but are too financially strained to afford the technology and other resources needed to strengthen and build up their capabilities.
Getting access to such resources through the Care Network can help reduce these facilities' vulnerability to market pressures, says Kruse. "Our strategy is to help providers bridge that gap," he says.
Mental health impacts
“Here in Baltimore, we are keenly aware of the devastating impact that gun violence has had in many of our neighborhoods for decades.”
— Ryan O’Doherty, senior vice president, external affairs, Mercy Medical Center
fer of all firearms, including gun show and online sales; banning the purchase and sale of assault-style weapons; temporarily prohibiting an individual from purchasing or possessing firearms when deemed by a judge to a pose a danger to self or others; and banning the purchase and sale of highcapacity ammunition magazines.
“As Americans, we need to balance individual rights with our responsibility to promote the common good, which includes the safety and security of our communities,” said Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, president and CEO of CHA. “We must also hold our elected officials accountable, and demand action on sensible gun policies. The issue of stopping gun violence is something all people of goodwill should agree upon.”
Slubowski pointed out that regardless of their views on gun rights issues, everyone can rally around some of the concepts addressed in the advisory, such as the concerns about the impact of gun violence on mental health.
Among the steps Trinity Health has implemented to detect and deter potential gun violence is using a tool called the Broset Violence Checklist, which can help clinicians determine a patient’s potential for imminent violent behavior. The system also supports the “Doesn’t Kill to Ask” campaign in which clinicians ask families at pediatric visits whether weapons are in the house. Slubowski wants that question to be a part of screenings for all patients.
In response to gun violence, he noted, the system has enhanced security at facilities, discussed the issue with politicians in Washington and partnered with Hartford Communities That Care in New England to help gunshot victims and their families.
Slubowski pointed out that while Trinity Health can only deal with what it can control, his view is that as a Catholic system it has a responsibility to address the wider problem of gun violence.
“Catholic social teaching is about the common good, and you can’t speak to the common good unless you can talk about physical and psychological safety from gun violence,” he said. “I do think Catholic providers have a unique role in speaking out on these issues and advocating on these issues as a public health crisis. The common good does speak to the responsibility we have for public health.”
In Baltimore, several Mercy Medical Center programs address domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, which are often linked to gun violence and coercion. The hospital’s Blue Dot Human Trafficking Initiative was recognized in 2023 by the White House with a presidential award for helping human trafficking victims and survivors. Its forensic nursing program provides services for sexual assault and trafficking victims and works with criminal justice agencies and other Baltimore agencies addressing violence.
“Mercy strongly endorses the Surgeon General’s declaration of gun violence as a major public health crisis in the United States. For too long, gun violence in American cities has been underrecognized and unaddressed by failing to enact common sense policy solutions,” Ryan O’Doherty, senior vice president, external affairs, Mercy Medical Center, said in a statement. “Here in Baltimore, we are keenly aware of the devastating impact that gun violence has had in many of our neighborhoods for decades.”
The Surgeon General’s advisory notes that mental health alone isn’t a good predictor of whether someone will resort to violence, but the advisory does point to repeated studies that say gun violence has mental health impacts, even among those not physically injured.
One study looked at emergency department admissions in parts of Philadelphia between 2014 and 2018 and found that children and adolescents who lived within two or three blocks of a shooting were 50% more likely to use an emergency room for mental health reasons during the 30 days after the shooting than other children and adolescents. Another study showed family members of survivors of firearm violence had a 68% increase in psychiatric disorders compared to a control group.
As for suicide, the advisory says the rate of firearm-related suicide increased by more than 20% from 2012 to 2022, with a “staggering” increase among younger populations during the same decade. The rate increased 43% among 25- to 34-year-olds, 45% for 15- to 24-year-olds and 68% for children aged 10-14.
Dr. Arpan Waghray is the CEO of Providence’s Well Being Trust, which works to improve the mental health and wellbeing of communities within the system footprint and advance the work nationally. He recently joined Murthy at a panel for middle and high school students from the Renton, Washington, School District, located just south of Seattle, about normalizing conversations about mental health and self-care.
Waghray said the Surgeon General’s advisory is a great resource to start a conversation about gun violence and answer its call to bring in more research.
“(Business theorist) W. Edwards Deming said it beautifully. He said, ‘In God we trust, all others must bring data.’ And what I think the advisory does is it forces us to look at some objective data that’s available,” Waghray said.
He said Catholic health leaders have a unique role in the conversation about gun violence.
“The idea that we believe health is a human right and everybody has the right to reach their fullest potential is inherent in what we do every day,” he said. “We have a moral responsibility to make sure that we are doing more, and I think what we need to be doing is make sure that we’re bringing the best science forward to really help people and drive change.”
vhahn@chausa.org
Kruse
Patel
Volunteer time off
From page 1
Research by Mercy and the benefits experts revealed that while some large retail and technology companies in the U.S. offer volunteer time off, it is uncommon in most business sectors. The Society for Human Resource Management’s 2023 Employee Benefits Survey found that just 28% of employers allow paid time off for volunteering.
It’s particularly unusual for health care systems to offer it, Pierce says. She says health care systems may be hesitant to put this benefit in place because they are 24/7 operations, and it is difficult to plan for and accommodate employees’ time off requests. “We are blazing the trail,” Pierce says.
The policy that Mercy began offering allows all employees to take up to eight hours a year off, with their manager’s approval. Co-workers can take the time off during work hours to serve at local nonprofits or community events. Mercy encourages co-workers to report back on how they used the hours, so the system can share the stories of how associates are helping their communities.
Since the program began in January 2022, 5,637 Mercy employees have used 35,858 volunteer time off hours. More than 50,000 staff work at Mercy’s 50-plus acute care and specialty hospitals and at the system’s network of outpatient care sites. Mercy has a presence in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
From weed clearing to party hosting Pierce says it’s been wonderful to see how much co-workers value this benefit and the many ways that they’ve chosen to help their communities. Some have served meals to people who are homeless, some have cleaned up roadsides, and some have walked dogs at an animal shelter.
One nursing team in Northwest Arkansas chose to volunteer as a group at Cobblestone Farms, a nonprofit that aids hungry people through sustainable farming. The Mercy volunteers helped clean out the farm’s greenhouses in preparation for planting.
In Oklahoma City, a team of emergency department staff has been using their volunteer hours to throw birthday parties for kids who are homeless.
Pierce’s department has volunteered at the
campus in St. Louis. Ronald McDonald houses accommodate families whose loved ones are hospitalized far from home. Pierce’s department also has served at the Guardian Angels settlement agency and at the Urban League, both in St. Louis.
Bethany Pope, a Mercy media relations manager, says she and others in the eastern Missouri region’s marketing, business development and communications department serve the Circle of Concern, a nonprofit based in suburban St. Louis that aids people who are impoverished through a food pantry and wraparound services.
Win-win
Mercy has seen numerous upsides of its volunteer time off policy, especially when it comes to co-workers volunteering as a team.
The Northwest Arkansas team that served at the farm found it refreshing to be outside in the beautiful weather, doing
Northwest Arkansas.
CJ Barnhill, manager of nursing services for the emergency department at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City, was part of the team that celebrated the birthdays of homeless kids. Barnhill says his team sees many people who are homeless come through the emergency department, so the group is “passionate about helping this population.” Barnhill says when people are homeless “often the last thing on their mind is celebrating their birthday. There’s something fulfilling about getting to make this day special again, and it’s great that Mercy has a program that empowers coworkers to get involved.”
Pierce says volunteerism has promoted unity and togetherness, which is important in a ministry as large as Mercy, with some team members now working remotely. She notes that sometimes different departments have volunteered together, giving their respective team members an opportunity to get to know other associates and other units on a personal basis.
Pope says that volunteering helps her and her team get to know one another better as well as get to know the people in the organizations they serve better.
Pierce says for reasons like these, the volunteer time off benefit “has been a huge satisfier that goes a long way” when it comes to employee retention.
Smiling faces
Nancy Bauer is director of volunteer services for Circle of Concern, one of the nonprofits that Pope’s team has served using volunteer time off. Circle of Concern is a food pantry that prides itself on offering a wide variety of items and letting clients shop for what they want. Circle of Concern also offers mentorship, mental health counseling, scholarships and other aid.
something meaningful together, says Katelyn Beckmann, manager of nursing services for the cardiac unit at Mercy Hospital
Pope and other Mercy marketing and communications department members have served at the pantry about a half dozen times in the past two years. Bauer notes that Circle of Concern does not allow just anyone to handle the donated items in the pantry, because it takes skill to learn all of Circle of Concerns’ protocols, including to remove expired or damaged items from inventory. The Mercy team has earned the nonprofit’s trust and is now allowed in its “inner sanctum,” says Bauer. “Circle welcomes the Mercy group because they know our standards and expectations and seamlessly join the warehouse team to sort items and get them on the shelves for our clients much quicker.”
“This group really wants to be here,” she says. “When they come, it makes our day fun — they are a special team. We love to see their giant smiles!”
Bauer notes that the Mercy team’s support has done a lot to help Circle of Concern provide much-needed aid. “We can’t do this alone,” says Bauer, and the volunteer help that Mercy provides “is a really big deal.”
jminda@chausa.org
Ronald McDonald house on a Mercy
Melissa Wright, left, and Terra Saunders-Crouch, Mercy Hospital St. Louis respiratory services leaders, volunteer at a food-packing activity benefitting the Gateway Feed My Starving Children nonprofit.
A team member from Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas in Rogers helps clean out a greenhouse as part of volunteer work that serves Cobblestone Farms, a Northwest Arkansas nonprofit that seeks to alleviate hunger through sustainable farming.
Co-workers in the emergency department of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City host a birthday party for local kids experiencing homelessness. They used volunteer time off hours for this activity.
Bauer
97-year-old seamstress honored for six decades of volunteer work at Holy Cross Health
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
It may be no coincidence that Carmel Provencal arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from Michigan on the same day in 1959 as a group of Sisters of Mercy from Pittsburgh.
When Provencal, now 97, first met them that summer, the sisters wore black wool habits.
She told the women she was a seam-
stress and could make them white cotton habits that would feel cooler in the Florida heat. She sewed three habits each for the 10 sisters.
“That was quite a number,” said Provencal, “especially with all those pleats.”
Holy Cross recently honored Provencal for 65 years of volunteering, mostly as a seamstress. The hospital said she had logged 45,360 hours over the years. Holy Cross in Fort Lauderdale is a member of Trinity Health.
Many hats
Provencal said that she has actually sewed for the hospital for about 60 years, since she has slowed down in recent years and her hands don’t give her the ability to do as much work as she used to. But she was thrilled with the recent recognition.
“I am so glad that this has come to the surface, what I have done in the past,” she said. “I really feel rewarded.”
She also worked in other areas as a member of the hospital auxiliary, including the front desk, gift shop and auxiliary office. She was also a Mercy Associate for about 15 years. Mercy Associates partner
with the Sisters of Mercy to share in their spiritual life and service to others.
Over the years, she has stitched countless items for the hospital, including knit caps and blankets for babies, bags that attach to walkers, mats for surgical instru-
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ments in the operating room, and quilts for patients in palliative care and hospice.
“Carmel embodies the core values of Holy Cross,” Mark Doyle, president and CEO of Holy Cross Health, said in a statement.
He presented Provencal with a plaque and flowers at a celebration for her in April, which is National Volunteer Month. “She is an integral part of Holy Cross and a true treasure to us,” Doyle said. “Over the years, she has touched the lives of so many here at Holy Cross and in our community.”
Lifelong skill
Provencal has been interested in sewing since around age 4, and learned from her mother and later in home economics classes in high school. She studied home economics as an undergraduate and earned a master’s degree in the field at Michigan State University. She taught at the college and high school level.
She and her husband moved from St. Clair Shores, Michigan, to the Fort Lauderdale area, where she first met the sisters. She started volunteering because she wasn’t certified yet in Florida to teach.
After she sewed the habits, she would frequently take home a load of sewing, usually gowns or items for the nursery. She also sewed with members of the hospital auxiliary in a sewing room on campus, and she’d frequently make trips to the hospital’s “rag room” for useful materials.
“Oh, we made so many things,” she said. The group was resourceful, she said, “but it was also fun. And I’d bring some stuff up to the sewing room, and say to the ladies, ‘And what can we make out of this?’” They would make pads for surgical instruments out of old hospital gowns, for example.
Since she was a teacher, she helped many other volunteers with their sewing skills. She eventually taught high school in Florida and continued sewing for the hospital when she retired.
Ready for more
Provencal, now widowed, lives in a retirement community in nearby Pompano Beach. She uses one of the two bedrooms in her apartment as a sewing room. She has two sergers, a sewing machine, and a closet full of fabric. She uses a walker to get around and continues to sew despite needing occupational therapy for her hands.
She sews for family, including grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren, and would like to sew more for the hospital and for Catholic Charities. With the maternity unit of the hospital closed, she’s looking for another outlet for baby items.
“I’ve got to keep trying,” she said, laughing. “I’ve got to empty that closet.” vhahn@chausa.org
Provencal, second from front, sews with other volunteers at Holy Cross Hospital. She first sewed white cotton habits to help Sisters of Mercy nuns beat the Florida heat.
Carmel Provencal stands in front of Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1960, when she had been volunteering there for a year.
Through donation programs, placentas continue to support life
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
A placenta nourishes life: it provides oxygen and nutrients to a baby in the womb, removes waste from the womb, and produces hormones that regulate fetal development.
After birth, just one placenta can continue to help in dozens of ways: it can help heal wounds, treat diabetic ulcers, address eye injuries, aid in dental procedures, and advance other medical treatments. The placenta helps with difficult-to-heal wounds because it is full of cells and tissues that stimulate the body to heal.
Sometimes, a patient asks to take the placenta home for religious or cultural reasons or makes their own arrangements to donate it for medical uses. But typically the tissue is disposed of as medical waste.
Hospitals within three CHA member systems have recently implemented or expanded placenta donation programs in an effort to help others.
St. Mary’s Regional Hospital
Rainy Tieman is a labor and delivery clinical nurse manager at St. Mary’s Regional Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, part of Intermountain Health. She got the idea for a placenta donation program after seeing an information table at a national conference for the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.
“When I stopped at the booth I thought, what is the downfall of this?” Tieman said. “In my opinion, there isn’t a downfall. It’s something we would have destroyed anyway. If we’re thinking about recycling items from our own homes, why don’t we think about recycling an organ, something that could help other people?”
She brought the idea back to her director at the time. Then the pandemic hit, and the idea got put on hold.
Meanwhile, she learned that because St. Mary’s is a Catholic hospital, it couldn’t partner with the organization that had the table at the conference because the organization uses fetal cells for testing. Tieman learned about Denver-based AlloSource and the hospital decided to partner with that nonprofit tissue donation organization. AlloSource is one of the largest human tissue providers that creates allografts, or tissue grafts, from living and deceased donors. Patients can receive bone, cartilage, ligament and other allografts to aid healing.
“If we’re thinking about recycling items from our own homes, why don’t we think about recycling an organ, something that could help other people?”
— Rainy Tieman
New patients get information about AlloSource and the placenta donation program when they visit their obstetrician/ gynecologist’s office. A childbirth educator who gives tours of St. Mary’s also discusses the program, and when patients come in to deliver their babies, labor and delivery nurses ask if they’ve decided on donation. Starting the program wasn’t as simple as leaving a bunch of informational brochures and fliers at doctors’ offices. AlloSource did initial education around a six-month rollout. “They said, here’s what the program would look like,” Tieman said. “They sent people from their organization on site to do hands-on training.”
Now, the hospital employees keep up
with new developments and train new hires.
All the hospital has had to provide is space for a small refrigerator, which AlloSource supplied, and an extra tube of blood from each patient that gets sent with the placenta, Tieman said.
Since the program went live in January 2022, patients at the hospital have donated more than 200 placentas. St. Mary’s has about 1,300 deliveries a year, so there is room for improvement, Tieman said. Intermountain Health Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver also provides the opportunity for new mothers to donate their placentas.
Patients cannot donate if they are delivering babies earlier than 36 weeks or if they test positive for COVID or had been exposed to the virus in the previous months.
“We get great feedback,” Tieman said. “When they learn about it, they’re like, I didn’t actually know that this was an option. It’s so cool that we’re able to donate an organ that is going to be sent down to medical waste anyway.”
Trinity Health Ann Arbor
Patients at Trinity Health Ann Arbor have been donating placentas since 2018, but not many patients took the opportunity. It was initially for mothers who underwent a cesarean section and had made arrangements before arriving for delivery.
A couple of years ago, Ashley Kingsbury, the hospital’s labor and delivery clinical practice leader, looked at how to expand the program. Patients now are given information about donation during the third trimester and upon arrival at the hospital when they are ready to deliver. Patients who deliver vaginally are included.
In 2023, the hospital added a representative from the transplant organization Gift of Life Michigan to the labor and delivery unit. If patients express interest in donating their placenta, they can talk to the representative.
Trinity Health Livonia and Trinity Health Oakland Hospitals, also in Michigan, participate in the donation program, too, but they do not have an on-site representative from Gift of Life.
“We have drastically grown our program,” Kingsbury said. “We are continuing
Placenta donations
Afterbirth tissue has unique healing properties.
Surgical uses Wound
Patient recovery Encourages
to grow and continuing to figure out the program and how to develop it.”
She said that in 2019, Trinity Health Ann Arbor had four donations, and in 2023, the hospital had 205. So far in 2024, it has had 278 placenta donations.
To see that one placenta can help up to 50 people has been “very rewarding” for the staff, Kingsbury said.
“They’ll see our Gift of Life rep come in and say, ‘How many have we done this month?’” she said. “It’s a little bit of a staff satisfier to know that something to normally go in biohazard and get discarded is now helping hundreds of people.”
Mercy Hospital Southeast
When SoutheastHEALTH in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, joined Mercy in early January, it brought with it several programs including placenta donation, in place since 2016. Dr. Margaret Marcrander, clinical
vice president of women’s services and the regional service line chair for the east community, said Mercy had donated placentas years ago but the program had faded away.
“For me, as a leader, I’m always looking for opportunities to kind of help or expand what we do in creative ways,” she said.
The hospital in Cape Girardeau, now Mercy Hospital Southeast, worked on placenta donations with Cardinal Biologicals in Cape Girardeau. According to its website, Cardinal Biologicals “collaborates with hospitals to streamline the donation process, reducing medical waste costs while supplying essential materials for research.”
In June, the collaboration was expanded to Mercy St. Louis, which has about 8,450 deliveries a year. About 30% of placentas go to pathology. If the hospital can get even 70% of the remaining patients to donate, that would be about 4,000 placentas, says Marcrander.
She hopes the donation program will expand across Mercy by next spring. “Throughout our ministry, we do about 26,000 deliveries,” she said. “So it would be upwards of 12,000 placentas, which would be very, very nice for research.”
“It feels good to further research and it’s part of the patient’s desire for their birth experience, which is very important to the nurses and the physicians and the staff,” Marcrander said. “All we want is for our patients to get that experience that they want, and if this is part of it, we hope we can fulfill it for them.”
vhahn@chausa.org
In 2019, Coleton Voss was the first baby in Michigan to have his placenta donated as part of the Gift of Life Michigan program at what is now Trinity Health Ann Arbor.
Gift of Life Michigan provides these onesies, which say “Saving lives since 2024” on the back, to this year’s participants in the placenta donation program.
Kingsbury
Tieman
Marcrander
KEEPING UP
role during a transition period.
PRESIDENTS/CEOS
Michael J. Goar to president and CEO of Cleveland-based Sisters of Charity Health System, from president and CEO of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He succeeds Jan Murphy, who has retired.
Erik Wexler to president and CEO of Providence St. Joseph Health, from chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1. He will succeed Dr. Rod Hochman, who is retiring after 45 years in health care, including 17 with Providence or Providence-affiliated organizations.
Gregory T. Wozniak to president and CEO of Redeemer Health in Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania. He was founder and CEO of consultancy Denali Health and a former president and CEO of St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Wozniak succeeds Michael B. Laign, who is retiring. Laign will continue to serve in an advisory
Organizations within Trinity Health have made these changes:
Daniel Drake to CEO of Trinity Health’s three national continuing care organizations: Trinity Health Senior Communities, Trinity Health At Home and Trinity Health Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. He was president and CEO of Trinity Health PACE.
David McFadyen to president and CEO of Trinity Health, West Region. In this role, he has oversight of five hospitals and medical groups across Idaho, Oregon and California. He succeeds Odette C. Bolano, who has retired. McFadyen most recently was president of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center of Boise, Idaho.
Chad Markham to Hospital Sisters Health System Central Illinois Market chief operating officer. The Central Illinois Market
includes St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital in Effingham, Good Shepherd Hospital in Shelbyville, St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur and St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield. Markham most recently was president and CEO of HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital and HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital.
Joseph DeLeon to president and CEO of Roper St. Francis Healthcare in Charleston, South Carolina, from president of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth in Texas. Roper St. Francis Interim CEO Dr. Megan Baker will become the system’s chief operating officer. Baker will work in a dyad role with Dr. Chris McLain, chief clinical officer.
Facilities within CommonSpirit Health have made these changes: Dennis Bierle to president of CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center — Bergan Mercy in Omaha,
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Nebraska. He was vice president of ambulatory services and primary care of Children’s Hospital in Omaha. He succeeds Interim President Julie Goebel Debra Mohesky to Longmont United Hospital CEO. She was interim CEO of the Longmont, Colorado, hospital.
ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES
Dave Belde to chief mission officer of Avera Health of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Catholic Health of Buffalo, New York, has made these changes: Catherine R. “Kate” Mohr to chief nursing officer. This is the first time the health system has had an executive-level CNO. Dr. Eric Koch to vice president of medical affairs at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, New York, and its Lockport Memorial Hospital Campus in Lockport, New York. He remains vice president of medical affairs at Kenmore Mercy Hospital, a physician adviser for Catholic Health, and co-founder and managing partner of Buffalo-Niagara Hospitalists. Ryan Cross to vice president of government affairs and advocacy for Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This is a new role at the health system.
Ohio facilities within Bon Secours Mercy Health have made these changes: Clay Brunow to chief nursing officer for Mercy Health — Tiffin Hospital and Mercy Health — Willard Hospital. Nicole “Nikki” Hutchison to chief financial officer of Mercy Health’s Lima market. Kristen L. McSorley to vice president of nursing for Bon Secours Harbour View Medical Center in Suffolk, Virginia, which is slated to open in 2025. Gary W. Revas to vice president of operations for SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital — Shawnee in Oklahoma.
GRANTS
CHRISTUS Children’s in San Antonio has received donations to fund its new minimally invasive surgery suites and technology in the suites. Philanthropist Harvey E. Najim provided CHRISTUS Children’s with a $5 million gift to fund the Harvey E. Najim Pediatric Surgical Unit. And the SWBC Foundation donated $2.75 million for the da Vinci Xi surgical system that will be used in the new unit.
Holy Cross Health of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is part of Trinity Health, received a $5 million gift from the Harry T. Mangurian Jr. Foundation to renovate seven operating rooms and related facilities. The updated facility is newly named the Harry T. Mangurian Jr. Foundation Surgical Suites. The Coeta and Donald Barker Foundation has pledged to gift $1.5 million to PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend in Springfield, Oregon, and PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center in Florence, Oregon. The funds will help address a critical nursing shortage in Western Oregon. The PeaceHealth facilities will use the gift to establish The Coeta and Donald Barker Foundation Nurse Residency Endowment. That endowment will support the growth and development of new nurses at PeaceHealth Oregon hospitals. The late Donald Barker was a leader in the Oregon timber industry, according to an obituary.
OBITUARY
A. James “Jim” Tinker, who was president and CEO of Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids Iowa, from 1982 to 2006, died on April 21.
CHI Health Immanuel opens ‘store’ with staff-donated items for patients in need
Patients of CHI Health Immanuel in Omaha, Nebraska, who need basic necessities now can get those items at no cost in the hospital’s new space called The Community Corner.
Staff members donate the items for the store. The stock includes a variety of essentials like shoes and clothing for adults and children, toiletries, diapers and other baby supplies, home cleaning products and food.
The items are for poor and vulnerable patients. Hospital staff now can coordinate with patients and their families to visit The Community Corner and pick out the items they want before the patients’ discharge from CHI Health Immanuel.
Lynnette Zepeda, senior human resources staff member at CHI Health Immanuel, said in a press release about The Community Corner that for years the hospital’s staff has quietly maintained a collection of essentials to give to patients who are in need. “It was important to us to create an official space for people to come and pick things out for themselves, to feel a sense of dignity and belonging,” she said.
Plans call for CHI Health Immanuel to
Child care for mothers
From page 1
so that while patients are at their medical appointments their children have a safe place to stay. Students from a local nursing school staff the Children’s Waiting Area. The area recently got a facelift thanks to a partnership between St. Joseph and the city of Milwaukee.
Lott says the child care “has been a real lifesaver for me, and I’m so grateful this is available here at St. Joe’s.”
“It’s helped me so much,” she says.
Care barrier
Nicole Lorino is a nurse manager for the women’s and infants’ services unit at St. Joseph. She says the Children’s Waiting Area has its origins in Ascension’s Maternal Health Social System Initiative. Her unit launched its iteration of the initiative in 2019. Through the initiative, social workers canvassed patients and the broader community to learn about the top community needs and some of the barriers to care.
Lorino says the initiative was a “labor of love” for her department, because she and her colleagues were eager to understand how they could address socioeconomic barriers patients were facing.
The canvassing revealed that top barriers to care included transportation, food insecurity, housing insecurity and child care. The department established a new
host seasonal collection drives to address specific needs like backpacks
To address the child care concerns, the Women’s Outpatient Center partnered with the nursing school at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to have students babysit patients’ kids in the Children’s Waiting Area during medical appointments. The time the nursing students spend in the Children’s Waiting Area counts toward clinical rotation hours. In recent years, St. Joseph has added partner schools beyond Carroll and expanded the program to allow college students to volunteer without those hours counting toward a requirement.
Patients going to medical appointments anywhere on campus can use the child care service. Any of their children aged 17 and under are eligible.
PopSpots location
21.5% Short gestation/low birth rate 19.1% Congenital malformations
Source: Wisconsin Department of Health Services
system in which social workers join with clinical team members to help patients address the barriers. The social workers also deepened their partnerships in the community, which included establishing better connections with ride-sharing services, food pantries and housing providers.
The Children’s Waiting Area recently benefitted from a new partnership between St. Joseph and Milwaukee’s Office of Early Childhood Initiatives. The hospital and the city renovated the Children’s Waiting Area, with a downstream goal of addressing Milwaukee’s elevated infant mortality rate through better care access for moms.
The waiting area upgrade also was part of an initiative of that city office to create spaces throughout Milwaukee called PopSpots, where children can engage in intellectually stimulating activities and physical activity.
The renovation used a color scheme common to all PopSpots and added childfriendly furniture as well as books, toys, games and learning tools so that kids can engage in fun activities while in the waiting area. Beyond the hospital, the city has created PopSpots in community health centers and at bus shelters.
Healthier moms and babies
Lorino estimates that since the Children’s Waiting Area became available, more than 500 kids have been cared for there, freeing up their parents or guardians for more than 350 appointments.
Lorino says research shows that when mothers attend their prenatal visits, their babies are less likely to require neonatal intensive care. She says metrics her department keeps have shown that providing free child care, as well as offering other interventions to address other care barriers through the Maternal Health Social System Initiative, is contributing to improved health outcomes for St. Joseph’s patients and their babies. This includes decreased need for the NICU. Lorino notes that her department has created a toolkit on how to launch a child care service, in part so that other Ascension facilities could replicate the idea.
It is not just the patients who benefit, says Lorino. So do the nursing students who staff the waiting area. They get to interact with patients and their kids outside the clinical setting and to learn more about their lives. They witness how social determinants can have an impact on care.
Molly Meihak is a student at Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Lutheran College who has been staffing the Children’s Waiting Area on a volunteer basis on Wednesdays, playing with toys and games with the kids. She learned of the opportunity through her adviser at school after she’d expressed interest in learning about the social determinants of health and how they affect maternal health.
Meihak says this volunteerism “is really meaningful to me because I know their mom is able to focus on herself during her appointment, which is important.”
She adds, “Many people in our society face a variety of barriers to get the care they need to stay healthy. Making sure these moms can get to their necessary medical appointments without worrying about child care is a great way to remove at least that barrier.”
Happy kids
Lorino, the nurse manager, says it’s been heartening to see the kids happily playing with the nurses. “The kids say that the nurses are so cool,” she says. “One little girl said she now wants to be a nurse someday.”
Patients must sign up in advance to make use of the waiting area.
Lorino finds it rewarding to see the look of relief on moms’ faces as they drop off their kids and know that they are safe. “It eases their burden,” says Lorino.
Patient Lott says that before the child care area became available, she had tried to take her kids into her medical appointments with her when she couldn’t get child care. “But it’s almost impossible to focus on you and what the doctor is saying while trying to watch your little kids, too.” She adds, “If it wasn’t for this service, I don’t know how I’d make it to my appointments.”
Crystal Ford of Milwaukee gave birth to her sixth child on May 10. She says she always uses the child care service for her children when she has appointments. “My kids are high energy and having someone watch them while I’m in my appointment helps so much,” she says.
She notes that it can be very stressful trying to find child care. At St. Joseph, her kids enjoy spending time with the nurses and playing in the Children’s Waiting Area.
“It’s really nice here,” Ford says. jminda@chausa.org
Ajah Lott holds her twins, Justice and Journee Lott, and plays with son Ayden Lott in the Children’s Waiting Area at Ascension St. Joseph in Milwaukee after a medical appointment.
CHI Health Immanuel in Omaha, Nebraska, has opened a space where patients who are in need can get a variety of donated items at no cost. This includes clothes, toiletries, baby supplies and food.
in the fall and coats in the winter.
CHI Health Immanuel created The Community Corner in space left vacant when the hospital moved its chapel to a
new location in 2022. Stained glass windows from the chapel remain in The Community Corner.
CHI Health Immanuel staff who were instrumental in creating The Community Corner gather at the ribbon cutting. They are, from left, Interim President Anthony Ashby, nursing manager Beth Guerreiro, recreation therapist Tami Treloggen, and Senior Human Resources Business Partner Lynnette Zepeda.
Lorino
CHI Health and Omaha Fire Department partner to give essentials to people who are homeless
CHI Health of Omaha, Nebraska, recently partnered with the Omaha Fire Department to pack bags of essential supplies that they call blessing bags to give to people who are homeless. A firefighter came up with the idea, marketing and community benefit teams at CHI Health helped fund the project, and leaders of a CHI Health hospital assembled the bags.
The intent of the blessing bags project is to offer people who are homeless relief from the heat that has been scorching Omaha this summer. A broader goal is to help to address the root causes of some social concerns and chronic health issues that impact many people who are homeless, by offering them information on accessing services.
The bags were the brainchild of fireman and paramedic Dan Rue. He said in a press release that frontline responders like him “see firsthand the challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness in our community.” He said that during their interactions with homeless community members, responders see that those who lack a safe and stable place to live find it difficult to get necessities.
Social needs screening
From page 1
began the screenings to address health inequities, how the screenings are done and some of the outcomes.
Voss noted that social factors such as income, education and access to medical care long have been recognized as major determinants of health. SSM Health started its social needs screenings in Dane County, Wisconsin, where Madison is located, in 2022 in partnership with the Dane County Health Council. The intent was to improve health outcomes for Black maternal care patients and infants.
Dane County has one of the highest Black infant mortality rates in Wisconsin, Voss noted. That rate was at 12.9 per 1,000 births in 2021-2023. Meanwhile, across Wisconsin, Black infants are three times as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday. Their maternal mortality rate for Black women — defined as death during pregnancy or up to 42 days afterward — is five times that of white mothers.
Start of ConnectRx
Those numbers led to the launch of a program called ConnectRx, which got funding from several public and private sources.
Voss noted that ConnectRx involves all the health care systems in Madison. “They all got together to have a common goal to reduce preterm births and low birth rates and improve infant mortality for Black women in Dane County,” she said. “Black women were a crucial part of our team collaborating with us on how the program was to run and operate.”
Working with Epic, the electronic medical record company, the partners created a screening questionnaire that covers five domains: financial strain, food insecurity, transportation needs, housing instability and stress. The questions are posed to
To address the concern, Rue shared his idea with the fire department and CHI Health, and they worked together to bring the idea to fruition. In July, a group of leaders from CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center — Bergan Mercy in Omaha gathered to assemble 120 blessing bags. The reusable drawstring bags contain sunscreen, bug spray, hydration packets, water, sanitizer and other basics. The bags
patients at their first obstetrics appointment, at their 28-week prenatal visit and at their postpartum visit.
Based on the patients’ answers, Epic generates an individualized social determinants of health “wheel” that reflects what needs the patient is reporting. “The wheel offers a very quick visual for providers to understand what patients might be struggling with,” Voss said. “The domains turn red for high risk, yellow for medium and green for low risk.”
Care providers use the screenings’ findings to alert either nurse navigators or community health workers who can refer the patients to resources and services. Nurse navigators and community health workers use the United Way 211 directory and Unite Us — two social services platforms — to connect patients to services.
Screening expansion
Although ConnectRx was launched specifically to help Black patients get services, SSM Health saw a need for social support among OB patients of every race, Voss said. The system decided to screen all of its Wisconsin OB patients using the same questionnaire.
Voss said 8% of SSM Health’s OB patients in Wisconsin are screening positive for social needs. From the start of this year through April, 135 patients were referred to OB nurse navigators for services. Of those in need of food assistance, 81% got a “confirmed referral,” meaning a communitybased organization made contact with the patient and offered assistance. The help includes enrolling in federal food programs and finding nearby food pantries.
Voss discussed how she helped a young single patient named Kendra who was expecting her second child apply for the federal supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, known as WIC.
At first, Voss was assisting with filling out the necessary applications and making the needed phone calls on behalf of the woman. “But by the end of the pregnancy when we would talk she would be so excited to share all she had accomplished on her own since the last time we had spoken,” Voss said. “She felt empowered to navigate the system and advocate for herself. By the end of her pregnancy Kendra was able to move into a place of her own.”
ZIP code inequities
In St. Louis, SSM Health’s support program for expectant mothers and infants also is offered to all patients regardless of race. Dorris discussed the sharp demographic contrasts across St. Louis County.
also contain fliers with information about Omaha-area cooling shelters, social services and health services.
The CHI Health and fire department group gave the bags to first responders who put them in their ambulances and fire trucks. Now, when they encounter people in need, and if the ambulances transport them, they can offer them a bag. The responders also give fliers to people who
don’t need the blessing bags but need information on how and where to access social services and health care in Omaha.
CHI Health and the fire department have extra unused drawstring bags on hand to create more blessing bags as the need arises, and they will tailor the bags according to recipient feedback. They also may pack bags with cold-weather supplies when winter months pose new weather challenges.
CHI Health and the fire department would like to host donation drives with employees and the community to create more blessing bags.
According to a May Nebraska Public Media report, “from 2014 to 2023, the number of people living outside in Douglas, Sarpy and Pottawattamie counties increased nearly eightfold. It’s one of the highest increases across the country, though the area’s homeless population is still one of the smallest.” Omaha is in Douglas County, which borders Sarpy County, Nebraska, and Pottawattamie County, Iowa.
CHI Health is part of CommonSpirit Health.
maternal health patients have social determinants of health needs, and of those, 80% are Black.
Maternal mortality
Pregnancy-related
Infant mortality
Infant
In one county ZIP code, census data shows the population is 78% white, median household income is $90,000 and life expectancy is 85 years. In a county ZIP code 8 miles away, the population is 95% Black, median household income is $15,000 and life expectancy is 67 years.
“Unsurprisingly, these inequities cross over to our maternal population,” Dorris said.
For example, across Missouri, the pregnancy-associated death rate among Black women is three times the rate for white women.
In the St. Louis region, screenings done by SSM Health care providers find 35% of
SSM Health uses the Unite Us platform to make patient referrals to communitybased organizations in the region, but Dorris said care providers have found gaps in services. “We began creating our own resource directory and formatting it in a way that allows the resources to be easily sent through MyChart or email,” she said. From January through March of this year, care providers in the St. Louis market referred 191 patients to OB nurse navigators for social needs. Of those in need of food assistance, 77% got a confirmed referral.
“I
feel this program really embodies SSM Health’s mission. I truly appreciate working for an organization that believes in the healing power of presence.”
— Elizabeth Voss
Dorris and Voss both noted that a barrier to reaching a 100% rate for confirmed referrals is that some patients don’t have reliable phone or email access.
‘Healing power of presence’
As SSM Health expands the screenings across its footprint — which also includes hospitals and clinics in Oklahoma and Illinois — the system is tracking findings from the first couple years. Among the findings, Dorris said, is that social needs for maternal care patients are high. In St. Louis, for example, 40% of patients reported food insecurity.
Another finding, Dorris said, is that staffing the program is a challenge. SSM Health has assigned nurse navigators to see that the results of screenings lead to referrals and that patients are informed of and assisted with them.
Voss said she believes the screening program not only meets vital needs but also provides vulnerable patients with a comforting human connection.
“Those of us that are in the area have found the work to be both challenging and very rewarding,” she said. “I feel this program really embodies SSM Health’s mission. I truly appreciate working for an organization that believes in the healing power of presence.”
leisenhauer@chausa.org
A crew loads blessing bags into an ambulance. CHI Health provided the bags to first responders in Omaha, Nebraska, to hand out during heat waves.
IN BRIEF
CHRISTUS opens 12-room emergency center in Texarkana, Texas
CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System cut the ribbon on a new facility, the CHRISTUS Emergency Center — Texarkana in Texas, on July 16.
The 12,000-square-foot facility features 24-hour emergency services with 12 treatment rooms, advanced imaging, and on-site laboratory services. It will provide nearly 40 health care jobs and will serve patients with minor illnesses, broken bones and urgent conditions such as heart attacks and strokes.
Construction on the more than $17 million facility started in March 2023.
“Our ministry is built on a tradition of compassionate care founded on the CHRISTUS Health mission of extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, established by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 1916 in Texarkana,” Jason Adams, president of CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System, said in a statement. “This is the next step in our commitment to community and investment into growth and technology for the people in a four-state region — Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.”
Trinity Health to sell outmoded campus in southeast Michigan
Trinity Health Michigan has signed an agreement to sell its hospital campus in Howell, Michigan, to another Catholic health organization. The campus will become outmoded when Trinity Health Michigan opens a replacement hospital in 2026.
Both Trinity Health Michigan and the purchaser, Catholic Healthcare International, are keeping terms of the agreement confidential. Those organizations expect to complete the sale in summer 2026. Plans call for Trinity Health Michigan to transfer the Trinity Health Livingston campus to Catholic Healthcare International but to rent a small space within the hospital, where Trinity Health Michigan will continue to offer some medical services.
Trinity Health is replacing the 42-bed Trinity Health Livingston hospital campus with a hospital about 10 miles away in Brighton, Michigan. Trinity Health already has a medical center at the Brighton campus with 18 short-stay unit beds, eight operating rooms and other facilities. Construction is underway to renovate that medical center and to erect the new hospital, which will have 56 acuity-adaptable beds. Trinity Health is investing $238.2 million in the Brighton campus construction. The sale of the legacy site is to happen after the Brighton hospital opens.
According to Catholic Healthcare International’s website, its plan for the Howell campus is to build a replica of Padre Pio’s Home for the Relief of Suffering in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. St. Pio of Pietrelcina opened that hospital in the 1950s.
Catholic Healthcare International also will open a school for osteopathic medicine and the Terri Schiavo Home for the Brain Injured on the Howell campus. Schiavo suffered cardiac arrest in 1990 at age 26 and went into a persistent vegetative state. Court cases led to the removal of her feeding tube, and she died in 2005. Bobby Schindler, who is Schiavo’s brother, is part of the Catholic Healthcare International leadership team.
Catholic Healthcare International was incorporated in 2004 to replicate St. Pio’s hospital model around the world. The Howell facility will be the first replication.
SSM Health St. Mary’s in St. Louis celebrates 100th anniversary
SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital-St. Louis launched its 100th anniversary celebration June 10 with proclamations from government officials representing the state of Missouri, the city of St. Louis, and the suburb of Richmond Heights followed by the opening of a 50-year-old time capsule and then an employee barbecue.
The capsule, which St. Mary's officials had placed into an exterior wall on the hospital's 50th anniversary, contained nearly 200 items, including a 1974 Washington Post article on President Richard Nixon's resignation; blank carbon copy credit card receipts; a latex exam glove; a papal medallion; a candy striper's cap; an employee handbook; a patient questionnaire; a prayer card; and a message from Sr. Emiline Hitpas, SSM, who was the hospital's executive director at the time the capsule was sealed.
On Nov. 16, 1872, five German sisters arrived in St. Louis seeking religious freedom and the opportunity to minister to
Sidewalk inspiration
Cancer survivor Patrice Hoerster leaves artful messages of hope at Bon Secours St. Francis Cancer Center in Greenville, South Carolina.
and care for the sick. According to information from St. Mary's hospital, the women had just $5 among them. (The sisters later assumed the congregation name the Sisters of St. Mary. Later they became known as the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.)
Fifty years after their arrival, having already established multiple health care sites in the Midwest, the sisters broke ground on St. Mary's in Richmond Heights. The hospital, which opened on June 10, 1924, cost $1.4 million to build.
At the time of its opening, the sisters had established an affiliation agreement with Saint Louis University that made St. Mary's the major teaching hospital for multiple university departments. The agreement had the university providing medical staff and medical care at the hospital, while the sisters oversaw administration and nursing care. The university and hospital remain partners now, though the affiliation has morphed over the years.
Bon Secours completes 55-bed expansion of Virginia hospital
Bon Secours has finished construction on a $108 million, 55-bed renovation and vertical expansion project at Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center in Chesterfield County near Richmond, Virginia.
The project expanded the hospital’s intensive care, neonatal intensive care, mother infant, medical/surgical and observation units and added an outpatient pharmacy, 10 observation beds and an MRI machine, Bon Secours said in a release. The expansion brings the hospital to a total of 185 licensed beds.
Chesterfield County continues to be the fastest growing one in the Richmond metropolitan area. St. Francis, which opened in 2005, serves patients in Chesterfield County and the surrounding counties of Powhatan, Amelia, and Cumberland/ Nottoway.
This project consisted of 110,000 square feet of new construction and renovation of 70,0000 square feet of existing space. The new construction included a two-story expansion over the critical care tower. Richmond-based Bon Secours is part of Bon Secours Mercy Health.
Ascension to divest facilities to Alabama university system
Ascension plans to sell its central Alabama health care facilities to the UAB Health System Authority, an organization that is associated with the University of Alabama System. Ascension and UAB Health System plan to complete the $450 million ownership transfer by fall.
Under the agreement, UAB Health
System would assume ownership of all facilities associated with Ascension St. Vincent’s, including that sub-system’s 409-bed flagship medical center, Ascension St. Vincent’s Birmingham. Also included in the transaction would be four additional hospitals, a health and wellness facility, a freestanding emergency department, and the imaging centers and outpatient care facilities that are part of Ascension Medical Group.
According to information from Ascension, while UAB Health System’s mission is aligned with “the spirit and intention of Ascension to provide holistic care to individuals and communities,” under UAB’s ownership the facilities no longer would be Catholic, nor would they be required to adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services
The transaction’s closure is pending regulatory approvals, the satisfaction of closing conditions and the Catholic Church’s sign-off.
Catholic Health World wins honors from Catholic Media Association
Catholic Health World Associate Editors Julie Minda and Valerie Schremp Hahn both took first-place honors for their coverage in the 2024 Catholic Media Association awards. The awards were among several for writing and design that Catholic Health World won in the annual competition. The awards cover work published in 2023.
Minda took top honors in two categories: best coverage of racial inequities and best reporting on a special age group senior citizens.
Minda’s entry in the racial disparities category included a story about a program to familiarize police and clinicians with residents of challenged Cleveland neighborhoods. Her entry about senior citizens focused on the use of Montessori principles to increase resident engagement at a memory care facility.
Hahn’s first-place award was for best writing on a local or regional event for coverage of a gun violence summit hosted by the St. Louis archdiocese.
The two also won several other honors, as did Editor Lisa Eisenhauer, Lead Communications Designer Norma Klingsick and other Catholic Health World contributors.
Catholic Health World is a website and monthly publication of CHA.
Texarkana, Texas, Mayor Bob Bruggeman, left, congratulates Jason Adams, president of the CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System, at the ribbon cutting and blessing of the new CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System Emergency Center — Texarkana on July 16.
