Catholic Health World - June 1, 2023

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Food initiative’s goal is ‘systems change’ 3 Executive changes 7

Mercy Housing head looks to expand partnerships between church’s health and housing ministries

By JULIE MINDA

Since the Sisters of Mercy founded Mercy Housing in 1981, the nonprofit, affordable housing ministry has partnered with Catholic health systems and facilities. Given that the housing and health care organizations commonly share sponsorship, leadership, purpose, vision and values, alignment has come naturally.

As the nation’s largest affordable housing provider with nearly $4.9 billion invested in affordable real estate development, Mercy Housing is expanding its strategies to achieve greater impact in improving people’s lives. Both through direct real estate development and investments through Mercy Community Capital, its affiliated community development financial institution, Mercy Housing is improving affordable housing in 41 states. For the past four decades, Mercy Housing has been balancing growth with service delivery, allowing people to live in safe homes with dignity.

Ismael Guerrero joined Mercy Housing in 2020 as president and chief executive. He spoke to Catholic Health World about the close alignment between the Catholic Church’s housing and health care ministries and how those ministries can and should expand their partnership. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why are Mercy Housing and Catholic health care working together?

Bringing housing and health care closer

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SSM executive urges ministry providers to ensure they’re using data ethically

DATA ETHICS AND CATHOLIC HEALTH CARE

Six principles identified by the Vatican as inherent to the ethical use of artificial intelligence:

TRANSPARENCY Systems must be explainable.

INCLUSION The needs of all human beings must be taken into consideration.

RESPONSIBILITY Designers and deployers must have accountability.

IMPARTIALITY

Bias should not be created or employed.

RELIABILITY Systems must work reliably.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY Systems must be secure and users’ privacy respected.

Source: Rome Call for AI Ethics, 2020

By JULIE MINDA

There is a massive amount of data that providers generate in the delivery of health care, and much of that data is highly sensitive, personal information. A lot of the data is so valuable that third-party companies are willing to pay handsomely to access it. Given these and other dynamics of the digital data environment, it is important, in the view of Michael Miller, SSM Health system vice president of mission and ethics, that all health care organizations be extremely careful about how they handle data.

In a webinar titled “Data and Ethics in Health Care,” Miller said it is essential for Catholic health care organizations in particular to thoroughly vet and monitor all plans and implementations for data use from an ethical perspective.

Describing the value of health care

Bon Secours brings AmeriCorps into Cincinnati emergency rooms

By PATRICIA CORRIGAN

Some come to talk about their addictions. Some ask for help. Some are hungry. A listening ear, a referral to a treatment center or a turkey sandwich all are available in the emergency departments of five hospitals in Cincinnati, through Mercy Serves, a program initiated six years ago by Mercy Health — Cincinnati, part of Bon Secours Mercy Health. The program is part of the health system’s response to the national opioid epidemic, which has claimed over a million lives.

Each year, Mercy Serves recruits up to 10 volunteers through AmeriCorps, a

government-sponsored volunteer organization, to spend 11 months working alongside nurses, other health care providers and social workers in hospital emergency departments. The volunteers provide patient education about addiction and substance use, conduct risk screenings, identify resources for social services and follow up with patients after discharge.

The goal of the program is to leverage the power of the national service movement and build the next generation of service-minded leaders while simultaneously addressing a critical community need.

Continued on 7

“The volunteers come from all different careers, interests and backgrounds, and they are mission-oriented. They do not have to be interested in medical careers to apply, though some are.

—

Tikierra

Thompson, who manages the Mercy Serves program

Retired sisters redirect their ministry in their new Benedictine home

By LISA EISENHAUER

SHAKOPEE, Minn. — Circumstances that threw a curve into plans for the opening of a new addition at Benedictine Living Community — Shakopee smoothed the way for 113 retired School Sisters of Notre Dame to move there last year.

The sisters were in search of a new home after the congregation decided to sell their provincial residence, Our Lady of Good Counsel, about 60 miles away in Mankato, Minnesota. The residence was too large for a congregation that, like others across the nation, is shrinking. The residence, which dates to 1912, also was becoming too costly to maintain.

Meanwhile, the opening of Benedictine Shakopee’s newly built independent and assisted living addition, known as Windermere Way, was delayed for several months to November 2020 due to a malfunctioning sprinkler system. Even with the delay, the opening came as the spread of COVID-19 and related restrictions were

Srs. Rose Anthony, left, and Lavonne Krebs, right, unload belongings last fall at Windermere Way, part of Benedictine Living Community — Shakopee in Minnesota.

Srs. Anthony and Krebs were among 113 retirees from the School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province who moved to the community from Our Lady of Good Counsel in Mankato, Minnesota.

Miller

Two CommonSpirit hospitals launching chaplain shadowing program for seminarians

By JULIE MINDA

As part of a broader effort to more closely integrate Catholic health care into Catholic parish life, two CommonSpirit Health hospitals soon will welcome third-year seminarians — all of whom are preparing for their final year of study — onto their campuses so they can learn about and experience what it’s like to provide spiritual care to sick and dying people.

Under the partnership with St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California, the two hospitals — St. John Hospital in Camarillo and St. John’s Regional Medical Center about 10 miles away in Oxnard — will host small cohorts of seminary students for sixweek sessions. Participants will learn about why and how chaplains provide spiritual care to patients. They will shadow hospital chaplains in their daily work before being given opportunities to take the lead in providing spiritual care to patients.

The instruction and one-on-one shadowing will equip the seminarians with the skills they need to effectively minister to the sick and dying and support bereaved and grieving families, says Fr. Lawrence D. Ahyuwa, chaplain services supervisor for the Camarillo and Oxnard hospitals.

Supporters of new Saint Anthony Hospital press Illinois lawmakers for funding

More than 500 patients and residents from the neighborhoods surrounding Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago joined demonstrations at the state capitol in Springfield last month to urge lawmakers to provide funding for a new health campus that would be anchored by the hospital.

Saint Anthony’s plans for the Focal Point Community Campus include a new hospital with 150 inpatient beds surrounded by a mixed-use development. The development would have spaces for agencies focused on social services such as early childhood education, housing and workforce development as well as room for retail shops.

The site of the planned campus is 1½ miles from the hospital’s current location on Chicago’s southwest side. The Chicago City Council agreed two years ago to sell the last parcel needed for the project, an 11-acre tract. The council also has approved zoning for the development.

Guy A. Medaglia, president and chief executive of Saint Anthony, said in a press release about the May 3 demonstrations that the hospital, built in 1898, “is out of date and ill equipped to provide the health care our community deserves.”

“We are asking legislators to allocate state funding toward a world-class facility that meets the needs of our community,” he added.

The demonstrators who went by bus rallied at the Illinois State Museum, in front of the Illinois State Capitol and then inside the rotunda. Among the messages on the signs they held was “Our community deserves better.” Illinois lawmakers were negotiating the state’s next spending plan at the time.

The chaplain shadowing program is important, Fr. Ahyuwa says, because “we need more priests that are people of the heart, not just people of the head. We need compassionate priests that are enthusiastic about hospital ministry.” He says the program will foster such compassion and enthusiasm.

Up close and personal

Fr. Ahyuwa

George West, CommonSpirit vice president of mission integration for the Southern California market, and Fr. Marco A. Durazo, rector and president of the seminary, came up with the idea for the program quite a while ago, but it wasn’t until recently that they began working with seminary and hospital staff to develop the syllabus. West and Fr. Durazo met more than a decade ago when Fr. Durazo spent a summer at St. John Hospital in Camarillo learning about spiritual care in an informal internship. The two kept in touch.

Six seminarians will begin the shadow-

ing program this month. They will devote about 40 hours per week to the program. During didactic sessions led by hospital chaplains, the seminarians will learn about how chaplains provide a ministry of presence and how they honor cultural and religious diversity among patients. The seminarians will see firsthand how end-of-life care is provided and the types of ethical considerations that can arise in decision-making. They’ll also learn how priest chaplains administer sacraments at the hospital.

The two hospitals jointly employ six chaplains — two of them are priests, one is a deacon and the others are with other Christian faith traditions. The seminarians will accompany these chaplains as they minister to patients, patients’ loved ones and hospital employees. The chaplains will help the seminarians process their experiences after the encounters, which often can be emotionally fraught.

Fr. Malachy Theophilus, a staff chaplain at the two hospitals, says he hopes that by the end of the sessions, “the seminarians will be able to articulate for themselves a theology of spiritual care

to the sick, drawn from their patient care encounters.”

Whole person care

The concept of linking the work going on in Catholic health care with the spiritual services delivered in Catholic parishes — through the education of these seminarians — is in line with an initiative the California Catholic Conference and California’s two Catholic health systems started in 2018 called the Whole Person Care Initiative, says West.

Under the partnership, the conference, which represents the state’s bishops and their archdioceses and dioceses, is working with CommonSpirit and Providence St. Joseph Health to equip parishes to offer compassionate support to chronically and terminally ill parishioners.

Next generation of priests

Fr. Ahyuwa calls it “a rare privilege” to mentor future priests in this way for this essential work of the church.

Fr. Theophilus adds that “care of the sick is one of the most important aspects of Jesus’ ministry,” and thus is of great significance as part of priests’ ministry. jminda@chausa.org

The Catholic Health Association

Mission in Long-Term Care Networking Zoom Call (Members only)

7 | 1 – 2 p.m. ET

2023 (Virtual) June 12 – 13

Spiritual/Pastoral Care Dialogue — Care for the Transgender Soul: An Introduction to Spiritual Care for Trans Persons and Their Families Webinar

8 | 1 – 2:15 p.m. ET

Diversity & Disparities Networking Zoom Call June 29 | 1 – 2 p.m. ET

Faith Community Nurse Networking Zoom Call July 25 | 1 – 2 p.m. ET

Vice President

Communications

and Marketing

Brian P. Reardon

Editor Lisa Eisenhauer

leisenhauer@chausa.org

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Mission in Long-Term Care Networking Zoom Call (Members only)

Sept. 6 | 1 – 2 p.m. ET

chausa.org/calendar

Fr. Theophilus

Supporters of the planned Focal Point Community Campus, a development in Chicago that would be anchored by a new Saint Anthony Hospital, rally at the Illinois State Capitol in May to urge lawmakers to help fund the project.

The hospital, built in 1898, “is out of date and ill equipped to provide the health care our community deserves.”

— Guy A. Medaglia

Saint Anthony Hospital

Missouri Foundation for Health aims for ‘systems change’ to end food insecurity

Nonprofit zeroes in on issues at the root of hunger, such as racism and poverty

By LISA EISENHAUER

Policies to pay workers living wages and programs to distribute nutritious food that are supported by SSM Health and Mercy are in sync with a long-term initiative to address hunger being led by Missouri Foundation for Health.

The foundation earlier this year announced a 20-year commitment to transform Missouri’s food system “in momentous pursuit of systems change.” The foundation started in 2000 with the assets from the conversion of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri from nonprofit to for-profit status. The foundation’s mission is to eliminate underlying causes of health inequities, transform systems and enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Katie Kaufmann, senior strategist with Missouri Foundation for Health, is leading the initiative to transform the state’s food system. She says the initiative was undertaken as part of an operational shift by the foundation. Instead of merely being a funder of programs designed to improve the health of Missourians, the nonprofit in recent years has focused on becoming a changemaker through its own work.

“We started really thinking about our role in this space and trying to diagnose the challenges within systems that hold Missourians back from achieving health,” Kaufmann explains.

Among the challenges that the foundation identified is the food insecurity that affects 700,000 to 860,000 Missouri residents, or up to 14% of the state’s population of about 6.2 million. To address food insecurity, the foundation has concluded that systemic changes are needed.

Using an ‘intersectional lens’

In its press release about the initiative to change the state’s food system, the foundation notes: “Food insecurity is ultimately an economic problem driven by the concentration of market and political power in the industrial food system, systemic and institutionalized racism leading to racialized poverty, and economic disinvestment in rural areas and places populated by marginalized groups.”

Kaufmann says the foundation is using an “intersectional lens” in its approach to changing Missouri’s food system. She says that means it is looking at how a range of factors such as racism, poverty, health insurance coverage, transportation and corporate agriculture affect access to nutritious food.

Kaufmann notes that large health systems such as St. Louis-based SSM Health and Chesterfield, Missouri-based Mercy are already at the forefront in addressing food insecurity and its root causes in Missouri. They are doing that, in part, by employing workers at living wages and through programs to distribute healthy foods. Both SSM Health and Mercy made pledges in 2021 to raise the minimum starting wage for all of their workers to $15 an hour. The state’s minimum wage is $12.

Among the food programs that SSM Health takes part in is one between the OB Care Center at SSM Health DePaul Hospital in suburban St. Louis and Operation Food Search. The program ensures that expectant mothers and their families have access to healthy food and other necessities throughout their pregnancy.

Mercy, in collaboration with Operation Food Search, operates Fresh Food Market, a 12-week program in which adults with hypertension or diabetes can try out new recipes and select nutritious foods at no cost. Mercy also is working with nonprofit Food Outreach to offer medically tailored meals to people who are food insecure and have Type 2 diabetes.

Addressing social ills

Dr. Alexander Garza, chief community health officer at SSM Health, joined Missouri Foundation for Health’s board of directors in January. Garza says he strongly believes that improving the overall health of communities requires focusing on access to nutritious food and other social determinants of health.

“If you think broadly about what are

those issues that impact both the health of the individual and the health of the community, it is predominantly things that are outside of the health care delivery system,” Garza says.

He says his experience leading SSM Health’s community health work in individual markets will shape his advice for the wider efforts the foundation is undertaking.

Garza supports the thinking behind Missouri Foundation for Health’s food transformation initiative that bringing about change will require a broad approach that addresses poverty, racism and other social ills. In St. Louis, for example, he points out that neighborhoods with high food insecurity rates often are the same ones that have been hit hard by economic disinvestment. He also notes that those neighborhoods tend to have large concentrations of Black residents.

“That isn’t to say there’s not need in other communities, but (in Black communities) this is much more structural and much more profound,” he says.

Pandemic lessons

Garza sees lessons from the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that could inform the initiative. One example is the national program that provided free school lunches to all students. That happened through federal funding during the first two years of the pandemic, ending the stigma of being part of a program just for the poor as well as administrative hurdles to accessing it.

“Any policy that we can enact to improve access to healthy food, especially for the more vulnerable populations, is a good thing,” Garza says.

SSM Health, he notes, has made food insecurity a key performance indicator across the system for 2023. It has asked each of its regions to come up with a plan to address the need among patients. The plans vary, he says, based on community needs and resources, but all involve working with local partners such as food pantries.

Community outreach

To start the initiative that the foundation is committed to working on for two decades, Kaufmann says the foundation’s staff is visiting communities across the state to hear from various stakeholders, such as people struggling with food insecurity, advocates who are trying to help and small farmers who can’t get their products to consumers.

Kaufmann says the foundation also is studying how two major food safety nets — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — are administered in Missouri. One question the organization and others it works in partnership with hope to answer, she says, is whether the enrollment and renewal processes are factors in why many people eligible for the programs aren’t on the rolls.

“We’re very early in this work and we’re really trying to learn from individuals and from communities around the state,” Kaufmann says. “I certainly hope we’ll be able to come back in a little bit of time and say, ‘We’ve made these investments and we’ve seen this sort of progress.’”

leisenhauer@chausa.org

Academic health system in talks to acquire Ascension hospital in Mobile, Alabama

An academic health system is in talks to acquire a 349-bed Mobile, Alabama, hospital from Ascension.

Under the agreement, Ascension Providence Health System, its flagship Ascension Providence Hospital, and affiliated clinics would join Mobile-based University of South Alabama Health Care Authority.

USA Health includes University Hospital in Mobile, a women’s and children’s hospital, a cancer institute and a network of additional locations.

The deal is expected to close in the fall. Plans call for the academic health system to acquire the hospital and its network of outpatient operations. The acquisition is to

include the affiliated physician practices of Ascension Medical Group.

In a release on the agreement, Dr. John Marymont, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama, said the acquisition will enhance the academic health system’s

capabilities and “create jobs and opportunities for more people across a wide spectrum to bolster Mobile and the surrounding area.”

Beyond Mobile, Ascension has a presence in the greater Birmingham area in Alabama. The health system also has a presence in communities along the Gulf Coast.

Team members from SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital — St. Charles in Missouri hold up bags of fresh produce that were given out at a drive-thru event last summer. The hospital partnered with St. Louis Area Foodbank for the food giveaway.

A woman selects items from the Fresh Food Market that Chesterfield, Missouri-based Mercy stocks in collaboration with Operation Food Search. The market, housed at a Mercy clinic in Ferguson, Missouri, is part of a 12-week program for adults with hypertension or diabetes who are dealing with food insecurity.

Garza

SSM June 1, 2023 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD 3

Data ethics

From page 1

data, Miller called it the “new oil” of today’s digital environment — just as petroleum reserves promised untold wealth in the 1800s in the U.S., the troves of health care data that are being generated are hugely valuable today.

Health care systems and facilities must guard this precious commodity carefully, Miller said, including by understanding how data is collected, used and maintained at their organizations.

Miller’s webinar on May 3 was an installment of “Emerging Topics in Catholic Health Care Ethics.” That webinar series is sponsored by CHA, Georgetown University, Loyola University Chicago and Saint Louis University.

Common good for data use

Miller explained that ethical concerns around data use fall under the category of applied ethics. Some of the ethical principles that come into play have to do with respect for human dignity and considerations around the common good, as captured in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services

Miller noted that numerous organizations have been deliberating and delineating ethical concepts for data use in health care. The Vatican, for instance, issued in February 2020 a Rome Call for AI Ethics. That document puts forth high-level categories for evaluating the use of data, including reliability, transparency, inclusion, impartiality, security and privacy, and responsibility. Miller said the framework from the Vatican can be very useful for ministry organizations and others as they are making decisions around data use.

Miller explained that there are many types of health care data, including structured data, which is specific, quantitative data points; unstructured data, which are clinical notes and other qualitative information; administrative data, which has to do with backend processes like coding and billing; patient-generated data such as that coming from Fitbits and other biometric trackers; population health data; and consumer data.

Revenue stream

During the webinar, Miller elaborated on top areas of concern when it comes to health care data.

He described the great potential to monetize such data and the possible hazards of doing so. Data is a prized commodity because it can help organizations unlock clues to patient and consumer behavior. It can be very lucrative for the organizations that possess such data to sell it. Creating a revenue stream in this way can be of much interest to providers, and especially ones that are operating on tight margins. But, challenged Miller, under what parameters is it OK to fuel economic progress by extracting and selling data from patients? How does such activity either promote or hinder human flourishing?

Miller also described the “myth of big data,” or the potentially false belief that the more data organizations have, the more problems they can solve with the data. Miller asked rhetorically what the purpose is of storing up data and whether data will be used in a way that is an appropriate reflection of who ministry providers are.

Relatedly, he warned of the potential to perpetuate bias through the wrong use of health care data. To illustrate, he laid out a case study in which algorithms a group of data scientists used to process health care usage data for a study were based on false assumptions. As a result, he said vulnerable people were denied appropriate, timely care when the study results were applied to a care access policy.

Privacy and security

Miller noted that while most health care providers are well attuned to the need to

Under what parameters is it OK to fuel economic progress by extracting and selling data from patients? How does such activity either promote or hinder human flourishing?

protect health care data from exposure, there can be a false security when providers give third parties access to deidentified data. That is data that has had patient identification information removed. Miller said that there is much value to companies in connecting disparate data sets in order to draw linkages among the data points included in those sets. Reconnecting data in different sets introduces the potential for third parties to inappropriately “reidentify” patients, Miller cautioned.

In a related topic, Miller said that privacy and security are always in counterbalance to each other. To illustrate this concept, he described how video doorbells can help provide a layer of security for a resident, but potentially can violate the privacy of people passively walking by. When those people are recorded, there is the possibility their

privacy could be violated.

Power dynamics

Miller also brought up concerns around informed consent of patients when it comes to the use of their data. There is a history of various types of abuse of the providerpatient relationship and so it is an essentiality in health care that patients are informed about all aspects of their care and that they are told the implications of that care. He related the concept to questions around power dynamics when it comes to individual patients on one hand and large, powerful companies on the other.

He asked to what extent patients can consent to the use of their data, whether they can understand the full implications of the use of their information and whether they really have the power to opt out of their data being used. Miller likened it to the experience of having to accept all the terms of service in a lengthy user agreement when buying a smartphone. Usually, a phone buyer cannot use the phone without agreeing to all the conditions put forth by the phone company.

Green concerns

Miller also flagged the dangers of falling prey to “AI hype,” or the sensationalism around artificial intelligence. He said technology cannot and should not be seen as

the end-all solution for problems and by the same token it should not be viewed as an untamable tool.

He also elaborated on concerns around the environmental impact of big data. The generation, processing and storage of data requires the erection of gigantic data centers around the world filled with rooms of servers. Those data servers use copious amounts of energy to run. To what extent do health care providers consider the environmental cost of operating these data centers? Miller wondered.

To close out the webinar, Miller said he’s aware that there is great work already being done by ministry systems and facilities to pay heed to such concerns. He advised that providers continue to work together to stay on top of the considerations.

“We need to ask the questions of ‘why.’ When looking to collect data, we need to ask why and to explore the implications,” he said. “We need to create oversight groups to make sure we’re deploying technology in alignment with our Catholic identity. We need to explore the implications of developing technologies.”

Miller referenced an article he coauthored with others from within the Catholic ministry, “Data Ethics in Catholic Health Systems.” That article is available for purchase at tinyurl.com/5xdmar46. jminda@chausa.org

Mercy Housing

From page 1

to communities with limited resources is of mutual interest between Mercy Housing and Catholic health care. We are exploring how to leverage our core competencies. Mercy Housing excels at building and managing affordable housing as well as developing trusted relationships with people who call Mercy Housing home. Our health care partners excel at providing preventative services, wellness programs and medical services to people in those same communities.

Today we understand that to control health care costs you have to pay attention to what is happening outside the clinical environment. One of the key social determinants of health is stable housing. Both Mercy Housing and Catholic health care providers are looking at the whole person. With the Housing First model that we use, it is important to start with housing stability then address other needs, because issues like financial mobility, mental, physical and emotional wellness, and academic achievement will not improve without housing stability.

What are some challenges that could interfere with partnerships in these areas?

We’re all in a different world because of the pandemic. The devastating disruptions to our health care system partners are well known. Collectively, we are defining a new normal. Many of our existing partners speak of two major challenges — recruiting staff and increased costs of hospital operations.

For Mercy Housing, we are challenged by our mission to increase the inventory of affordable housing through real estate development — which takes years — and the massive increases in construction costs.

Our shared founding communities were driven by mission and strong values. They were called to serve those most in need, to do better. This history allows us to overcome many of the challenges that might exist with other real estate partners.

What types of financing does Mercy Housing use for its properties?

In today’s economic environment, we must be creative. Every deal requires multiple layers of financing to build affordable housing. We’re using federal subsidies and tax credit investments. Many banks are motivated by the Community Reinvestment Act but there can still be a gap in financing. We partner with state, local, and

regional partners to bring credits and other resources to Mercy Housing communities. In many cases, philanthropic partners donate financial gifts for capital projects or to pay for resident programs.

Beyond money investments, how else are ministry providers supporting affordable housing expansion?

Mercy Housing enjoys many existing partnerships with Catholic health care partners that began with the gift of land. Hospitals sometimes find they have obsolete buildings or excess land that could be used for affordable housing. These are often uncovered as providers update their health needs assessments and strategic business reviews. Some of our partnerships are complex, reserving some beds for respite care in the new affordable housing that is built with donated land or buildings. In some cases, they provide free wellness and critical medical care to Mercy Housing residents on-site or at a shared facility.

How do those alignments lead to greater partnership in helping vulnerable people?

When Mercy Housing can focus on our core business, housing, and partners focus on their core business, health care, our shared clients, the most vulnerable people, benefit.

Together we can bring services closer to them in a culturally relevant way and in a way that meets them where they live. This approach increases the probability of them taking advantage of preventive programs, keeping them out of emergency rooms and urgent care. Educating and empowering them to drive their wellness journey keeps them in school and on the job. It provides

them with the tools to live with dignity and change their life trajectory.

At the end of the day people who are stably housed are receiving health services that ultimately improve their long-term life outcomes.

which is part of Trinity Health. Mercy Care was expanding its federally qualified health center and Mercy Housing was looking for opportunities to add housing in Chamblee, Georgia. Mercy Care partnered with us and we co-developed affordable housing for seniors adjacent to Mercy Care’s health center.

And in Vancouver, Washington, PeaceHealth was building a new campus and also saw a need for affordable housing. PeaceHealth had excess land and we weren’t yet in Vancouver. It was a natural partnership. So on that excess land we built our first family housing development in Vancouver. We’re looking to grow and do more with PeaceHealth.

These are just two examples of where we’re increasingly seeing our mutual interests align and seeing mutual benefit. We have common interests. We’re sitting down with existing and new partners asking how we can multiply our impact.

What does partnership between Mercy Housing and Catholic health care providers look like from a practical standpoint?

There is mutual learning between Catholic health care providers and Mercy Housing. For example, Mercy Housing provides permanent supportive housing for people who are homeless. They also are high users of emergency services, which has high costs. As we create permanent supportive housing, we see they also are patients and we ask how they can stay stably housed and healthier.

We look at how to get preventive care to them. Perhaps there’s a case manager in a housing unit. Perhaps there’s transportation we coordinate to medical care. It’s a value-add for the health care provider. Through partnerships between Mercy Housing properties and Catholic health care and senior care, we’re working on how to help manage people’s health care needs day to day and ensure they get care early instead of relying on the emergency room.

What grounds the partnerships between Mercy Housing and Catholic health ministry organizations?

Partnerships have really been part of the Mercy Housing legacy since the beginning. That legacy comes from the fact that we were sponsored by seven communities. The sisters were passionate, fierce and committed to the ministries of housing and health care. They recognized that what these ministries are doing is really hard work and it can’t be done alone. You have to invite others in.

Today, the challenges have evolved, and we must think big on a systems level. The people who are most vulnerable are falling through the cracks of our systems. The need for us to work together is greater than ever.

What are some examples of those partnerships between Mercy Housing and Catholic health organizations?

In Atlanta, there is a strategic partnership we’ve jointly developed with Mercy Care,

With our families living in Mercy Housing sites, we’re learning that they need good nutrition, healthy food and management of chronic conditions so that they don’t lose their employment. They need child care. We’re looking at how we can use the hospitals’ community health needs assessments, how we can partner with hospitals and how we can structure partnerships for the residents of our housing sites. We align with the hospitals around the needs of the community. It’s mutual learning and mutual alignment.

There’s clear understanding on both our parts that there is a need. So now it’s about matchmaking. We’re getting the right people in the room from Mercy Housing and from the Catholic health partner and we’re seeing the magic happen.

Those conversations are happening and it’s exciting because we can take those success stories and scale them across our markets. There’s cross-learning and collaboration.

Visit chausa.org/chw for more examples of partnerships between Mercy Housing and Catholic health care providers. jminda@chausa.org

Children participate in activities at an after-school program at the Columbia Heights affordable housing complex in Vancouver, Washington, a Mercy Housing facility. PeaceHealth donated the land for Columbia Heights and provided $2.4 million to build 69 apartments for low-income families. The complex is close to a PeaceHealth hospital as well as to public transportation, schools and parks.

Mercy Park in Chamblee, Georgia, includes 79 affordable apartments for seniors. This Mercy Housing complex is adjacent to and partners with Mercy Care, a federally qualified health center that is part of Trinity Health.

We’re getting the right people in the room from Mercy Housing and from the Catholic health partner and we’re seeing the magic happen.

Retired sisters’ move

From page 1

giving many people or their families pause about moving into eldercare communities.

When the sisters and a group of advisers finished their research and discernment on a new home for the retirees in 2021, they had selected Shakopee. “A higher power might have played a hand there,” says Andy Opsahl, Benedictine vice president of business development.

“We just happened to have a late opening and enough availability.”

A few of the sisters moved to Benedictine St. Gertrude’s and the Gardens, an established facility in Shakopee that has skilled nursing care and assisted living.

‘I love it here’

Opsahl had been in discussions with the congregation’s leaders for about four years before the retired sisters began their move in late summer 2022. The talks began with the possibility of developing an eldercare community with the sisters in Mankato and ended with the relocation of the retirees to Shakopee, a town where some of them years earlier had been assigned to serve at schools and parishes.

The sisters’ housing is mixed in among that of lay residents. Most of the sisters moved into Windermere Way’s independent living section. Sr. Cerella Baumgartner settled into a two-bedroom ground-floor unit with her roommate, Sr. Anne Becker. Like many of the other units the sisters were given, theirs had not been previously occupied.

Even several months after the move, Sr. Baumgartner still marvels at having an apartment that is much more spacious and modern than what she had at the motherhouse. The roommates have their own bedrooms and bathrooms on opposite sides of the unit with a living room, kitchen and glass doors that lead to a small patio in between.

Sr. Baumgartner turned a section of her walk-in closet into an office space with a desk and chair. “I love it here,” she says of her new home.

Staying connected

Sr. Baumgartner spent decades teaching at Catholic schools staffed by the congregation before retiring to the provincial residence. Even there, she was in charge of transportation for a while and tutored children at a learning center the congregation ran.

She doesn’t have official duties at Shakopee but that doesn’t slow her down. She delivers jigsaw puzzles to anyone who wants one and makes the rounds to visit other sisters. “They keep telling me, ‘Cerella, you are going to be 93 now in Octo-

Congregations turn to Benedictine for eldercare

Minnesota-based Benedictine has a long history of working with religious congregations to provide appropriate housing and health care for retired members. Some other examples:

Last year, a group of about 40 Adorers of the Blood of Christ moved to Benedictine Living Community — At The Shrine, a continuum-of-care complex in Belleville, Illinois, on the 200-acre grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The congregation had grown too small for its motherhouse in a tiny community about 30 miles away.

ber, start slowing down,’” she says with a chuckle. “I said, ‘I can’t do that. I have to be where people are.’”

Sr. Mary Owen Stevermer has a studio unit in Windermere Way’s assisted living section. She has decked her space out with green accent pieces, a nod to her Irish heritage. She says she was mostly “a loner” during her 75 years in ministry, mainly filling housekeeping and food service roles.

In 2009, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet of St. Louis and Benedictine entered into a ministry partnership agreement to operate Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis. The congregation had previously been the sole operator of the facility for its retirees. Dozens of retired sisters now live there alongside lay residents.

Since 1997, Benedictine has cosponsored Villa St. Benedict in Lisle, Illinois, with the Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart. The eldercare community in suburban Chicago is on the grounds of the congregation’s campus.

Monastery in Duluth, who also sponsor Benedictine. However, the congregation is in the process of transitioning their sponsor council model to a ministerial public juridic person model.

Kukowski says she and her fellow sisters are able to maintain their spiritual and communal life. They can reserve the chapel for private services, meet for prayer in the Commons and use the closed-circuit TV system for virtual gatherings.

Smooth transition

Sr. Kukowski says there are things she misses from her days at Our Lady of Good Counsel, such as the large ornate chapel and sprawling gardens. However, she says her new home is comfortable and the new life among lay residents is becoming familiar to her and the other sisters. “We’re getting to really know each other,” she says.

The retired sisters moved to Shakopee in groups of about 10 over the course of several weeks. Because she was undergoing treatment in Mankato for liver cancer, Sr. Kukowski was among the last to arrive.

By the time she made the move in early November, the sisters had the process down pat. Professional movers arrived in the morning, packed up the furnishings and belongings and delivered them to Shakopee. The sisters left Mankato in the afternoon and by the time they arrived at their new quarters, their furnishings and belongings were in place. Other members of the order were on hand to greet them and to help them get settled.

“By the time I got here, a friend of mine already had the bed made and everything that she could do was done,” Sr. Kukowski recalls.

Finding a good fit

Now, Sr. Stevermer says, she’s enjoying the social aspects of her new life. She is chummy with a male resident who makes use of the communal laundry in the same early hours as she does. She dines in a community lunchroom surrounded by other sisters and lay residents.

She visits the Commons, a social space that Benedictine set aside exclusively for the sisters. “I make an effort to go up there every day to read the bulletin board and see what’s new,” Sr. Stevermer says.

She also spends much of her day in prayer, either in her unit or at the chapel just inside Windermere Way’s main entrance.

Spiritual support

Fr. Rinaldo Custodio, a retired diocesan priest, was one of the facility’s first residents. He celebrates Mass six days a week at either Windermere Way or at Benedictine St. Gertrude’s, which is a few miles away on the campus of St. Francis Regional Medical Center. The medical center is sponsored by the Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica

Fr. Custodio says he enjoys living in a community with so many retired sisters, although he says that meeting the spiritual needs of so many devout elderly Catholics is demanding. “I’m supposed to be retired,” he says. “I’m not supposed to be doing anything.”

He gets assistance from Deacon Richard Roy and his wife, Maureen Roy. The Roys are both Eucharistic ministers and they lead the rosary at both Benedictine Shakopee campuses. The health system also recently posted an opening for a spiritual care coordinator to be based at Windermere Way.

The sisters, like all residents, can attend the Masses and the rosary sessions in person or in their rooms through closed-circuit TV. Benedictine also added monitors and hookups so that when the chapel at Windermere Way overflows, as it often does for Saturday evening Mass and funerals, residents can watch from other meeting spaces. It is adding similar technology in the chapel at St. Gertrude’s so the sisters there can attend funerals and provincial gatherings virtually.

Despite having to share the chapel with other residents, including those who are of faiths other than Catholic, and being separated across two campuses, Sr. Daniel Marie

Sr. Helen Jane Jaeb, part of the leadership team for the province, was on the committee that planned the retired sisters’ move. She and some other sisters who are still in active ministry remain in Mankato, although they don’t live at the motherhouse. It has been sold to a developer. The plans for the chapel remain in flux, although the congregation hopes to see it turned over to a nonprofit and kept as a sacred space.

Sr. Jaeb says the congregation made the decision several years ago to give up its large properties and find places where its sisters could live in community and receive needed health care support. Our Lady of Good Counsel is one of four locations of the School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province, which covers 62 dioceses, 25 states, and Guam, Italy, Japan and Nepal.

Sr. Jaeb says Benedictine’s Shakopee facilities were a good fit not only because they are Catholic but also because Benedictine’s founding congregation, the Benedictine Sisters of Duluth, Minnesota, historically has had health care as part of its mission.

“The staff, from the top administration down, everyone at Shakopee were just wonderful and continue to be,” Sr. Jaeb says.

Mission continues

Though the sisters at Benedictine Shakopee are retired, Sr. Jaeb says the congregation encourages them to continue their ministry. “They themselves say their ministry now is to keep community and form community with more than just the sisters,” she says.

Yvonne Anderson, marketing director at St. Gertrude’s, says now that the sisters have settled in at Shakopee, she and others are helping them to connect with nearby Catholic institutions. “They want to volunteer and be engaged in the community at large,” Anderson says. “I think that they’ll bring many talents to our overall community, within a church, or within a school or within a hospital.”

Sr. Baumgartner says she and the other sisters are ministering to each other and reaching out to the lay residents at their Benedictine home. “I think it’s something else that God wants us to do,” she says. leisenhauer@chausa.org

Archbishop Bernard Hebda, leader of the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, chats with, from left, Srs. June Marie Tachney, Diane Perry and Lalande Henne in the dining room at Windermere Way, part of Benedictine Living Community — Shakopee in Minnesota that has independent and assisting living.

Archbishop Hebda was at the community in March to visit with and welcome the dozens of School Sisters of Notre Dame who moved there last year.

Opsahl

Sr. Cerella Baumgartner says she’s happy in her new home at Windermere Way, where she shares an independent living apartment with Sr. Anne Becker. They both spent decades in active ministry with the School Sisters of Notre Dame and were based at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Mankato, Minnesota.

Sr. Jaeb Anderson

“They keep telling me, ‘Cerella, you are going to be 93 now in October, start slowing down.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that. I have to be where people are.’”

— Sr. Cerella Baumgartner

Benedictine Living Community — Shakopee

Benedictine

KEEPING UP

Bolano Avendt Child Gray Leavitt Bricker Center — Nampa.

PRESIDENTS/CEOS

Trinity Health and some of its facilities have made these changes:

Nancy Hollingsworth was to retire May 26 as president and chief executive of Saint Agnes Health of Fresno, California. Her retirement comes as Saint Agnes Health and Saint Alphonsus Health System of Boise, Idaho, restructure. Those two Trinity Health subsystems are organizing as a single region to better share resources, according to a statement from Trinity Health.

Mercy Serves

From page 1

The program is funded by ServeOhio, the state’s Commission on Service and Volunteerism. Working full-time or parttime shifts, volunteers receive a stipend, a monetary award to pay for schooling or school debt, health insurance and other benefits.

Mercy Health — Cincinnati reports that from September 2021 through August 2022:

Close to 1,900 patients were provided with information about substance use or referrals to treatment.

More than 300 patients reported a change in knowledge or behavior regarding substance use.

Almost 100 patients were admitted to a local treatment program.

Nearly 1,000 referrals were made for other social determinants of health such as housing, food and insurance coverage.

Since the program began, 51 AmeriCorps members, ages 18 and up, have signed on with Mercy Serves. Tikierra Thompson manages the program. “What drew me to this work is the mission behind the program, what it stands for,” she said. “I’ve been in education for over 20 years, in classrooms and in administration, and I’ve had students who worked at Mercy hospitals, so I have been privileged to see the work Mercy is doing in the community.”

From all walks of life

Thompson hosts the program’s orientation, helps train the volunteers for three to four weeks and oversees some of the professional development sessions. This year, Mercy Serves has four AmeriCorps volunteers. What they have in common is a desire to serve. “The volunteers come from all different careers, interests and backgrounds, and they are mission-oriented,” Thompson said. “They do not have to be interested in medical careers to apply, though some are. A few previous volunteers have gone on to medical school.”

Mercy Serves members are available to work with patients who have substance use disorder issues and crises, and they also speak with anyone coming to the emergency room with health or social challenges or looking for resources that could benefit their health in some way. “Our members are there to be of service,” Thompson said, “but also to provide the human touch, be a listening ear.”

Courtney Unkrich signed up for the program because she wanted to do something for her community. “When I joined in 2021, I’d left medical school because I real-

ized that was not where my path lay, but my interest in health care meshed well with the Mercy Serves opportunity,” she said.

Unkrich recalled that every day in the emergency department was different. “You encounter a lot of scenarios, meet a lot of different people,” she said. “Patients with substance use issues range on a scale of readiness to make changes. Some are just not having it — you come in and start talking and they’re just not ready. Other people tell you they need help. They want to talk, and I got to be that resource.”

Offering the human touch

Sometimes, Unkrich was able to provide different kinds of assistance. “The human touch is missing a lot for some people, and I could sit down and say, ‘I’m here for you. Would a Jell-O cup or a blanket be something you need?’ Other times, I’d just ask about their day or have a simple conversation about their grandchildren. Sometimes, patients would tell me they were glad they came in because they met me, and during follow-up later I would get a text saying, ‘I’m still sober.’”

With other volunteers from her cohort, Unkrich developed and acquired funding for homeless care kits for patients. The kits included feminine hygiene products, hand sanitizer, deodorant, a toothbrush and paste and nonperishable food items such as granola bars and applesauce. “We also provided a list of community resources,” she said. “I was happy to see that the kits are part of this year’s program as well.”

‘I’ve been there’

Adrian Burns is part of the sixth group, which commenced in September 2022. Burns joined the program for a personal reason. “I’m really passionate about Mercy Serves because I’m in recovery from alcohol,” she said. “I am able to relate to patients on that level because I’ve been there, and I want everyone to be able to experience freedom from alcohol and drugs like I have.”

In the early weeks of the program, Burns hadn’t yet met with any patients dealing with substance use issues. “I do advanced care planning training, and otherwise try to fit in at the emergency department where I’m needed, checking to see if I can offer a warm blanket or a referral to mental health treatment,” she said.

“An emergency department can be scary, and most people don’t want to be there,” she added. “I’m glad I can be a smiling face and provide a human-to-human interaction. I’m really excited to see where this year takes me, and what relationships I will build.”

Saint Alphonsus President and Chief Executive Odette Bolano now becomes president and chief executive of the new regional entity. She will lead a restructured management team. To support the transition, David Spivey is joining the Saint Agnes team as interim president and market leader. Spivey was interim president of Trinity Health’s St. Mary’s Health Care System of Athens, Georgia.

Trinity Health noted in the statement that Saint Agnes’ and Saint Alphonsus’ names will not change and the boards of directors for each will remain separate. The statement said this is the latest regionalization for Trinity Health. The system already has merged ministries in several regions, including Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and New York.

Clint Child to president of Saint Alphonsus Medical Center — Nampa, Idaho. He was chief nursing officer for the Saint Alphonsus Health System of Boise, Idaho, and chief nursing officer and vice president of operations for the Nampa hospital. He also was interim president of the Nampa hospital from October 2017 to February 2018. Child replaces Travis Leach, who was the Nampa hospital’s president since February 2018. Misti Leavitt succeeds Child as chief nursing officer and vice president of operations for Saint Alphonsus Medical

Alison Avendt to president of Mercy Health — Perrysburg Hospital of Perrysburg, Ohio, effective June 19. She was chief operating officer at McLaren St. Luke’s Hospital of Maumee, Ohio. She will succeed Andrea Gwyn, who had been president of both Mercy Health — St. Anne Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, and Mercy Health — Perrysburg Hospital. Gwyn now will focus on St. Anne Hospital.

CommonSpirit Health has made these changes: Tim Bricker to president of CommonSpirit’s southwest division, which is made up of Dignity Health facilities throughout Arizona and Nevada. Bricker had been interim president. Dr. Jason F. Gray now is interim president of CHI Mercy Health of Roseburg, Oregon. He succeeds Kelly Morgan, who is retiring. A national search is underway for the permanent president and chief executive. Gray is chief medical officer of CHI Mercy Health.

Dr. Dean Kindler to interim regional president and chief executive of Ascension Michigan’s Southwest Region while continuing in his roles as regional chief medical officer and regional Ascension Medical Group vice president for that region. He succeeds Dr. Thomas Rohs, who departed from the role.

GIFT

The St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation of Bangor, Maine, has received a bequest of $9 million from the estate of the late John Marshall Webber, a longtime Bangor resident and past supporter of St. Joseph Healthcare. According to a foundation release, the funds will enhance inpatient and surgical care facilities. Webber was a Marine Corps veteran. He died in October.

JOB POSTING: SENIOR DIRECTOR, MINISTRY FORMATION

CHA seeks candidates for the position of senior director, ministry formation.

The Catholic health ministry is the largest group of nonprofit health care providers in the nation. It is comprised of more than 600 hospitals and 1,600 long-term care and other health facilities. To ensure vital sponsorship and a vibrant future for the Catholic health ministry, CHA advocates with Congress, the administration, federal agencies, and influential policy organizations to ensure that the nation’s health systems provide quality and affordable care across the continuum of health care delivery.

This position is responsible for leading, designing and implementing ministry formation strategies, programs, and training to meet the needs of the members. This individual possesses knowledge and practical application in theology, spiritual development and facilitation; and has exceptional presentation skills. Through thought leadership and subject matter expertise, this person will collaborate with key stakeholders to develop and measure integrated formation throughout their ministries, including assisting with the implementation of projects related to Catholic identity. Additionally, this position is responsible for convening ministry formation executives to facilitate the sharing of successful practices in these areas and coordinating responses to member needs.

Some travel is required.

CHA seeks candidates who are practicing Catholics with a minimum of five years working in a leadership position in ministry formation or mission integration at a local, regional or national health care level with proven leadership experience in management or supervision, and experience and ability to present educational and conceptual information to both large and small groups.

This position requires a master’s degree in theology or related field.

Interested parties should direct resumes to Attention:

Cara Brouder

Senior director, human resources

Catholic Health Association

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

CHA offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package. To view a more detailed posting for this position, visit the careers page on chausa.org.

Chloe Caplinger, left, and Courtney Unkrich, part of the Mercy Serves program, assemble homeless care kits with hygiene and nonperishable food items that are given to patients. The AmeriCorps volunteers were part of Mercy Serves’ fifth cohort, staying through last August. The volunteers are deployed for 11 months in the emergency departments of one of Mercy Health — Cincinnati’s hospitals.

Thompson Burns

Mercy Health