Catholic Health World - July 1, 2022

ASSEMBLY 2022

PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION

JULY 2022

Together again at last:

CHRISTUS Health devises strategy to ease staff distress during COVID-19 and other crises

Catholic health ministry celebrates at Assembly

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

Continued on 16

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By LISA EISENHAUER

INDIANAPOLIS — As the Catholic health ministry convened here for its first in-person Assembly in three years, reunions of friends and peers sparked joy and a sense of succor. Speakers and attendees took heart in the power of collective goodwill even as they mourned the devastating toll of the ongoing pandemic and lamented other crises buffeting the nation and the world.

“When we were last together in Dallas, I don’t think any of us could have imagined how the world would change over the course of three years,” Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA president and chief executive officer, said in her opening remarks, referencing the last in-person Catholic Health Assembly in June 2019.

Throughout the Assembly, Sr. Mary and

VOLUME 38, NUMBER 11

A 45-member orchestra plays during the closing session of the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly in Indianapolis. Live music was a highlight of the celebration for leaders of the Catholic health ministry who were reunited in person after two years of virtual gatherings because of the pandemic.

Activist urges To counter people’s false beliefs, seek to intentionality better understand them, advises expert in fight to end environmental injustice

George Avila, system vice president for mission integration, discusses at a session of the Catholic Health Assembly the well-being resources and programs CHRISTUS Health has made available to its workers.

By LISA EISENHAUER

Wayne Parry/Associated Press

Medical misinformation and pseudoscience spread like wildfire in today’s hyperconnected world, and truth travels so much more slowly. One reason that falsehoods, including untruths about medical treatments, take root so quickly is that they often spread among people who get validation by belonging to a like-minded group.

In an information echo chamber, misinformation can become entrenched beliefs that are linked to people’s identity, and at that point, it can be difficult to convince individuals that their beliefs are untrue.

In a June 6 keynote at the Catholic Health Assembly in Indianapolis, Dr. Seema Yasmin told the audience that understanding Continued on 16

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By JULIE MINDA

Medical journalist Dr. Seema Yasmin speaks about the roots of medical misinformation during the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly.

Continued on 9

Fictional case draws out real examples of equity issues in decision-making

By LISA EISENHAUER

A child prepares to join a protest against a proposed backup power plant for a sewage treatment facility in Newark, New Jersey, in April.

Researchers say many minority communities are overburdened with sources of pollution.

Continued on 11

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By LISA EISENHAUER

INDIANAPOLIS — Robert D. Bullard says that unless practices and policies change, global warming is on course to take an unequal toll on communities of color in the United States just as environmental degradation historically has.

“How do we build justice into our sustainability, our resilience plans, our climate action plans, our health equity plans?” he asked. “We have to think and plan for doing

INDIANAPOLIS — When engagement surveys and feedback from leaders showed employees were struggling under the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic and concurrent crises, a CHRISTUS Health team crafted a strategy to help employees cope called Resource, Recovery, Respond.

George Avila, system vice president for mission integration, and Dr. Linda Ray, program director of Clinicians Care peer resource network, discussed the effort in a packed session on June 6 at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly here. The CHRISTUS Health initiative had the backing of mission, spiritual care, human resources, strategic marketing, finance and other departments and built upon the system’s employee

Karthik Raja, right, senior vice president for analytics and chief data science officer at Ascension, participates in a table dicussion during a pre-Assembly session on using an equity lens in discernment.

At left is Marcos Pesquera, system vice president of community benefit, health equity, diversity and inclusion at CHRISTUS Health.

INDIANAPOLIS — A fictional take on whether a health system should join a national sustainability initiative elicited many real examples at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly of the complicated challenges Catholic health systems face as they work to address climate change.

The discussion among participants in the session, titled “Discernment Today — The Equity Lens in Decision Making,” revolved around a scripted case study.

In the case study, a sustainability leader wanted to convince a group made up of executives, sponsor board members, an ethicist and a mission leader from a Catholic hospital to join her cause.

Continued on 11

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

God calls us to take care of the planet and creation LAURA KAISER 2022-2023 Chairperson CHA Board of Trustees President and chief executive SSM Health, St. Louis

clear: “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the Earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.” — Job 12:7-10 God calls each of us to watch and listen to his extraordinary creation. By doing so, we can learn a lot to inform the work we do as mission-driven, Catholic health care ministries. It is clear the health of people depends on the health of the community and the health of the planet. If we really listen to the natural environment around us, I believe we will each be compelled to action.

As board chair of CHA, my hope is to increase awareness and dialogue around the importance of preserving our Earth — from cleaning up and protecting local neighborhoods to meeting global challenges such as climate change. It is a critical component of our Catholic calling to care for God’s creation and one another, especially the least among us.

Our senses tell us the planet is struggling

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

T

he interconnectedness of nature and humanity has existed since the dawn of creation. The scriptures make this

Laura Kaiser

— and so does the science. As one example, Ocean Conservancy has estimated that at our current rate, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Seven years ago, Pope Francis authored his encyclical, Laudato Sí, indicating: “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”

We also know that climate change

disproportionately affects underserved communities. Human damage to the environment such as air pollution and rising temperatures, more frequent natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, and rising insect populations — all lead to an increase in human health issues. The effects include greater prevalence and severity of allergies and asthma, stress and mental health issues, and insectborne diseases and death.

Like many in Catholic health care, SSM Health’s focus on environmental sustainability is an integral part of our heritage. Following in the footsteps of our founding congregation, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, we have a long-standing commitment to caring for creation and nurturing healthy communities. Our work includes advocating for clean air and water and neighborhoods in which it is safe to work, play and exercise — as well as limiting our health system’s direct negative environmental impact.

However, we are called to go beyond rudimentary environmental efforts if we are to lift all people, as our faith demands.

If we truly wish to love our neighbor as ourselves, we need to lean in together and work toward a world where living in a poor neighborhood does not diminish one’s lifespan by a decade.

Our efforts in this area must be comprehensive and multifaceted, and I am confident this is something we all can do as

Catholic health care providers. As health systems, we can accelerate the reduction of our carbon footprint, energy consumption and medical waste, while investing in ecofriendly funds and embracing green building practices.

There is a reason God calls us to community. Our impact is much greater when we work together. By inviting employees, providers, vendors, government leaders and others to join in our efforts, we can create immediate and lasting impact for the good of the planet. I would like to see CHA and our member ministries play a leading role.

In the 13th century, Saint Francis of Assisi was known for preaching to animals, brokering a peace between a rampaging wolf and a fearful village, and composing his famed canticle about “Brother Sun,” “Sister Moon” and “Mother Earth.” It is tempting today to dismiss some Franciscan tales as myth or exaggeration, but the state of our planet makes it clear that we should embrace his example of actively listening to and caring for the earth.

We know that if the planet is unhealthy, none of us will be healthy. The problems confronting us seem daunting, but with collaboration and commitment, we can be inspired by what we can accomplish together. Or, as Saint Francis said: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

DR. RHONDA M. MEDOWS 2021-2022 Chairperson CHA Board of Trustees President of population health management Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington

W

hen I was given the honor to serve as your chair of the CHA Board of Trustees over a year ago, I knew it was a gift and I was ready for both the adventure and the challenges we’d

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face together. What I was not aware of was the tremendous courage required of — and fulfilled by — you, my colleagues in Catholic health care.

I witnessed your willingness to embrace the hard issues before us — on behalf of our Catholic identity. I knew we would learn together, but I could not have anticipated the magnitude of the challenges before us.

We will need to be open to new thinking and shifting of our mindsets to benefit the people we care for and to ensure the financial sustainability of our health ministry.

One of those shifts in mindset is the awakening to health care as social justice work. As Dr. Paul Farmer said, “The only way to do the human rights thing is to do the right thing medically.” And that is our responsibility.

Here are other examples of what we have learned together: We have learned to do better for our patients by embracing technology for efficiency and flexibility. We’ve learned to balance new virtual worlds with our compassionate healing touch.

We’ve discovered new ways of serving our communities and, just as the congregations of sisters who founded Catholic health care did, we are responding to the needs of our times by standing beside those who are most vulnerable, listening and opening our eyes to their voices and stories.

We launched We Are Called, as our journey of action together for health equity so that the health disparities of our sisters and brothers in Christ can be eliminated one day. We know that racism is an affront to our Catholic social teachings and therefore we must be brave enough to identify and dismantle it.

And as the work persists, we are required to look forward with agility, brave hearts and enduring courage. The COVID-19 pandemic along with economic uncertainty and social unrest was a catalyst for our growth as leaders. Now we’re seizing the opportunity to be a force for positive change and we are persevering.

We will collectively and as individual health systems find our way onto new paths to ensure our financial sustainability that includes addressing unprecedented labor, workforce and supply chain costs.

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

Catholic health care leaders called to meet changing, challenging reality

Dr. Rhonda M. Medows

We know well and honor our responsibility to serve all and especially the poor and vulnerable and understand our service models and care settings will need to change to meet the evolving needs of our communities.

We understand the role and the time required to improve operational efficiencies and pivot to more value-based care, advanced care and payment models.

We understand and embrace our charge for advocacy on behalf of the needs of the people we serve, the people we employ and for the future generations we will protect and nurture. These are troubling times when hate crimes, gun violence, human rights and religious freedoms are all at the forefront in our lives daily. These are issues we must resolve.

We will continue to embrace modern technologies. Telehealth will endure far past the pandemic and there is a responsive market for increased flexibility and simplification in all health care systems.

We will forge our way to a health system centered around value. This is the way we will sustain and remain relevant to those we serve. We are called to redesign our health care system and build one that is centered around the needs of our patients, especially those who are vulnerable, and to hold ourselves accountable to making health care more affordable while continuing to improve outcomes.

We will ensure that equity is the foundation of all that we do. Using data to understand where disparities exist, we must actively work with our communities to address structural racism, historical disenfranchisement, and/or discrimination of marginalized groups including racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+, and low-income populations. Ensuring that all members of our communities have access to high-quality care tailored to their unique needs is the call of our mission.

We will strengthen our resolve to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual health of our caregivers and the communities we serve. The need has never been greater and the level of distress never higher, particularly among our youth. We will continue to strive for a world where access to behavioral health care is on par with physical health care — a world where no one need die in despair.

We are called, and so required, to be leaders of this movement, to hear the pain of our communities. To listen. Some voices whisper, some cry out, others ring in our ears with both cold and hot anger. We remember that anger is the emotion that moves us to act in the face of injustice.

The healing ministry of Jesus and our Catholic teachings are blueprints for our path forward. We’ll remain on this path together, in solidarity, listening for how God is calling us to bring about his beloved kingdom.

I am eternally grateful for the comradery, engagement and support of Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA’s president and chief executive officer, the CHA staff and my fellow board members.

I look forward to continuing along in this journey with all of you, just in a different capacity. And as I pass the torch of leadership on to the incoming chairperson, Laura Kaiser, I leave you with two quotes that provide me with inspiration: “A population that does not take care of the elderly and of children has no future because it abuses both its memory and its promise.” — Pope Francis “As the body is dead without spirit, so faith without deed is dead.” — James 2:26 Actions must follow promising words!

Blessings to you and your families.

July 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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ASSEMBLY 2022 ACHIEVEMENT CITATION

WISH Center gives moms with substance disorders keys to a healthier pregnancy

Changing the script Her daughter, born four months later, had a rough start in life. She spent 10 days in the neonatal intensive care unit battling neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome and received a blood transfusion.

Ridgel and her baby continue to get postpartum services through the WISH Center.

Though relapses are common among opioid users, Ridgel, now 36, has stayed completely sober, and she and her three children are thriving. Now on a very low dose of Subutex, she hopes to stop using it altogether soon.

She works as a certified nurse assistant at a senior living facility and recently finished her training as a certified medication technician. She now owns her own home and ultimately wants to become a registered nurse.

Recently, Ridgel learned that both of her parents, who died when she was a young girl, succumbed to heroin overdoses. She is one of eight siblings, and says that every one of her brothers and sisters, save one, has battled substance dependence issues. Her two oldest brothers died from drug usage.

“Thanks to the care I’ve received at the WISH Center, I feel like the sky is the limit for me now,” she says. “Everyone there operates from love. I’m just so grateful to have found it.”

Enfolding women and babies For its innovative approach to providing prenatal and postpartum care for pregnant women dependent on opioid drugs as well as methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, cocaine, alcohol, cannabis and tobacco, the WISH Center is the 2022 recipient of CHA’s highest annual honor — the Achievement Citation. The award was presented June 6 at the Catholic Health Assembly in Indianapolis.

“The number of programs like WISH in the U.S. are at most in the double digits,” says Dr. Niraj Chavan. An OB/ GYN maternal-fetal mediChavan cine specialist certified in addiction medicine, Chavan became the WISH Center's medical director in October.

Chavan says of the WISH Center: “We

Anjel Ridgel, a patient at SSM Health’s WISH Center, looks over her shoulder at Mona Rife, left, a perinatal care coordinator. The maternal-fetal medicine clinic specializes in the prenatal and postnatal care of women who are dependent on opioids, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines or other drugs. Part of its mission is to strengthen families.

aim to be a one-stop shop where we can offer not only medical and prenatal care but also holistic care, both here and by partnering with community providers to address biopsychosocial needs that can impact outcomes for mothers and babies.”

Patients at the WISH Center present with a mosaic of problems; Chavan estimates that half are addicted to opioids, methamphetamine or cocaine, while the rest are evenly split with addictions to alcohol or benzodiazepines. They find their way to WISH through different routes — some selfrefer, while others arrive because they have learned of this option from their OB physician, or from family members, primary care physicians, community organizations or drug courts.

Patients often face barriers to care, which may stem from provider bias against women with substance dependence disorder. Most patients have behavioral health diagnoses as well. This compounded by broken family lives, housing insecurity, poverty, low educational attainment and lack of reliable transportation can add to the challenge of accessing care.

“We know that the biggest missed opportunity for care is when patients don’t make it to their first appointments,” Chavan says. “That’s why we try to engage them from their very first phone call, whether they are in their first trimester, a week away from delivery or even postpartum.”

First impressions Jackie Seabaugh, lead nurse at the WISH Center, is usually a patient’s first contact point. “I explain our program, ask about their drug of choice, go over their history of substance use, and make their first appointment,” she says. At the initial visit, a doctor or nurse practitioner checks vitals and takes a lengthy patient history, including drug usage, efforts to go through rehabilitation and comorbidities.

Seabaugh Patients are screened for underlying psychiatric disorders and adverse childhood experiences, which are linked to substance dependency.

Social workers determine whether the patient has a stable relationship with a partner and enough to eat. Housing-insecure patients or women at risk of abuse may be referred to a Catholic Charities residential home for pregnant women.

“We make it very clear that there is no stigma about drug use here; we want to reframe in their minds that addiction is a chronic disease, not a moral failure. Build-

ing a trusting relationship is a powerful tool on the road to recovery and sobriety,” says nurse practitioner Cara Schagemann.

Call to care The WISH Center began as a small, halfSchagemann day subspecialty clinic within the obstetrics/gynecology residency program at SSM Health St. Mary’s in October 2014 after its founder and first medical director, Dr. Jaye Shyken, an OB/GYN who specialized in high-risk pregnancies, noticed an alarming increase in pregnant patients using the opioid fentanyl. (According to a National Institute on Drug Abuse report in 2015, there was a fivefold increase in the number of babies born dependent on opioids from 2000 to 2012, with an estimated 21,700 babies diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal in 2012.)

Within a few months of operation, without any advertising or promotion, the clinic had a backlog of three to four weeks for appointments.

Shortly thereafter, Donna Spears, director of maternal services for SSM Health St. Louis, put together a proposal for a $1.36 million investment in a 3,600-squarefoot, stand-alone site. It opened in 2016, operating 4.5 days per week and serving a broad spectrum of patients throughout Missouri and central/southern Illinois.

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

In 2019, when Anjel Ridgel was five months pregnant with her third child, she began to panic.

Six years earlier, she had been in a car accident that left her with excruciating back pain. Her doctor had prescribed Percocet, a combination of acetaminophen and the opioid oxycodone. When her prescriptions ran out, she found herself buying it on the street. She had become addicted to the drug.

“I knew that crack and heroin were problems in pregnancy, so I worried about how pain pills could affect my baby,” she says.

Ridgel sought a referral at the health clinic she was attending and was directed to the WISH Center at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in the St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights, Missouri. The WISH acronym is short for Women and Infant Substance Help.

“I didn’t know what to expect when I got there, but the staff was very supportive and nonjudgmental,” she says.

After an initial assessment, Ridgel was seen by an OB-GYN with a specialty in maternal-fetal medicine. She received an ultrasound and agreed to begin a supervised withdrawal followed by a medicationassisted treatment program which combines behavioral therapy with, in her case, Subutex (buprenorphine), to reduce drug cravings.

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By RENEE STOVSKY

Perched on his mother Brittany Eich’s lap, Jaxson Laird, 2, is the center of attention during his mom's follow-up visit to the Women and Infant Substance Help Center at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond Heights, Missouri. Mona Rife, left, a perinatal care coordinator at the WISH Center, engages with Jaxson. The center provides prenatal and other care to women with substance use disorder.

Today, care is administered by a 17-person team that includes two physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, a psychiatrist, social workers (two antepartum, one exclusively postpartum), a pharmacist and a sonographer. The annual operating budget is $1.1 million, including salaries.

“Part of our mission is to strengthen families and protect mothers and babies,” says Spears. “Many of these women have lost family and relationship support because of addiction. They don’t feel like productive members of society, and there are many trust and mental health issues involved.

I felt strongly that we couldn’t turn away from this kind of care.”

Medication-assisted treatment If WISH patients have an opioid use disorder, clinicians offer to start them on buprenorphine or refer them to a methadone clinic. For other substance misuse — alcohol, marijuana, cocaine — there is no pharmaceutical therapy, and recovery can be more challenging. Central to treatment plans are detox programs, social support through organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, and group and/or individual therapy to treat mental health issues like depression and help build coping skills to maintain sobriety.

Follow-up appointments are made monthly, biweekly or weekly depending on the stage of pregnancy and treatment choices. Drug screenings are conducted at each visit. Relapses are not uncommon.

“We don’t play a blame game,” says Chavan. “We normalize relapses as part of the journey and use them as an opportunity for regrouping and getting back on track.”

More than 95% of WISH Center patients deliver at SSM Health St. Mary’s, says Chavan, and upwards of 80% are drug-free when they give birth.

Eat, sleep, console Through education offered to labor/ delivery staff, the WISH Center has changed the culture of care for infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal as well. Traditionally, newborns who exhibit signs of drug withdrawal — muscle rigidity, chills, abdominal cramping — have been given morphine to ease their withdrawals. Now standard practice at St. Mary’s is to use “eat, sleep and console” methods including skin-to-skin contact between mothers and babies, swaddling, breastfeeding and rocking. As a result, the average NICU stay for newborns in withdrawal has been reduced from more than 17 days to six or seven, says Spears.

Because the challenges of postpartum life substantially raise the risk of relapses, the WISH Center also has a robust program, funded through a partnership with United Way, to support new mothers and babies for up to three years following delivery. Patients continue to receive buprenorphine prescriptions as needed, and social workers are able to help them access everything from subsidized housing and pediatric appointments to diapers, cribs and car seats to improve outcomes for a healthy, drug-free life.

Though there are no statistics yet to show how many WISH Center patients achieve long-term sobriety, the staff takes pride in knowing they have helped some 2,500 women.

“The greatest thing about this job is that when women reach recovery, they have life change,” says Schagemann. “And we get to be part of that story for them — mending relationships in their lives, teaching them both parenting and self-care skills, coordinating care to equip them for sobriety.

It’s such an honor to help with those life changes.”

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

ASSEMBLY 2022 SISTER CONCILIA MORAN AWARD

“

... when Mary Anne is leading a formation session, you feel as though she is speaking directly to you.

She is a deeply kind person, a deep listener and an amazing storyteller."

— Dougal Hewitt

Mary Anne Sladich-Lantz

A life’s mission: Sladich-Lantz seeks to reveal the light in others

By PATRICIA CORRIGAN

Sladich-Lantz creates a big tent for spirituality in the system, which includes Catholic and secular facilities.

“As we serve and work alongside people of all faith traditions, we needed to create educational experiences that deepen a sense of meaning and purpose in their own development,” says Hewitt. “Now, when Mary Anne is leading a formation session, you feel as though she is speaking directly to you. She is a deeply kind person, a deep listener and an amazing storyteller.

“Mary Anne brings a unique fusion of a deep understanding of the ministry of the church and a compelling way of engaging with people, even on complex topics such as sponsorship.”

Sr. Susanne Hartung, SP, chief mission officer for Providence’s Puget Sound region, agrees that Sladich-Lantz is able to strip away complexity to reveal essential truths.

“Mary Anne tells stories that always reach a point of significance, almost like parables,” she says.

Her stories can be reverent and moving, or warm and humorous.

aligned on what leaders need to develop their inner sense of purpose and channel that purpose to improve the health and quality of life in communities where the health system provides care. Sr. Hartung describes her friend as “a charismatic leader who understands what is needed and goes about developing it.”

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By her own admission, Mary Anne Sladich-Lantz goes all out, whether she is cross-country skiing, hiking, golfing, gardening or ensuring that other executives and managers in the Providence St. Joseph Health system have exactly what they need to advance the health system’s identity, which she calls “crucial to the essence of A life’s mission who Providence is.”

Born and raised in Anaconda, Montana, “I do everything with great intensity, Sladich-Lantz graduated from the Univerwhich is a great curse and a great gift,” sity of Providence (formerly the College of admits Sladich-Lantz, Providence St. Great Falls) with a bachelor of arts in sociJoseph’s senior vice president for mission ology and psychology. Recently, the univerand formation. Her co-workers predict that sity recognized her with an honorary docSladich-Lantz’s legacy will be legions of torate in acknowledgement of a lifetime of “spiritually whole individuals who conduct dedication to mission and formation. good works across the nation.”

As a freshly minted college graduate, Her formation programs have inspired she worked for several years with developand nurtured executives, managers and mentally disabled adults before earning a hourly staff in the health system, but may master’s degree in theology and personal have never been as welcome as during the spirituality from the Graduate Theological darkest days of the pandemic when workers Union, Franciscan School of Theology, in were exhausted and depleted. She created Berkeley, California. She worked with the 30-minute virtual Sustaining Spirit courses Ministry Leadership Center in Roseville, to renew hope and restore emoCalifornia, and prior to coming to tional well-being. her current leadership position in In recognition of her work in the Providence St. Joseph system, the development and implemenSladich-Lantz was vice president tation of highly regarded ministry of mission leadership at Provileadership formation programs dence St. Patrick Hospital in Miscredited with preserving Provisoula, Montana. dence St. Joseph’s Catholic idenToday, when she isn’t on the tity, Sladich-Lantz is the recipient road for Providence St. Joseph, of the 2022 Sister Concilia Moran she works from her home in MisAward. She accepted the award soula. She oversees an associate June 6 at the Catholic Health vice president, two directors and Assembly in Indianapolis. three support staff in the system’s CHA presents the annual mission and formation area. award named for Sr. Mary They all work closely with “misConcilia Moran, RSM, to a “trailsion leaders, presenters, resource blazing thinker” in Catholic Mary Anne Sladich-Lantz, left, with Sr. Maureen Hall, SCL, at an people, dialogue partners and health care, a person who demAssembly gathering for alumni of CHA’s Sponsor Formation Program reflection leaders” throughout onstrates “an understanding of for Catholic Health Care. Sladich-Lantz is on the program’s steering the seven-state ministry, she ministry identity rooted in the committee. Sr. Hall is a sponsor for Leaven Ministries, the public says. church that extends the healing juridic person of SCL Health.

“We began this (formation) ministry.” work targeted to our executive While religious formation always has Sr. Hartung recalls a story Sladich-Lantz leadership, as they must be steeped in our been central to the life of people who take told about a canoe that she and her hus- sense of mission and who we are,” Sladichreligious vows, the formation of laity to lead band, Reggie, wanted to buy. “She told us Lantz explains. “They said we needed to health care ministries began in earnest the whole story, every detail of making spread this throughout the organization, so some 20 or 30 years ago in Catholic health the decision, the purchase — right up to we cascaded to a program for middle mancare systems, around the time Sladich- the point where they took out their canoe, agement, and we also offer ongoing formaLantz joined Providence Health & Services, tipped it and fell in the water. There was a tion experiences.” which later merged with St. Joseph Health. lesson to be learned there, too.”

A coordinated effort now underway Dougal Hewitt, Providence St. Joseph’s Colleagues and close friends for 25 eventually will offer every caregiver in chief mission and sponsorship officer, says years, Sr. Hartung and Sladich-Lantz are the Providence system the opportunity to

engage in a formation conversation or experience. “That’s moving forward in pockets across the system right now,” Sladich-Lantz says, “and that will continue forever and ever, amen. We have an insatiable appetite for formation, for more and more and more — and even that’s never enough.”

What was God thinking?

Sladich-Lantz says formation rests on three legs. The first is self-understanding and awareness, “a deep sense of what God was thinking when he created you,” she says. The second is a sense of spiritual grounding. “Spirituality allows us to flourish inwardly, brings us to a place where we sense deep love and learn to express that so our gifts and talents can make an impact across the nation.”

The third is realizing that community is essential. “The community of Providence leaders is called to ensure faithfulness to the mission no matter what is going on around us, whether that is climate change, war or a pandemic. We need to see who we are, where we are going and how we must act to stay aligned, because that disposition makes us solid, strong and graceful — and inspires others.”

Put me in, coach What drew her to this work? “Years ago, when I worked as a pastoral associate in a Catholic parish, I discovered that hardwired inside of me is a desire to work alongside people on a personal, professional and spiritual journey,” Sladich-Lantz says.

“This natural inclination — maybe a call — to teach was there, to help people make connections between who they are, what’s important in their lives, how to find meaning and purpose and how that translates to the work they do. I gained this, and I’ve honed it.”

Sladich-Lantz cites an unexpected source for inspiration through the years: sports coaches. “I have always loved sports, played sports and coached sports, and I’ve gained a lot of insight into how really good coaches get the best out of their teams,” she says.

Watching women’s basketball teams competing in March Madness games this spring she focused on how coaches interacted with their players, “these beautifully strong and graceful young women,” she says, “and I see their strength and tenacity and power and spirit just come alive!”

July 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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ASSEMBLY 2022 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD with her every week.

He describes Sr. McGuire, who stands tall at 4 feet 9 inches, as a humble “Holy Spirit-filled dynamo” with an incredible way of connecting with people.

“I say, ‘Maureen, you have left me with big shoes to fill,’ and she goes, ‘No, I have little feet,’” Glover said.

Sr. McGuire’s vision has always been driven by her hope and confidence in the call of laity to the work of Catholic health care — and not because there weren’t enough sisters to do the job, Glover said.

“In terms of the life journey of the ministry, I can remember when I was probably one of five lay people as a mission leader with Ascension. Within 10 years, that statistic flipped,” Glover said. “The incredible mentoring and coaching and support for myself and other mission leaders throughout Ascension — all of that was formed and informed by Sr. Maureen in what she saw as a true movement of the Holy Spirit — of bringing the laity forward in the vision of Vatican II.’’

Sr. Maureen McGuire, DC, center, prays with colleagues during an Ascension systemwide convocation. Sr. McGuire, former executive vice president and chief mission integration officer of Ascension, is the 2022 recipient of CHA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sr. Maureen McGuire, DC, shaped, strengthened Catholic health care through formation of laity national reach.

“Sr. Maureen transformed the role of mission integration not only for Ascension, but all of Catholic health care,’’ Impicciche said in a statement. “She brought to life our commitment to expand the role of laity, in both leadership and sponsorship, to ensure a thriving Catholic health ministry well into the future. Under her guidance, Ascension led the way in developing formation experiences and programs to strengthen our ministry and prepare the next generation of leaders. In every way, Sr. Maureen’s service reflects her deep dedication to caring for all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable.”

In recognition of Sr. McGuire’s contributions to Catholic health care, CHA is honoring her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.

When Sr. Maureen McGuire, DC, was executive vice president and chief mission integration officer at Ascension, her colleagues fondly dubbed her “the ultimate gift spotter” because of her propensity for recognizing their talents and firing their spirits.

“She lifts people up by spotting the gifts you bring to the table. People just gravitated to her,’’ said Liz Foshage, Ascension’s chief financial officer. “Her gift is helping all of us to see and recognize our own gifts — and to understand how we can best contribute those to Ascension and to Catholic health care.’’

Sr. McGuire was instrumental in helping Foshage realize that she is not only a finance leader but also a mission leader.

“Just by my working in Catholic health care and becoming a better finance leader ‘We have to know who we are’ — really viewing my work as a vocation and Sr. McGuire developed Ascension’s a sacrament — I am carrying on the heal- mission integration program for its senior ing ministry of Jesus,’’ Foshage said. “That leadership team shortly after joining the brought a whole new dimension to my system’s executive team in 2002. She also work.’’ advocated to have mission leaders serve Sr. McGuire, 76, retired from Ascension in on executive and leadership teams at local, June 2021 having helped guide the St. Louis- regional and national levels in order to keep based system during its creation as Ascen- mission, values and Catholic identity front sion Health in 1999. By giving its lay leaders of mind for decision makers. the tools to cultivate ever deeper spiritual Formation has always been an essential foundations for their work, Sr. McGuire has piece of ensuring the ministry will thrive had an outsized influence in Ascension’s because it grounds the staff and the organigrowth and evolution as one of the nation’s zation in its mission, she said. largest Catholic health care ministries.

“It all starts with identity,’’ Sr. McGuire During transformative decades when lay said. “We have to know who we are, that we people assumed from the founding congregations more leadership roles in sponsorship, governance, mission and ministry, Sr. McGuire counseled the senior executives and rising leaders on how to keep mission at the core of every decision.

Ascension President and Chief Executive Joseph Impicciche said Sr. McGuire’s groundbreaking work in developing mission integration and formation experiences has had Sr. Maureen McGuire, DC, accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award.

are entrusted with Jesus’ healing ministry, that we are a ministry of the church.’’

The senior leaders who participated in Sr. McGuire’s inaugural executive formation program were so enthusiastic, they endorsed the creation of Ascension Leadership Academy. She helped former Ascension Chief Executive Anthony Tersigni design the curriculum, which is intended to shape creative, virtuous servant leaders.

Heart for mission Today, formation is folded into programs and initiatives for staff at all levels throughout Ascension, and the mission integration department supports those efforts, Sr. McGuire said.

At the heart of Ascension’s identity is its commitment to serving the poor and vulnerable, a commitment made by the Daughters of Charity and Sisters of St. Joseph when they worked together to form Ascension Health, Sr. McGuire said.

That commitment, her colleagues say, compelled Sr. McGuire to spearhead Ascension’s systemwide initiative to stop human trafficking. She ensured a victimcentered response that includes teaching care providers to identify and assist trafficking victims and having resources within Ascension and its communities to provide a supportive path to healing and freedom.

Spirit-filled dynamo Timothy Glover, who succeeded Sr. McGuire as chief mission integration officer for Ascension, still enjoys touching base

“

She brought to life our commitment to expand the role of laity, in both leadership and

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By MARY DELACH LEONARD

sponsorship, to ensure a thriving Catholic health ministry well into the future.’’

— Joseph Impicciche

The gift of unique individuals After retiring from Ascension, Sr. McGuire became director of mission integration at Elizabeth Seton High School, a Daughters of Charity school in Bladensburg, Maryland.

“It was really a great opportunity to keep doing what I love doing but learning to do it in a different way,’’ Sr. McGuire said.

And she knows it’s where God wants her to be.

“God led me on a reflective journey of looking at how all the pieces of my life were step by step by step,’’ she said. “Things that were part of my journey became essential to my next role. And it was really beautiful to see how things that you were focused on at one time were essential to things that happened later.’’

Sr. McGuire, who grew up in Keansburg, New Jersey, took her vows as a Daughter of Charity in 1967. She taught for several years before turning her attention to social work, which she felt called to do.

In 1977, Sr. McGuire earned a master’s degree in social work from Temple University in Philadelphia. The experience helped prepare her for future work in mission integration, she said.

“Because they were very innovative, they were changing their approach from only serving individuals to more systemic thinking,’’ Sr. McGuire said. “And they taught me to think about all the things that converge around an issue — whether it’s a family or a societal issue — and how you build the right services in response with a more systemoriented approach.”

Even then, she was envisioning opportunities for lay leaders in the church’s ministry. Her master’s project, which she wrote in 1977, focused on the role of the sister social worker in forming lay leaders for the church's social ministeries.

“I can go back and absolutely say to God, ‘I know that I never would have thought of this if you hadn’t put it in my mind and heart,’’’ Sr. McGuire said.

Before joining the Daughters of Charity National Health System in 1996, Sr. McGuire did social work, and she kept learning and doing. In 1992, she started one of the nation’s first transitional housing programs for homeless women and children affected by HIV/AIDS. In 1986, as director of new members of the Daughters of Charity, Sr. McGuire studied formative spirituality at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. There, she adopted the framework that has guided her through the years: “Every person is a unique being who has never existed before, and never will again, in the history of the universe.”

“Your whole life journey is becoming that person with all of the ups and downs that go into it,’’ Sr. McGuire said.

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

ASSEMBLY 2022 SISTER CAROL KEEHAN AWARD

Garza keeps pandemic response focused on most vulnerable Dr. Alexander Garza saw early on that the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t spreading its misery evenly.

Data about COVID infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the St. Louis region compiled by the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force he leads showed the pandemic was having a particularly devastating impact in ZIP codes where most residents were people of color and incomes were low.

As the head of the task force, Garza urged a public health response that ensured testing, vaccines and other resources were available to people in those ZIP codes.

When supplies of protective gear were short, he organized mask drives, directing the supply to the high-risk communities.

He was an outspoken advocate of mask mandates, safer-at-home orders and other precautionary measures to protect entire populations.

Because of his steadfast leadership during the turmoil of the pandemic and his advocacy for the medically underserved, Garza is the recipient of the 2022 Sister Carol Keehan Award. The award is named for the former CHA president and chief executive officer, a champion of social justice and health care access for all.

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By LISA EISENHAUER

Dr. Alexander Garza, chief community health officer at SSM Health, accepts the 2022 Sister Carol Keehan Award at the Catholic Health Assembly for championing social justice and health care access for all in his role as leader of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.

mask mandates. When Garza complained publicly that the state was giving too much vaccine to rural areas where demand was relatively low and not enough to urban areas, the governor accused Garza of cherry-picking data about vaccine distribution and spreading “fear and panic.”

Records provided to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by the state of Missouri a year after the fact confirmed Garza was correct.

The records showed the state’s two most populous regions — St. Louis and Kansas City — consistently were shorted on what should have been their fair share of the vaccines, the newspaper said.

“We wouldn’t be able to look ourselves in the mirror or go to sleep at night if we weren’t doing these things,” Garza says of his and the task force’s advocacy work. “We knew it was the right thing to do. Once you have that moral clarity, then it becomes easier almost.”

at Walter Reed hospital, I knew his public health acumen, combined with his compassion, would always lead us to the right path,” Napolitano says of Garza.

Napolitano and Garza worked on other health care issues related to homeland security, such as the health needs of refugees from the Haitian earthquake in 2010.

“It was always reassuring to have scientific and medical expertise at your side, and I had that in Dr. Alex Garza,” Napolitano says.

Guided by data The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force was formed in April 2020 with support and participation from SSM Right person, right time Health, Mercy and two other health systems Garza returned to his hometown to in St. Louis city and county as well as local accept a position at the Saint Louis Univergovernments and the business community. sity College for Public Health and Social It has been a reliable source of information Justice in 2013. Five years later, he moved to about the spread of the virus and how to SSM Health as its chief medical officer. avoid infection.

Dr. Clay Dunagan, chief clinical officer Garza says it took support from the top of BJC HealthCare, says Garza came to the leaders of the St. Louis region’s major health pandemic task force with a grasp of the techcare systems and government officials to nical issues and the public health aspects make the pandemic task force effective. of pandemic response. “Certainly, for this He points, for example, to the systems’ The right stuff leadership opportunity, he was the right willingness to pool their COVID patient Garza was chief medical officer and person at the right time,” Dunagan says. data. The task force overlaid the informa- assistant secretary for health affairs with Dunagan, the task force member repretion on positive tests, hospital admissions, the U.S. Department of Homeland Secu- senting the area’s largest health system, says mortality and other COVID-related analyt- rity from 2009 to 2013. A President Barack Garza has the integrity and gravitas needed ics with data broken down by ZIP code on Obama appointee, he served under former to keep the task force from splintering or poverty, race and other social factors.

Secretary Janet Napolitano. Part of his job losing its credible, authoritative voice. And “It was abundantly clear that the metro- was monitoring emerging health threats Dunagan says Garza was “front and cenpolitan areas that had the highest inequities and creating plans to address how a severe ter” in pinpointing populations and comhad the highest number of cases,” Garza pandemic might affect national security. munities at highest risk of poor outcomes says. “Seeing it all layered out on maps like Napolitano and Garza were out front from COVID. “I think he was an important that made it clear where the effort needed in the federal response to HINI swine flu, spokesperson in terms of rallying resources to be.” which the Centers for Disease Control and to help.”

He adds that it should not have been a Prevention estimates infected more than surprise to anyone that COVID took a larger 60 million Americans and caused more Duty to country toll on vulnerable communities, in the than 12,000 deaths from April 12, 2009, to In the thick of pandemic surges in the same way that conditions like diabetes and April 10, 2010.

St. Louis area, Garza held press briefings heart disease do. That harsher toll has noth“Whenever he accompanied me to three times a week to share the latest staing to do with race, he says, but rather the brief the president about our response tistics and offer advice to the public and to challenging social conditions that people of to the H1N1 pandemic, testify in front of policymakers on how to respond. In recent color and the poor disproportionately face.

Congress, or just to visit the war wounded months, with the virus’ grip easing, the Garza tried to get that across in his regular media briefings. “We wanted peoWe wanted people ple to understand that it doesn’t translate that these to understand that communities are at risk for it doesn’t translate the disease because of who they are,” he says. “They’re that these at risk for the disease because of the disparities.” communities are at Garza’s full-throated risk for the disease support for science- and population-based because of who responses to the pandemic has had its detracthey are. They’re at tors, including Missouri risk for the disease Gov. Mike Parson. Parson opposed statewide mask because of the mandates and bristled Dr. Alexander Garza speaks at a St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force news when St. Louis, St. Louis conference. Garza, chief community health officer for SSM Health, has led the disparities.”

County and other municigroup since it convened early in the COVID-19 pandemic to develop a unified — Dr. Alexander Garza palities imposed local response to the public health emergency.

Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Polaris

“

task force has continued to meet but it only holds press briefings when there are major developments.

Garza has balanced his role with the pandemic task force with his leadership responsibilities at SSM Health. In August 2020, he transitioned to chief community health officer, a position he helped create to deepen the system’s focus on social determinants of health, equity and social justice and to support its pivot to population health and value-based delivery.

Last summer, Garza took a leave from SSM Health and the task force for a threemonth military deployment to Kuwait. He is a colonel in the Army Reserve and command surgeon for the 352nd Civil Affairs Command. His military service goes back more than 20 years and has included deployments in Iraq to help rebuild that nation’s medical system after the U.S. invasion.

“I think people need to have something in their lives or in their careers where they’ve dedicated some aspect of it to their country. This is mine,” Garza says.

He was able to delay his Kuwait deployment briefly to be on hand as his son began an Army career. The younger Garza entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in spring 2021.

Tackling a ‘wicked problem’ With COVID appearing to wane, Garza says the pandemic task force is looking at the prospect of shifting its focus to other public health challenges in the St. Louis region. Unfortunately, he notes, there are many. Among them: obesity, gun violence and environmental threats.

“I tell people in some ways the pandemic was easy because it was a singular focus on this singular issue. It was a respiratory virus that was causing a pandemic, and everybody could focus on that,” Garza says. “When you start moving into other issues, I think they become a little bit more complex.”

At the root of those challenges, he says, is disparities that prevent the region from becoming an overall healthy place. “I think people recognize it, but it’s like this wicked problem that we sort of just throw our hands up in the air and go, ‘Well, that’s just too hard to solve,’” Garza says.

He disagrees, but he thinks it will require a number of solutions — such as living wages, affordable housing, environmental improvements and access to quality health care — that require a regionwide effort.

If the task force decides to stay together and tackle another public health issue, Garza is willing to remain at its helm. “If it fits well with my role in community health,” he says, “I don’t think that would be a burden.” leisenhauer@chausa.org

March July 1, 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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ASSEMBLY 2022 TOMORROW’S LEADERS

Winners strive to fulfill the ministry’s promise to continually improve health care

By KATHLEEN NELSON

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

The specialties of CHA’s 2022 class of Tomorrow’s Leaders are diverse: pharmacy, ministry, nursing, advocacy, community health, communications and operations. But they share a commitment and career trajectory: shaping the future of Catholic health care.

Here is a look at each of Tomorrow’s Leaders, age 40 or younger at the time of their nomination in late 2021.

Members of the 2022 class of Tomorrow’s Leaders applaud each other as they take the stage to be honored at the Catholic Health Assembly in Indianapolis.

Dave Benner

Chief ancillary officer CHRISTUS Health, Irving, Texas

Dave Benner has branched out since starting his career in pharmacy. In addition to being president and chief executive of CHRISTUS Health’s Trincare Clinical Laboratories, he is the system’s chief ancillary officer and so functions as a chief operating officer for the system’s pharmacy, radiology, laboratory and oncology service lines.

He also supports dialysis, respiratory and physical and occupational therapy service lines. Having joined CHRISTUS in 2018, he directs about 3,000 employees.

ment of a single medical imaging system across CHRISTUS, which reduced complexity and generates $4 million in annual savings. He helped guide a redesign of the radiation oncology program to standardize equipment, treatment planning systems and brachytherapy systems, and unify the oncology-based electronic medical record system. He also oversaw a retooling of dialysis services that saved about $2.5 million in annual operational expenses.

During the pandemic, Benner’s work enabled CHRISTUS to be one of the first systems in the nation to assess and use COVID-19 antibody testing. Benner also was responsible for the health system’s deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Dave is a strong, dynamic leader who is passionate about ensuring the integration of faith, medicine and technology into the experience of operational excellence and patient quality,” says Dr. Sam Bagchi, senior vice president and chief clinical officer for CHRISTUS. “He has made sure through his leadership that we deploy successfully technologies and make sure we have solid relationships with people who can assure we are better and do better for others.”

ingly treat a COVID-19 patient, and one of the first to be in an epicenter of the pandemic, Providence helped shape the federal response to the crisis.

Bombard and her team developed an online tool used to urge passage of the CARES Act. In just five days, Providence’s caregivers and patients emailed more than 20,000 letters to Congress supporting the legislation, which provided billions of dollars in health care aid and relief to providers, patients and families.

Amanda Bottolfson

Director of medical/surgical, swingbed, ICU and PCS staffing Avera Sacred Heart Hospital, Yankton, South Dakota

Amanda Bottolfson is a hometown girl.

As a youngster, she saw her mother work through nursing school, then began her own career as a certified nursing assistant at Avera Sister James Care Center. She went on to earn bachelor and master of science in nursing degrees. After a brief stint in clinical management in Sioux Falls, she returned to Yankton.

“I’m really proud of the fact that I work in the community where I was born and raised,” says Bottolfson, 40. “I am proud of the fact that I work with a phenomenal group of people and can serve my friends and my family. For me, it’s also about our mission: that we are committed to a Christian ministry and serving a population that maybe nobody else will.”

Jacquelyn Bombard

Executive director of federal relations Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington

“I like the variety and autonomy,” says Benner, 37. “I get to provide strategic planning, business development, operations, clinical and technology support for my designated areas. I’m most proud of the fact that I can deliver value regardless of the discipline.”

Under Benner’s guidance, CHRISTUS opened a specialty pharmacy for people with complex chronic conditions. The pharmacy employs liaisons to aid patients in securing financial assistance, navigating insurance benefits and help in the overall coordination of care.

Benner also was involved in the procure-

Since childhood, Jacquelyn Bombard has thought about health care as a mission.

Her father was a physician, her mother a nurse. She accompanied her father when he volunteered at a clinic for low-income families.

“Most of our dinner table conversations were centered on their work,” says Bombard, 31. “Their unwavering passion to care for others and desire to do more inspires me every day.”

Rather than follow them into clinical care, though, her path led to the law and advocacy. She has become a voice for care providers seeking health equity in the U.S. “The thing I love most is the privilege to advocate for improvements to policy and protecting programs serving our poor and vulnerable populations,” she says.

As the first U.S. health system to know-

“Her advocacy for polices that impact more than just the physical health of patients and communities has proven her to be a leader beyond traditional means,” says Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, president of clinical care at Providence.

The COVID-19 waiver flexibilities in the CARES Act allowed Providence to provide more than 2 million virtual visits. Bombard is advocating to preserve the access and trajectory of telemedicine. “We have seen firsthand the benefits of providing care to our frail and vulnerable where they want it the most, in their home,” she says.

Among her other priorities are legislation that would advance maternal health, mental health and substance dependency care, common sense gun safety rules and environmental stewardship.

Since joining Avera Sacred Heart six years ago, Bottolfson has helped drive change. Working with Lindsay Flannery, vice president for patient care services and a 2020 Tomorrow’s Leader honoree, Bottolfson crafted a plan to combine nursing staffs and the comingling of medical and

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

TOMORROW’S LEADERS surgical patients on one floor of the 99-bed hospital. Bottolfson convened meetings with staff members, listening to concerns, building relationships and cross-training staff to build skill sets.

She introduced quiet hours for patients to rest with minimal to no interruptions and has developed a sepsis checklist and sepsis team that led to a drop in sepsis and secondary infections.

Bottolfson also led the hospital’s transition to an upgraded electronic medical record platform. Success and lessons learned at Sacred Heart made it easier to adopt systemwide.

“She does all of this with profound grace, dedication to Jesus’ healing ministry and desire to be of service to humanity,” Flannery says. “Amanda has a unique ability to draw out the good in others and inspire them to perform at the top of their abilities.”

Ashley Brand

System director, community health, integration and housing CommonSpirit Health, San Francisco

“One just needs to see Ashley in action to witness the grace and deliberation she demonstrates in her work and with her colleagues,” says Tom Kopfensteiner, chief mission officer for CommonSpirit. “Ashley has a way to bring partners together to brainstorm and solve problems while leveraging the assets of each stakeholder.”

Andrew G. Ochs

Regional director of mission integration SSM Health, Oklahoma City

As Andrew Ochs pursued degrees in theology, philosophy and business, a career in health care never crossed his mind. Only when an MBA career fair proved fruitless did a professor point him to mission leadership.

“I didn’t know the career existed,” says Ochs, 33. “My heart came alive, and I took it to prayer. I saw it as a really beautiful way to bring all my education together. This work of healing is the role of the church in the world today.”

A close classmate in high school who was housing insecure. Villagers living in extreme poverty in Tanzania with whom she volunteered. Families sheltering on skid row in Los Angeles. The common thread and inspiration for Ashley Brand is their resilience.

“They all overcame their challenges to show up every day,” says Brand, 41. “They made me want to perform with even more intention and commitment to our work. If they show up, given their challenges, I better show up.”

Brand works to build relationships — with the people CommonSpirit serves and with providers of community resources.

She directs CommonSpirit’s Homeless Health Initiative, which integrates physical health care for people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity with behavioral health, wellness and social services, as well as expanded programs in emergency, transitional and permanent housing.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Brand guided CommonSpirit’s quick-response funding, creating the COVID-19 Response Fund in California, and deployed $3.8 million to community-based organizations.

Instead of a lengthy grant application, community partners in need wrote a one-page letter seeking funds. “They needed money for food, shelter and PPE right away,” she says. “We realized we needed to listen and respond quickly. That was a shift in thinking.”

Brand also directs the health system’s Research, Equity and Advisory Council on Housing Insecurities in California, comprised in part of people who have lived experience with homelessness and substance dependence. “We want to listen and be challenged in the way we create programs,” Brand says. The goal is to create a safe space for these advisers to help build strategies and share the decision-making power.

Since joining SSM Health in Oklahoma in 2019, Ochs has developed formation programs and reinvigorated ethics committees, according to Michael Miller Jr., SSM Health system vice president of mission and ethics and a past recipient of the Tomorrow’s Leader award.

Ochs also has guided community health activities. Partnering with a local food bank, Ochs established a food pharmacy program called Loaves and Fishes at the SSM Health Medical Group Family Medicine Center clinic in midtown Oklahoma City to increase the percentage of patients who are screened for food insecurity. The screening rate increased to 72% in 2021 from 18% in 2020, and the program has been replicated at SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital — Shawnee.

“I didn’t know the career existed. ... I saw it as a really beautiful way to bring all my education together. This work of healing is the role of the church in the world today.”

— Andrew Ochs In midtown Oklahoma City, near St. Anthony’s main campus, Ochs fostered a partnership with a neighborhood church to establish an urban farm on the hospital campus. He also helped organize a face shield assembly operation to provide PPE to caregivers and to keep staff working who otherwise might have been furloughed during the pandemic.

“I knew our ministry would benefit from his theological insights and his keen formation skill set,” Miller says. “I did not, however, anticipate that Andrew would quickly become a dynamic leader in new areas, like community benefit and conducting

community health needs assessments, be embraced by his peers throughout the ministry and become a trusted thought partner.

I continue to be impressed by his occupational acumen.”

Sarah Reddin

Vice president, ministry formation — mission integration Ascension, Milwaukee

Sarah Reddin came to ministry formation after years as an operations manager in Ascension Wisconsin’s medical group. She had experience in fundraising and community programming. “The close proximity to patient care and our clinical teams made an impression on my understanding of our ministry that shapes how I serve and lead,” says Reddin, 41.

Much of her work bridges the gap between the spiritual and clinical concerns of caregivers. She led an initiative to embed bilingual wellness prayers and meditations in messages on Ascension’s COVID-19 hotline. She also has promoted and guided listening sessions for Ascension employees on nurturing reconciliation and healing.

She says she is most proud of her team for innovations in how formation is provided through programs, resources and services. “Formation is about human flourishing and the integrity of our ministry identity. Expanding equitable access for all associates, clinicians and leaders is both an urgent priority and a lasting promise for the ministry’s future,” she explains.

Reddin shares leadership in the aligned culture initiative that is part of Ascension’s strategic plan to equip employees and leaders with best practices for serving lowincome patients. Working with her Catholic parish and the Islamic Society of Wisconsin, Reddin also helped organize Black Lives Are Sacred weekly prayer and community witness. The prayer gatherings have been held on different street corners in southeast Wisconsin since the summer of 2020.

“She looks at each situation and opportunity with a fresh, creative perspective.

She does not stop at what is asked of her, yet pushes to create operational excellence,” says Tracie Loftis, Ascension’s senior vice president of mission integration. “She possesses an innate inclination for mentoring and seeks to bring others to their best.”

make a hospital work.” He enlisted in the Navy, where he participated in a mission in the Caribbean and Central America aboard the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship.

In 2017, he joined Centura Health, a 19-hospital system in Colorado and Kansas, as an administrative fellow. “I gained an 80,000-foot-view awareness of how the whole system works and our place in the ecological neighborhood,” says Ritz, 32.

Ritz then worked for four years as director of operations at Centura Longmont United Hospital, about 40 miles north of Denver. When he arrived, Longmont represented less than 4% of Centura’s revenue and expenses but the following year it realized 34% of the system’s expense reduction.

At the same time, Longmont cut patients’ length of stays and received an “A” from the Leapfrog Group, which tracks improvements in protecting patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.

Ritz also helped coordinate the Longmont Food Rescue partnership, which provided fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers to families in need.

“On his last days at Longmont, I was shocked at how many people came to say goodbye because of his unique personal touch,” says Dr. Antony Pearson, chief medical officer at Longmont. “Because of his ability to connect, his knowledge, and his compassion for patient and community care, I believe Andrew’s potential is unlimited.”

His goals at Mercy, in the Four Corners region of Colorado, “are to design and inspire progress.” Ritz says, “I’m not an expert in anything, so I love to partner with clinicians and caregivers to help them do their jobs better every day.”

Heather Runnels

Vice president of patient care services Our Lady of the Lake Ascension, Gonzales, Louisiana

Andrew Ritz

Vice president of operations Mercy Hospital, Durango, Colorado, a member of Centura Health, part of CommonSpirit Health

The son of a hospital administrator, Andrew Ritz has carried on the family business — starting from the ground floor.

His father, Robert Ritz, is chief executive of MercyOne in Iowa. As a student, the younger Ritz did an internship in a hospital facilities department, “fixing toilets and viewing the mission through the lens of the amazing people who come together to

Heather Runnels felt a calling to be a nurse mentor to student nurses and nurses who are continuing their education.

July 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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TOMORROW’S LEADERS ent of Our Lady of the Lake Ascension and a member of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. “Her ingenuity and problem-solving abilities are elite.”

Ryan E. Stuhlreyer

Vice president, service line strategy Bon Secours Mercy Health, Richmond, Virginia

Ryan Stuhlreyer relies on his experience on the front line as an emergency medical technician to guide his view from the top.

“I recall what a hospital can do to serve members of the community during a time of personal vulnerability,” says Stuhlreyer, 35. “Remembering the impact that can have on a person, on a family, on a community reminds me of the bigger purpose we serve in fulfilling our mission. Being an EMT constantly pushed me outside my comfort zone because no call was the same as the last. I believe this helped prepare me as a leader to remain calm under pressure and adapt to ever-changing situations.”

Director of national communication, issues management Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington

her humility stick out to me as strengths. Her ingenuity and problem-solving abilities are elite.”

— Jason Rogers

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

Since joining Bon Secours Health System in 2009 as an administrative intern, Stuhlreyer has helped develop patient satisfaction initiatives that led to an overall increase

The audience reacts to a speaker during an Assembly session on CHRISTUS Health’s integrated approach to associate and clinician well-being.

CHRISTUS addresses staff well-being From page 1

assistance program and other existing resources to address employees’ mental health and well-being.

Because CHRISTUS has ministries in Mexico, Chile and Colombia as well as the Southwestern United States, Avila said the surges of the COVID-19 pandemic have been relentless for the system, worsening in some markets while easing in others. On top of that pressure, regional divisions coped with hurricanes that slammed Louisiana, a

rewarding,” says Webb, 35. “I could not be more proud of how Providence St. Joseph Health leaders and caregivers have navigated the crisis and for the work they continue to do to care for our communities.”

Handling the crisis was less difficult because tools she had helped develop and put in place allowed the organization to more rapidly scale its communication.

Adrienne Webb

“Her joyfulness of spirit and

“Working at a large Catholic health care facility has helped me understand the importance of a multidisciplinary team,” she says. “It has also assisted me with understanding the groundwork that needs to be laid in order to have a successful operation.”

She earned the title “hard hat director” for her work as nursing liaison for construction projects in patient care areas.

“Her joyfulness of spirit and her humility stick out to me as strengths,” says Jason Rogers, vice president of nursing at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, the par-

from the 76th to 84th percentile in a national database kept by the Department of Health and Human Services. He also assisted with the planning for Bon Secours’ freestanding emergency department and ambulatory campus in suburban Richmond, the first facility of its kind in central Virginia.

“Ryan is able to see that health begins where one lives, works, plays and worships,” says David Belde, vice president of community health at Bon Secours Mercy Health. “He sees the connection, as well as the impact, that the social determinants of health have on individual and community well-being.”

Since 2019, Stuhlreyer has led five service lines in the Bon Secours Richmond market: oncology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, women’s and children’s health, and orthopedics.

“This gave me the chance to work with a number of physician leaders, hospital leaders and medical group leadership that I may not have otherwise had the chance to develop relationships with,” Stuhlreyer says.

blizzard that knocked out power in parts of Texas and political unrest that brought protesters to the streets in Chile and Colombia.

CHRISTUS’ “three R’s” strategy provided a baseline of wellness resources for all associates, intervention to help staff process their emotions and recover during emergencies or sustained crises, and response to critical incidents that could lead to trauma or compassion fatigue.

To promote staff well-being, CHRISTUS started hosting “Resilience Wednesday” events around a theme that changes every month. The system creates guides for team leaders to use in special huddles to promote the theme and resources associates can use on their own.

When the first U.S. patient with a known COVID-19 case was admitted in January 2020 to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington, Adrienne Webb became Providence’s public information officer for what would be a yearslong campaign against a deadly virus. She developed protocols to triage hundreds of requests.

She helped teams across the system respond to questions from the local and national media. She launched campaigns to help educate the public about COVID and dispel misinformation. She consulted with and convened experts to solve problems as the crises evolved.

In the process, she provided a blueprint for her communications colleagues across the country on how to deliver the facts of the most monumental health crisis in a century.

“It has been the most challenging work I’ve ever done, but hands down the most

In addition, Webb has served as a steering committee member for a leadership and networking program and as a mentor through Providence caregiver resource groups. She also recently completed an advanced certification in corporate social responsibility and volunteers her time with nonprofit organizations focused on youth programs, animal welfare, STEM and antiviolence efforts.

“I admire her tenacity and consistent mission-based approach to health care to ensure our communities’ needs are always top of mind,” says Mark Gross, associate vice president and Providence’s chief communication officer for Washington and Montana. “Adrienne never fails to be innovative in creating solutions, policies and procedures that will ensure a clear call to action when a crisis arises.”

Last September, for example, the theme provides additional support to its physiwas gratitude and one of the exercises cians through the HoneyComb Project. was a seven-day “gratitude challenge.” Resources include lectures, written mateCHRISTUS encouraged associates to adopt rial, self-care advice and outreach just for its several practices, including writing down doctors. and then reflecting each day on things that The program includes a peer support they or others did that brought them joy. network for doctors who self-identify as For situations that called for recovery stressed, are identified by others as showassistance, one of the steps CHRISTUS took ing signs of distress or are facing a legal or was to expand its existing contract with Ste- a medical board complaint, Ray explained. ricycle, which makes follow-up phone calls For those doctors, a peer reaches out within to check on discharged patients. Trained three days to offer confidential and intenregistered nurse advisers with Stericycle tional support and connections to other proactively check in with CHRISTUS’ resources. nurses and other clinicians, offering them Some of CHRISTUS’ well-being comfort, counseling, and support. To date, resources are available for download at Avila said Stericycle has made 18,000 calls ow.ly/FRlI50JtNZF. to CHRISTUS caregivers. leisenhauer@chausa.org To respond to staff distress during peak stress conditions, Avila said CHRISTUS has built up its pool of staff who are certified in critical incident stress management. Those team members are available to talk to staff in person or virtually to help them navigate adversity, adapt to the situation and cultivate resilience.

Also, multidisciplinary teams called Patient Family and Associate Action Teams provide immediate support on Dr. Linda Ray, program director of Clinicians Care peer resource impacted units. network at CHRISTUS Health, tells the audience about the extra level Ray said CHRISTUS of wellness services the system provides for clinicians.

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

“A legacy of education and development is what I hope to accomplish,” says Runnels, 41. “I am most proud of having leaders that reported to me complete their master’s degree program. And when I was promoted, they were elevated to the next level.”

Runnels spent 15 years as senior director of nursing before taking over her current position in November. She helped guide such innovations as: Upgrading 700 communication boards across the health system, tailoring them to meet the needs of specific patient populations. Working with nurses and the patient and family advisory council, Runnels helped develop three versions: one for inpatient rooms, one for emergency rooms and one for ambulatory care.

Developing a process to identify, protect and provide care safely for patients at risk for suicide while receiving care and after discharge. This plan has been recognized as a best practice by The Joint Commission.

Coordinating multiple new safety procedures that reduced falls by 40% in one year.

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

ASSEMBLY 2022

Centura Health’s community impact fund demonstrates commitment to diversity and inclusion INDIANAPOLIS — After George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, Centura Health President and Chief Executive Peter Banko said he heard a chorus of pleas from associates saying: “Peter, I need you to take action. I need you to do something.”

Floyd’s murder in May 2020, which drew intense media coverage and sparked global outrage, prompted Banko to set up an action plan for Centura. Dubbed the Social Justice Framework, the aim is to compel the system to be intentional in its commitment to diversity and inclusion.

At a session June 6 at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly, Banko and Dr. Oswaldo Grenardo, Centura’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, discussed the Equity and Advancement Fund the system set up to increase its impact in underserved communities, one of the five pillars of the framework.

The fund’s goal is to advance health equity across Centura’s footprint in Colorado and Western Kansas by backing programs that serve vulnerable and minority populations. Centura is part of CommonSpirit Health.

For the first year, Centura earmarked

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

By LISA EISENHAUER

Peter Banko, Centura Health’s president and chief executive, describes at a packed session of the Catholic Health Assembly the community impact fund that Centura Health set up in 2020. The fund advances the system’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by supporting community programs for diverse and vulnerable populations.

$1 million for community impact grants and issued an appeal for applications. Grenardo said 90 organizations applied and their requests totaled $9 million. In the end, 19 organizations got grants of $25,000 to $87,000.

The programs the grants are funding include one at a cultural center in Denver to

provide health resources to the Black community, one at Catholic Charities of Central Colorado to expand access to health services for immigrant and refugee families, and the Coal Creek Meals on Wheels service in Lafayette, Colorado.

Grenardo said there was a sharp learning curve the first year of grant making, prompt-

ing revisions for this year. Among the changes was to streamline what he called a “long, arduous” application process and to let organizations request multiple years of funding in one application. In addition, Centura is working with partners, including two foundations set up by professional athletes, to get matches for the system’s grants.

At Banko’s urging, the Centura board has approved $5 million for grants this year.

Of that total, $2 million will go to programs that address food insecurity and behavioral health, which were identified as major needs in Centura’s community health needs assessment.

Grenardo said the application process for this year just closed and 226 requests were submitted. Because Centura wants to spread funding across the communities its 19 hospitals serve, employee panels at each local ministry do the initial reviews.

Grenardo pointed out that this year each of those panels includes a diverse member of the community.

Said Banko: “This is one of the best things I’m doing and we’re doing as an organization right now. There’s just such momentum in the organization around it and it’s getting us in the community into places we had never been before.” leisenhauer@chausa.org

Pogue says technology gives people more control over their health care

from The Catholic Health Association

Long-Term Care Networking Zoom Call July 12 | 3 – 4 p.m. ET Members only

United Against Human Trafficking Networking Zoom Call July 14 | Noon ET

Faith Community Nurse Networking Zoom Call July 20 | 1 – 2 p.m. ET

Deans of Catholic Colleges of Nursing Networking Zoom Call July 26 | Noon–1 p.m. ET

Global Health Networking Zoom Call Aug. 3 | Noon ET

Long-Term Care Networking Zoom Call Oct. 11 | 3 – 4 p.m. ET Members only

Webinar: Community Benefit 101

Oct. 25 – 27 | 2 – 5 p.m. ET

chausa.org/calendar

By JULIE MINDA

Technology and science journalist David Pogue said during a June 6 presentation at the Catholic Health Assembly that advancements happening at the intersection of technology and health are giving people instantaneous, convenient and sometimes lifesaving insight into the state of their health.

“It’s going to be a wild ride,” he said of all the advancements in health technology such as smart watch applications that can diagnose COVID-19 and flag heart arrythmias. Pogue is a CBS “Sunday Morning” correspondent and a host of PBS’ “NOVA.” Pogue began his presentation marveling over the power that smartphones and other consumer devices have given to people around the world.

He said that while the ability to manipulate toilet paper roll holders, doggie treat dispensers and garage doors from a smartphone won’t change society, other technologies may. He spoke of the state of development of self-driving vehicles and wondered how long it will be until robo-taxis are commonplace.

Pogue said telehealth exploded during the pandemic, allowing patients to access care without risk of contagion. Telehealth has an added advantage of enabling doctors to see into the patient’s home environment and “it’s a natural for mental health visits,” he said.

While many people appreciate how telehealth can improve access, many patients and doctors remain skeptical. “You can’t touch someone over video,” he said.

Also, not everyone has access to basic internet let alone high-speed broadband.

Wearables Pogue said many innovations are happening in the area of wearables, such as the Fitbit and Apple Watch.

In addition to monitoring heart rate and oxygen saturation, smart watches can flag potential disease or danger. “The Apple Watch knows when you have fallen and can

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

Upcoming Events

Smartphones, wearables can promote wellness, detect illness

Journalist David Pogue speaks about wearable health care technology during a June 6 presentation at the Catholic Health Assembly.

send alerts to people you tell it to,” Pogue said. It notifies wearers of irregular heart rhythms.

Pogue said Stanford University researcher Michael Snyder created a smart watch algorithm that was able to detect 80% of COVID-19 cases before symptoms occurred.

“If the government had given us all Apple watches for free, we could have cut the pandemic in half,” Pogue mused.

Pogue said personal health data from wearable technology is giving patients more agency in their relationship with clinicians.

All this personal health data on one's wrist can pave the way for more engaged patients and better outcomes from treatment. “The research you’ve done can save your doctor time. Don’t go it alone,” Pogue advised, “work with your doctor.” jminda@chausa.org

July 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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ASSEMBLY 2022

By LISA EISENHAUER

INDIANAPOLIS — Trinity Health is ensuring that its pledge to combat racism and end health care disparities isn’t just a checked box, said LaRonda Chastang, the system’s vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We have put not only energy and effort but resources behind activities to help move the needle internally as well as externally in the communities that we serve,” Chastang said.

Chastang was one of two speakers in a session at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly here who discussed how their systems have translated into action their adoption of CHA’s We Are Called pledge. The pledge commits its signatories to confront racism by achieving health equity in their delivery of COVID-19 care, by putting their own houses in order, developing just relationships with their communities and advocating to end health disparities and systemic racism.

Trinity Health publicly declared that

racism is a public health crisis and put its statement and related policies in writing to support internal and external advocacy campaigns on the topic. The system reviewed its human resources policies and practices to reinforce and promote equity.

For example, the dress code policy was updated to ensure accommodations for religious dress, facial hair and natural hair styles. Trinity Health requires all vice presidents and above to complete anti-racism training and all staff to take a cultural proficiency course. Trinity Health also committed to increasing its spend with womenand minority-owned suppliers.

Nicholas Kockler, vice president for system ethics services at Providence St. Joseph Health, discussed the road map the Providence Center for Health Care Ethics developed for ethicists and others to translate the goal of achieving racial justice to an operational strategy. That strategy centers on six commitments, including being “allies for social justice,” shining light on injustices and weaving anti-racist principles and pedagogy into educational programming.

“We also engage in continuous quality improvement in our ethics consultation practices, both to emphasize inclusion in process and equity in outcomes,” Kockler said.

Olga M. Segura, a freelance writer and opinion editor at National Catholic Reporter and the author of Birth of A Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, moderated the discussion. She said that conversations about racism can be discomforting for people.

Chastang said Trinity Health is mindful of that sensitivity. When staff are reluctant to engage in conversations about race, instead of rushing to judgment, she said leaders are encouraged to listen to “understand their why and to share the reason why we are engaged in this meaningful work.”

For those whose own experiences of being victimized are triggered by the content of training on racism or cultural sensitivity, Chastang said Trinity Health makes sure they have an opportunity for self-care.

From page 1

One question raised during the fictional chat was what factors besides return on investment health care leaders should weigh in taking environmentally minded action, particularly from an ethical perspective.

Ali Santore, executive vice president, chief advocacy and social responsibility officer for Providence St. Joseph Health, shared an experience she had after telling information systems employees about how the system is working to reach its goal of being carbon negative — or offsetting more carbon than it creates — by 2030. One of the points she made to the employees was that transitioning data centers to the remote servers known as the cloud helped Providence in reaching this commitment.

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

Trinity Health, Providence turn pledge to address racism, disparities into action

Equity and decisions

leisenhauer@chausa.org

Ali Santore, executive vice president, chief advocacy and social responsibility officer for Providence St. Joseph Health, listens to comments during a Catholic Health Assembly session on using an equity lens in decision making.

leisenhauer@chausa.org

leisenhauer@chausa.org

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

ment had responded equally and fairly to all communities. “The short answer is no,” he said.

His analysis showed that recovery funds and remediation programs tended to mostly benefit white Americans despite the fact that communities of color suffer the worst losses and face the worst threats. It led him to the conclusion that the government won’t protect its most vulnerable citizens from the effects of climate change unless forced to do so.

Bullard is one of the 25 members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council that President Joe Biden set up to counsel his administration on how to address current and historic environmental injustice. Justice40 is among administration initiatives the council is consulting on. The initiative’s goal is to have 40% of the overall benefits from environmental programs, such as for clean energy and the remediation of legacy pollution, flow to disadvantaged communities.

Bullard said that without intentional approaches environmental disparities will persist. “If we don’t work on it, we will reproduce the inequality and allow our country to become much more unequal, unfair and unjust,” he said. “We cannot allow that to happen. We need everybody working on this together.”

Santore later got an email from an information systems worker who said he had felt burned out until he found out that his efforts were supporting sustainability goals.

“He had no idea that the work that he was doing was contributing to this common good and this living example of our mission in action,” she said, “and so he shared that he made the decision not to leave the organization because he felt so grounded and inspired by this work.”

Participants in the session cited proper stewardship of resources, compassion, fairness and short- versus long-term gains as being among the many competing factors in sustainability discussions.

Marcos Pesquera, system vice president of community benefit, health equity, diversity and inclusion at CHRISTUS Health, joined Santore on the panel that facilitated the session. He said his system starts from a position of humility when it comes to sustainability.

“We have taken a posture of we have a lot to learn with this, so who is at the table is really important,” he said. “We are bringing our community organizations to talk about this because we do have a lot to learn.

Environmental stewardship is complex and it touches many areas. You could move one lever here and impact stakeholders in a negative or a positive way. All points need to be considered.”

Panelist Fr. Michael Rozier, SJ, an assistant professor of health management and policy in Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice, is president of SSM Health’s ministerial public juridic person, SSM Health Ministries.

Fr. Rozier had a suggestion for those who engage in discernments with multiple concerns and stakeholders at play.

“If we all enter into the conversation presuming the best of the other people around the table, I think that assists us in these complicated discernments where we are ultimately going to have to make a decision of which good or goods are going to be triumphant,” Fr. Rozier said.

Robert D. Bullard, a prolific author who directs the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University, speaks at the Catholic Health Assembly on the uneven impact of pollution and environmental degradation on communities of color.

Environmental activism From page 1

it. It just doesn’t happen.”

Widely known as the father of environmental justice, Bullard has written 18 books on the topic. He directs the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice and is a distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University, a founding director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, and co-founder of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium.

He discussed the disparate impact of pollution, waste disposal and other environmental threats and the nation’s unequal response to them on the opening day of the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly. He gave the memorial lecture named in honor of Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan, who worked to bring about healing for all people, especially the most vulnerable.

The environmental sociologist said his attention was drawn to environmental injustice in the late 1970s, when he assisted his wife with a lawsuit she brought over the planned location of a Houston landfill. His research showed that from the 1930s to 1978, 82% of the city’s trash was disposed in dump sites located in predominantly Black

neighborhoods even though Blacks comprised only 25% of the city’s population.

Despite losing that case, Bullard said it was a wake-up call. His research convinced him that “America is segregated and so is pollution” and he started a now fourdecades-long quest to figure out how to force change.

Many researchers have followed his lead in documenting the unequal toll of pollution and environmental damage. He cited studies that show people of color are more likely than whites to breathe air with dangerous levels of particulate matter such as soot and that minority neighborhoods typically have less green space than white neighborhoods.

He pointed out that pollution and proximity to industrial toxins can have devastating impacts on health, such as raising the incidence of asthma and cardiovascular disease. He also noted that the residents of neighborhoods close to pollution sources and short on parks and other natural amenities don’t see the same economic gains from home ownership.

For his 2012 book, The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities, Bullard and coauthor Beverly Wright looked at whether over the previous eight decades of natural and human-made disasters the govern-

CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

ASSEMBLY 2022

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Postcards from Indianapolis After three years apart, leaders of Catholic health care systems from around the U.S. had an upbeat reunion at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly. Smiles beamed brighter and hugs lasted a few beats longer as old friends reconnected at CHA’s first in-person Assembly since 2019. The feeling of fellowship, of being a part of an essential Catholic health ministry, is the main draw of the annual meeting. Having led the country through the devasting destruction of the pandemic, having saved an untold number of lives with direct care and with public health initiatives, health care leaders paused for days of fellowship and found spiritual renewal in this heartland city known for fast cars and Hoosier hospitality. Splashes and waterfalls of live music, from a local R&B band and symphony musicians helped refresh and connect attendees to their own well-being and to each other.

Photos by Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

July 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

KEEPING UP

Bertke

Gehrig

Hamilton-Crawford Mullany

PRESIDENTS AND CEOS Bradley Bertke to president of Mercy Health — West Hospital in Cincinnati, effective July 5, from president of Mercy Health — St. Anne Hospital in Toledo, Ohio.

Bertke replaces Jason Asic, the hospital's interim president. Mercy Health of Cincinnati recently named Asic president of Mercy Health — Kings Mills Hospital in Mason, Ohio. Mercy Health is part of Bon Secours Mercy Health.

Ryan Gehrig has accepted a newly

Predum

expanded role as president of Mercy Hospitals Arkansas. Gehrig is president of Mercy Hospital Fort Smith in Arkansas. In conjunction with the change, Eric Pianalto, current president of Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas, will become chief strategic growth officer for Mercy Arkansas. Mercy Arkansas is part of Chesterfield, Missouribased Mercy.

Janice Hamilton-Crawford to president and chief executive of Trinity Health Senior Communities. She was president of senior

Iftiniuk

Singh

Parker

Grantham

communities for Trinity Health’s New England region. Hamilton-Crawford succeeds Steve Kastner, who is retiring.

Joseph J. Mullany to Hospital Sisters Health System’s Illinois division president and chief executive, effective April 25. He was an executive vice president at Nuvance Health System in New York. He succeeds Therese Pandl, who held the posts on an interim basis.

Facilities within CommonSpirit Health have made these changes: Benjamin “BJ”

McGee

Predum to president and chief executive of Mercy Hospital Downtown and Mercy Hospital Southwest in Bakersfield, California, effective July 11. He was regional vice president and chief operating officer for Ascension Michigan West Region. Alan Iftiniuk is retiring later this year as president and chief executive of Dignity Health — French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, California. National recruitment for a new chief executive is underway.

Gunman kills four people and self at Saint Francis medical office A gunman killed four people and himself June 1 in a medical office building on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, part of Saint Francis Health System. The victims were Dr. Preston J. Phillips, an orthopedic surgeon at Saint Francis; Dr. Stephanie J. Husen, an internist whose areas of specialty included sports medicine; Amanda Glenn, a medical assistant; and William Love, a patient.

At a press conference June 2, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said the 45-year-old gunman had gone to the Saint Francis campus’ Natalie Medical Building with a semiautomatic rifle he purchased that day and a handgun to murder Phillips and, “anyone who got in his way,” as a letter the killer had on his person said. Franklin said the gunman blamed Phillips for ongoing pain he suffered following a May 19 back surgery that Phillips had performed on him.

During the press conference, Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and chief executive of Saint Francis Health System, said the murders had changed Saint Francis, but “it’s up to us to not allow this horrible event and this situation to make us want to turn our back on the reason we are here.” Asking for prayers and support for the Saint Francis community, he vowed “Saint Francis will come out of this even stronger still.” He said he had confidence that the call to care would not be diminished at Saint Francis.

Dr. Ryan Parker, Saint Francis Health System associate chief medical officer and

Ian Maule/Tulsa World via Associated Press

By JULIE MINDA

Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building on the Saint Francis Hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1. A gunman killed four people and himself at an orthopedic and sports medicine clinic in the facility.

an emergency medicine physician, said at the press conference, “Our job is to heal, and we are here to do our job even if it’s with broken hearts.” Parker said she and her clinical colleagues had just been starting to process the toll the pandemic had taken on them as individuals. The murders compound their trauma and distress.

Parker said when she awoke the morning after the shooting, she “wanted this to be a bad dream, but this is the reality of our world right now, and today our world and our Saint Francis community are devastated.”

Coordinated effort Franklin gave a timeline of the police response at the press conference. The first 911 call came in at 4:52 p.m. on June 1, he said. The caller had been on a video chat with a doctor who was in the Warren Clinic Orthopedics and Sports Medicine office where all of the shots were fired. The doctor asked the caller to tell the 911 operator a shooting was occurring. Subsequent calls to 911 enabled officers to determine that the killer had fired the shots on the second floor of the five-story Natalie Medical Building on the Saint Francis campus.

Franklin said officers entered the building at 4:56 p.m. As they arrived on the second floor and advanced to where callers had said the gunman was, they heard a gunshot that they believed to be the killer’s suicidal shot. Police located all the victims in the orthopedics and sports medicine office and cleared people out of the building.

During the briefing, Franklin praised the many law enforcement agencies and the Saint Francis security team for the quick response, saying their coordinated effort was a result of much training.

Also speaking at the press conference was Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. He lauded the Saint Francis staff for heroically serving the community, especially during the pandemic, and for coming to work to care for patients after the horrific violence the campus had experienced the day prior. He said while there was nothing that the people of Tulsa could do to take away the pain the staff was feeling, “we will walk with you every step of the way.”

Shutdown The Warren Clinic is the employed physician arm of Saint Francis Health System.

According to information posted on Saint

Saint Francis sets up employee emergency fund On its Facebook page, Saint Francis Health System said its therapy dog team, Pink Paws, had been working overtime to support Saint Francis staff. A June 1 shooting in a medical office building on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital has traumatized the Saint Francis community.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 1, Saint Francis worked with the Tulsa Community Foundation to establish an employee emergency fund.

Donations to the employee emergency fund will support the victims’ families as well as employees affected by the tragedy.

For information on how to donate, visit: tulsacf.org/saintfrancisstrong/

Francis’ Facebook page, in the shooting’s aftermath all Warren Clinic outpatient appointments at locations in Tulsa and Broken Arrow were canceled until noon June 2; and Saint Francis closed the orthopedic office and established a call center to follow up with patient questions on appointments.

Saint Francis held a Mass for employees June 2 and is offering them support services, counseling, pastoral care, pet therapy and services from the employee assistance program. Saint Francis also set up a fund to aid the victims’ families as well as employees affected by the shooting (see sidebar).

In tribute to the victims, Saint Francis lit its campus in pink in the evenings following the shooting. “This color has been our identity for 62 years. To us, it represents strength, family, faith and our commitment to the community. Today, it represents our love and prayers for those we have lost, their grieving loved ones and our own Saint Francis family,” the system wrote on its Facebook page June 2.

It wrote in the post, “Saint Francis is a family. We are a ministry. We are caregivers.

We are one. We are mourning.”

Ministry response In her opening remarks at the Catholic Health Assembly in Indianapolis June 5, CHA President and Chief Executive Officer Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, called for a moment of silence to remember victims of recent heinous mass killings at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, and on the Saint Francis campus. “We will continue to work for sensible gun policy. The time for action is now!” she said.

Dr. Rhonda Medows, the outgoing chair of the CHA Board of Trustees, told the audience of Catholic health care leaders at the national meeting that hate crimes and gun violence in schools, churches, groceries, hospitals are impacting and taking away precious lives.

“Our places of healing should never be a war zone. This cannot be allowed to prevail,” Medows said.

Sr. Mary was a panelist on a June 8 webinar hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.

Sr. Mary called gun violence a pro-life issue and a public health issue. She said it is time to hold elected officials accountable to put in place sensible gun policy. Sr. Mary noted that at a time of great financial pressure on health care providers, health systems are forced to divert financial resources to reinforce safety and security protocols. jminda@chausa.org

July 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES

healing ministry of Jesus Christ through the provision of quality health care for all, especially those most in need.”

David Flicek to chief operating officer for Avera Health of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In addition, he will continue as chief administrative officer for Avera Medical Group.

Saint Francis Health System of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has made these changes: Dr. Reetu Singh to chief medical officer and Dr. Ryan Parker and Dr. Scott Grantham to associate chief medical officers.

Emily McGee to vice president of nursing for St. Bernards Medical Center of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

GRANTS AND GIFTS

Catholic Extension

HONOR The Catholic Extension fundraising organization honored Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, with its Spirit of Francis Award for her advocacy for the poor and for universal health care access. Sr. Carol was CHA president and chief executive officer from 2005 to 2018. The Spirit of Francis Award recognizes individuals or groups that have made a significant impact on the mission of the Catholic Church in America through service or philanthropy. Sr. Carol received the award at a May 25 dinner at the United

15

At the Spirit of Francis Award gathering, Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, gathers with, from left, Fr. Jack Wall, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich and Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory. Sr. Carol is a former CHA president and chief executive officer, Fr. Wall is Catholic Extension president, Cardinal Cupich heads the Chicago archdiocese and is Catholic Extension chancellor and Cardinal Gregory heads the Washington, DC, archdiocese.

States Library of Congress in Washington. At the event, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, shared

a message from Pope Francis congratulating Sr. Carol and recognizing her “many years of dedicated leadership in continuing the

St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, Montana, has given a $3 million gift to Montana State University’s Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing. The college will use the funds to permanently endow a new certified nurse midwifery program, the only one in the state. St. Vincent Healthcare is part of SCL Health.

St. John’s College of Nursing in Springfield, Illinois, received an endowment of $1.1 million from the late Patricia Ann Sur Hart to establish a scholarship fund. The first scholarship recipient will be Raven Smith of Springfield, who is pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing at St. John’s. Hart was a 1955 graduate of St. John’s nursing school.

She worked as a nurse then went on to become a nurse anesthetist, after additional schooling at St. John’s Hospital School of Anesthesia. St. John’s College is a department of Springfield’s St. John’s Hospital, part of Hospital Sisters Health System.

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Children’s Hospital associates provide mental, spiritual care to Uvalde hospital staff

A state trooper affixes a tiara on a cross honoring Ellie Garcia, one of 19 children killed in the May 24 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Uvalde Memorial Hospital sought the support in wake of school shooting

By JULIE MINDA

The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has devastated the close-knit town of more than 15,000. The killer took the lives of 19 children and two teachers May 24.

Among those reeling in the immediate aftermath of the carnage were clinicians and other staff at Uvalde Memorial Hospital. The critical access hospital is about 2 miles from the school. Staff cared for critically injured people — most of them children.

Many hospital staff had children who went to the school, or spouses who worked at the school, and so they feared for the safety of their loved ones as they focused on care of Mikalsen the wounded, said Elena Mikalsen, chief of pediatric psychology at CHRISTUS Health’s The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.

“It’s a very small community and everybody at the hospital had some relationship to someone at the school that day,” Mikalsen said. A team from CHRISTUS Health was dispatched to help traumatized hospital staff and their family members in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

She said Uvalde Memorial reached out to CHRISTUS Health, asking that system to provide counseling and support for staff.

A dozen CHRISTUS mental health and spiritual care providers made the 80-mile trip from San Antonio to Uvalde May 27 to spend the day offering Uvalde Memorial staff comfort, resources and emotional support.

The CHRISTUS team — which included nurses, pediatric psychologists, social workers, chaplains and child life specialists — provided group therapy, individual therapy, support for children of staff processing fresh grief, referrals to long-term support and prayer.

“This is a very traumatized commu-

nity, and while we were there, we just kept thinking of the long-term impacts,” said Mikalsen. “This community will be hurting for many years. They won’t be OK for a very long time,” and CHRISTUS is looking at how to be part of recovery efforts over the long term.

Mikalsen said Uvalde Memorial admitted more than a dozen critically injured victims from the shooting, including many children with “gruesome, horrific” injuries. Some children were pronounced dead on arrival. All Uvalde Memorial staff were called in to respond to the mass casualty incident, Mikalsen said.

Call for help Uvalde Memorial contacted CHRISTUS because it did not have mental health and spiritual care providers on its staff, and the town has few mental health resources, said Mikalsen.

Together with three other psychologists from Children’s Hospital, Mikalsen provided mental health first aid in the form of individual and group therapy to hospital staff members. Three CHRISTUS child life specialists set up an art and play therapy area for children of hospital staff. And three CHRISTUS chaplains and a priest offered prayer and comfort in every department at Uvalde Memorial throughout the day.

“This community will be hurting for many years.

They won’t be OK for a very long time,” and CHRISTUS is looking at how to be part of recovery efforts over the long term.

— Elena Mikalsen

Staff of Uvalde Memorial Hospital take part in a prayer service held by visiting chaplains from CHRISTUS Health’s The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio. The service focused on the staff’s spiritual recovery following the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde.

Mikalsen said the mass shooting at the elementary school “was absolutely horrific (for hospital employees). These medical professionals had never seen anything like this before. We were the first mental health providers many of them had talked to.”

The Uvalde Memorial providers talked to the team of mental health providers about the trauma they’d experienced, Mikalsen said. People spoke of multiple layers of trauma and feeling so distressed they couldn’t eat, sleep or work.

She said the CHRISTUS psychologists let every individual they counseled know how to reach them for follow-up in-person or telehealth counseling.

The team of psychologists had planned to return to the Uvalde hospital June 27.

The chaplain team also plans to return as a group to the Uvalde hospital.

Mikalsen said CHRISTUS is in talks with Uvalde Memorial and several foundations to explore how to establish more permanent mental health services in Uvalde.

This could include individual and group trauma-based psychotherapy for children and families and in time a wellness center for the community.

No timeline for grief Alyssa Maldonado, a pediatric chaplain for Children’s Hospital, was one of three chaplains who went to Uvalde Memorial.

She said they visited every department of the hospital, listening as hospital staff related their sorrow and shock. The chaplains Maldonado prayed with staff. They stood by in silence for staff who did not wish to talk but who still wanted the chaplains’ support.

For those able to talk about their pain, “we just let them pour out whatever was on their heart, whatever was in their spirit,” Maldonado said. They offered all staff their phone numbers. “We reminded them there is no timeline for grief,” and that they could seek help any time.

Divine hour The chaplains held their prayer service for Uvalde Memorial staff at 3 p.m. that Friday, the hour that Christian tradition teaches Christ died on the cross. Maldonado calls it the “divine hour.” She said the group brought teddy bears, rosaries, candles, blankets and pamphlets on grieving with them for their prayer service. They set up a small altar and invited the Uvalde Memorial staff to form a circle around it.

Maldonado said that the evening before the prayer service she sat at her kitchen table to plan out the gathering, and the Holy Spirit inspired her in the words she wrote.

At the service, she centered her message around the concept of the peace that Jesus promises in scripture. Citing the scripture verse, “Jesus wept,” she told the assembled mourners they were joined with Jesus in their sorrow. She prayed that everyone would feel God’s presence in their trauma and grief.

Maldonado said the hospital employees asked that they be remembered in prayer.

“There is sorrow and grief there. But the people I talked with have their faith, and that is what they are leaning on.” jminda@chausa.org

16

CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD July 2022

Together again From page 1

“When we were last together in Dallas, I don’t think any of us could

Joyful reunion “Renew, Reimagine, Rejoice” was the theme of the three-day gathering June 5-7 that drew about 500 people from the Catholic health ministry to Indianapolis and dozens more for virtual access to programming.

In addition to educational sessions and networking opportunities, the event featured live music that celebrated the reunion. The band Protocol performed Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” Barry Manilow’s “One Voice” and other songs in the main ballroom at the JW Marriott Indianapolis. A maestro conducted 45 symphony musicians in a session that drew an analogy between the personal attributes a conductor harnesses to elicit a masterfully synchronized performance from professional musicians and the attributes that allow senior managers to unleash creative productivity in their workforce.

Dr. Rod Hochman, president and chief executive of Providence St. Joseph Health, was among those grateful to be reunited with ministry leaders from across the country. “There is nothing better than being back together,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever take it for granted again.”

Damond W. Boatwright, president and chief executive of Hospital Sisters Health System, said, “It’s a blessing because we have the gift of connection and that was missing. I think this ability to be able to renew old relationships and connect on a personal level and see one another and hug one another and even hold hands is very meaningful.”

Financial challenges Speakers at the event noted that the deaths, illness and isolation brought on by the pandemic haven’t been the only sources of stress for the health care sec-

have imagined how the world would change over the course of three years.”

— Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM

Jerry Naunheim Jr./© CHA

other speakers mourned the more than 1 million lives lost just in the United States to COVID-19. They also shared sorrow over the loss of life, burnout and high turnover the crisis has caused in the health care workforce.

Laura Kaiser, the new chair of CHA’s Board of Trustees, noted during her installation remarks that over the past two years health care providers have been “challenged, humbled and heartsick. But never defeated.”

Kaiser, president and chief executive of SSM Health, added: “Now is the time for renewal.”

CHA President and Chief Executive Officer Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, speaks at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly, which drew about 500 people.

tor over the past two years. They pointed out that providers across the health care continuum have been rattled, like the rest of the nation, by external forces including violence and political division, and operational challenges exacerbated by staff shortages, dramatic spikes in the costs of labor and products, and supply chain disruptions. Catholic long-term care facilities have been particularly impacted and many are at risk of closing.

In her valedictory remarks as the outgoing chair of the CHA Board of Trustees, Dr. Rhonda Medows said health systems “face the threat of financial disability and not being able to sustain themselves.”

Medows, president of population health management for Providence St. Joseph Health, said of the Catholic health care ministry: “We are a critical piece of the health care infrastructure, and we are an absolute necessity for the health care safety net.”

She suggested that to survive health systems might have to rethink their business practices, including how and where services are provided and how to ensure they are fairly reimbursed.

Addressing gun violence, hate Assembly speakers also bemoaned the horrific impact that gun violence is having on the nation. Sr. Mary referenced the mass shootings at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May and the one on the campus of CHA member Saint Fran-

cis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 1 that left two doctors, a staff member and a patient dead. The gunman committed suicide.

“These are tragic reminders of the deepseated evil that we’re experiencing today,” she said. “It’s become an all-too-familiar story. Our society’s in desperate need of healing.”

Sr. Mary emphasized that CHA and many of its members are advocating for sensible gun policies. On the opening day of the meeting, she read a letter from President Joe Biden in which he mentioned the “wanton gun violence” and thanked the ministry “for recommitting to building a safer nation for generations to come.”

Assembly speakers decried the incidence of hate crimes as well as the racial tension across the nation and the racerelated disparities that persist in health care. Sr. Mary noted, however, that almost 90% of CHA’s members have signed on to the organization’s We Are Called pledge to combat racism by achieving health equity.

“Through We Are Called we are not only lending our collective voice to the cause of racial justice, we are also taking action to bring about real change,” Sr. Mary noted.

‘To heal our world’ Another focus of the Assembly was environmental injustice. Speakers cited the call for “integral ecology” — the holistic and integrated approach to political, social, economic and environmental problems — issued by Pope Francis in his 2015 encycli-

Misinformation

Longtime issue Yasmin opened her talk with a description of raucous anti-masking protests and debates in the San Francisco Bay area that

leisenhauer@chausa.org

instinct, from when people practiced safety in numbers to fend off threats.

Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Sipa USA, Sipa via AP Images

From page 1

these concepts can be essential to determining how best to counter medical misinformation. Yasmin directs the Stanford Health Communication Initiative. She is an Emmy Award-winning medical journalist, public health physician and clinical assistant professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she oversees research and education on epidemics and the “contagious nature of information.”

She told an audience of Catholic health care leaders: “We are our own best hope against the spread of misinformation. We are the antidote. … It requires compassion, empathy and patience, which is easy to talk about but hard to practice.” She said physicians should aim to build connections of trust and respect with patients who think differently than they do in order to understand what those patients’ motivations are and to seek mutual understanding with them.

cal on the environment, Laudato Sí … On Care for Our Common Home.

CHA and several of its members have embraced the action platform the Vatican has created to put the teachings of Laudato Sí in place. The platform aims to engage people and organizations in seeking societal change and to gain the critical mass to make an impact on a global scale. Several members also have pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions and zero waste.

Kaiser told the Assembly that as the 2022-2023 chair of the CHA board, “I want to bring additional energy to the need to look after our shared home — to focus on renewing the Earth as a key component of equitable health. Given the role we have in our communities, Catholic health care can lead needed changes to reduce environmental impact.”

In remarks that brought the 2022 Assembly to a close, Sr. Mary urged everyone in the ministry to listen deeply to each other and to those served. “I am confident that we will slowly begin to understand how we are being called to tikkun olam — to heal our world,” she said, using the Hebrew phrase for a Jewish concept that also is core to Catholicism: concern for the marginalized and vulnerable. “And as we do, let us draw upon the strength of God who accompanies and guides our every step, and let us never waver in our commitment to ensure a just and compassionate health care system for all.”

Julie Minda contributed to this report.

Protesters opposed to COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates march outside the Oregon Capitol in Salem in February 2021. During a presentation at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly, medical journalist Dr. Seema Yasmin said countering entrenched beliefs based on medical misinformation requires an understanding of the people spreading and believing untruths.

took place during the 1918 flu pandemic.

She said while false beliefs are an ageold problem, it’s only been in recent years that misinformation has spread at dizzying speed. She attributed this acceleration in part to the deepening polarization in society. People have divided into “tribes” and

their shared beliefs are tied into their sense of belonging to their group of choice. Countering entrenched beliefs can feel like an assault on people’s sense of identity, said Yasmin.

She noted that this banding together in groups is a deeply ingrained survival

Illusion of explanatory depth Yasmin said research has shown that people can wildly overestimate their own understanding of complex theories. She said this overestimation is called the “illusion of explanatory depth.” The research she cited also reveals that when people are convinced through factual information of their own shallow level of understanding of a topic, they often will reexamine their beliefs. They will not hold as tightly to misinformation.

Yasmin said a takeaway is that people may relinquish even deeply held beliefs if someone helps them understand where their thought process is off.

She advised that people seek deep, meaningful connectivity with others of differing opinions and plumb what they are thinking and why. People should try to establish common ground and that will help them better communicate and move toward the truth.

The goal is not always to change people’s minds outright but to come to a mutual understanding, a greater chance of understanding one another, Yasmin said. jminda@chausa.org