Catholic Health World - May 15, 2021

CHA job board 3 Executive changes 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION

MAY 15, 2021 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 8

By LISA EISENHAUER

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the last year one like no other for health care workers. The scope of the illness has pushed hospitals’ capacities to their limits and tested the endurance of their staffs.

The diligence of medical workers has kept the virus from taking an even more devastating toll and gotten more than 30% of Americans vaccinated by early May. For many months, Catholic Health World has been profiling frontline health care workers and system leaders about their extraordinary efforts during the pandemic in a series called Rising to the Call. It can be found at chausa.org/rising.

This spring, we invited eight more workers to reflect on the unique challenges of the past year. They shared how innovative thinking, collaboration and support from executive leadership, their colleagues and their communities helped them surmount hardships.

Director of Mission David “Puddy” Agans takes part in daily prayer time in the chapel of Mercy Hospital Ardmore in Oklahoma.

David “Puddy” Agans

Director of mission Mercy Hospital Ardmore in Oklahoma

Chewelah hospital has trained about 1,000 CNAs, many of whom go on to careers in health care

By PATRICIA CORRIGAN

A nursing assistant certification program at Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chewelah, Washington, is changing lives, one family at a time, even during the global pandemic. The program introduces participants to the medical field, provides a pipeline for potential job opportunities in the community, benefits patients — and it’s free.

“During these times of increased need for health care workers, we are fortunate to offer a program that fosters bedside caregivers,” said Jane Branda, a registered nurse who is the program director and instructor.

High school student Lexi Robertson, left, with her mother, Tara Livingston, pose after a pinning ceremony in December for Robertson and fellow graduates of the certified nursing assistant training program at Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chewelah, Washington. Livingston is a registered nurse at the hospital.

“For 36 years, Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital has provided nurse assistant training for between 20-25 students per year to help fill our job openings, and COVID-19 hasn’t stopped us. Gov. Jay Inslee made it clear the program is considered essential.”

With a population of about 3,000, Chewelah is situated about 50 miles north of Spokane.

Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital is a critical access hospital, licensed for 25 hospital beds and additional swing beds. Students seeking certification as nursing assistants come from Chewelah and other small communities within a 25-mile radius, including Valley, Colville, Kettle Falls and Springdale, Branda said. They range in age from 18 to mid-60s.

To date, about 1,000 individuals have completed the 21-day program, which includes 126 hours of instruction and clinical experience. Graduates have been Continued on 8

Mercy Oklahoma City keeps up relentless pace in race against virus

By LISA EISENHAUER

Jay Cabrera, a nurse manager at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City, prepares to vaccinate a patient at the hospital’s clinic. The hospital has given enough vaccines to cover 15% of the city’s population.

When the first doses of vaccine arrived, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City was in the throes of a COVID-19 patient surge. At one point, patients with COVID occupied almost half its 379 beds.

The hospital’s staff might have been forgiven if, after months of extra shifts and the heightened stress of caring for a deluge of extremely ill patients, they didn’t jump at the chance to work even more hours administering the vaccine. But that’s just what they did.

By late April, the hospital, in partnership with its Mercy Clinic and the local health department, had administered more than 61,000 doses of vaccine, most of them through its vaccine clinic but some through two retail pharmacies it runs. Its vaccines have covered 15% of the Oklahoma City population.

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Ascension introduces newscast to cheer on — and thank — associates

By MARY DELACH LEONARD

When the pandemic was hitting Ardmore, Oklahoma, hardest late last year and early this year, David “Puddy” Agans saw the demand for chaplaincy services at Mercy Hospital Ardmore shift from patients to staff.

Agans says that on the worst days, patients with COVID-19 made up 80% of the hospital’s census. Tracking sites showed the rate of viral spread in the community of about 25,000 was the ninth worst in the nation.

The hospital’s chaplains reported that three out of four of their requests for counseling were coming from staff. Previously, most of their requests came from patients or families.

“We were in a bad place,” Agans recalls.

When a hospital survey found that workers wanted better communication and

The premiere episode of the Good Day Ascension Newscast in January opened with photos and videos of caregivers from across the health care organization flexing their vaccinated arms in relief and celebration after receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

“It’s been really hard and heavy for a long time,’’ said an emotional critical care nurse in a video clip from Ascension Seton in Austin, Texas. “Even though I know there’s a lot of heaviness left to go, just knowing there’s an end in sight is really, really exciting.’’

In another clip, nurses at Ascension St. Vincent in Evansville, Indiana, brought balloons and party hats for a woman who was getting her second dose on her 100th birthday.

With its cheerful co-hosts and upbeat music and visuals, the new monthly newscast aims to lift spirits and recognize the dedication of the 160,000 Ascension

Continued on 2

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Heidi Suppelsa/Ascension

A year of pandemic: Workers share heartbreak, successes of COVID response

Providence hospital grows its own certified nurse assistants

Co-host Candice Evans signs off on the first Good Day Ascension Newscast recorded in January. The upbeat 15-minute newscasts focus on Ascension’s caregivers and thought leaders and reinforce the idea that the sprawling system comprises a single, unified ministry.

CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD May 15, 2021

Pandemic profiles

Dr. Mary C. Raven

Medical director for palliative care Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

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better support, Agans headed up the effort to address that need by stepping up outreach to staff. Employees voiced concerns and leaders shared information and encouragement at staff town halls. Executives scheduled regular events such as free meals to lift spirits and show their appreciation for the staff’s perseverance.

The community pitched in, too.

Churches held prayer services in front of the hospital. The Ardmore Chamber of Commerce got 25 businesses to sponsor hospital departments. The sponsors sent goody bags and arranged catered meals. Often, the gifts came with handwritten notes of gratitude.

“It was really cool just to see the reactions on co-workers’ faces when they received them,” Agans says. “They were blown away by how much time people spent letting them know they were cared for.”

He says the dedication of his colleagues during the pandemic has reinforced his own faith in and commitment to his hospital’s mission of service.

“There’s been so many times when people have just given themselves selflessly to be the hands and feet of Christ,” he says. “It’s great when you work for an organization that lives its values.”

Brianna Erickson started as an intensive care unit nurse at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, just before the pandemic began.

Brianna Erickson

Intensive care unit nurse Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota Brianna Erickson began her nursing career in February 2020, just as the novel coronavirus was beginning its deadly sweep across the globe. She chose intensive care to challenge herself and because she saw it as an opportunity for continuous learning.

She got challenges and learnings aplenty in the last year.

“I’ve tried to look at COVID, as a new nurse, as a learning experience and as a positive experience more than anything, even though many of the days were hard,” she says.

Erickson knew she would see death in the ICU but nothing prepared her for the number of lives lost to COVID. She arrived ready to comfort fearful and suffering patients but had not anticipated what it would be like to be the sole support at bedside for many patients in their worst or final hours.

“For a while, patients couldn’t have family members in their rooms,” she says.

“We not only served as their nurse, but we served as their friend, their loved one and their family.”

She recalls one patient who was on the upswing during a long bout with COVID. He couldn’t talk but nodded yes when she asked if he was having a good day. She told him that made her happy. He mouthed back: “It makes me happy, too.”

Erickson drew on the support of colleagues to endure such a trying year. “If I didn’t have our teammates in the ICU to help me out, I don’t know if I would have made it through this year,” she says.

Erickson says she has had no second thoughts about her career choice. She says of her trial by pandemic: “I think it really made me a better nurse.”

Dr. Mary C. Raven saw early on in the pandemic that demand for palliative care would be intense. National experts were worrying openly about potential shortages of pain and anxiety drugs used in compassionate end-of-life care.

Patients with COVID complications admitted to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center were deteriorating rapidly and dying quickly. Many of the overwhelmed care providers had little time and lacked experience to explain to patients and their families what was happening.

Dr. Varsha Moudgal, infectious disease specialist and chief medical officer at St. Joseph Mercy Livingston in Michigan, gets a COVID-19 vaccination from a colleague.

Dr. Varsha Moudgal

Infectious disease specialist and chief medical officer St. Joseph Mercy Livingston in Michigan As a physician leader and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Varsha Moudgal has been a key decision-maker in how St. Joseph Mercy and other Saint Joseph Mercy Health System hospitals have revamped their operations and protocols in response to the challenges of COVID. Because there was no playbook early in the pandemic, sometimes those changes came fast and furious.

On occasion she has called people in the morning and told them, “‘Can you please pass on to your colleagues that the protocol we’re going to adopt for the day is XYZ?’ An hour later it will change and I call them back. All of my colleagues have demonstrated extreme grace, extreme resilience and understanding in willingness to change.”

Moudgal often explains the rationale behind revisions to hospital staff. She speaks not just as a leader but as a frontline colleague since she is in COVID wards providing care to sick and dying patients and bearing witness to the dedication of her colleagues. “No one said, ‘You know what? I can’t do this. I’m not going to do this.’ Every single person said, ‘How can I help?’ And to me that single thing stands brightly.”

Moudgal says she worries that the public and her fellow care providers are suffering from pandemic fatigue. She is continuing to advise masking and social distancing and to offer encouragement to stay the course.

“How well we as a society can continue to keep these restrictions in place while the vaccine takes effect, that will determine when this pandemic will end,” she says.

Omar Jome

Lead registered nurse for caregiver health services Providence St. Joseph Health in Everett, Washington Omar Jome’s job is to care for caregivers at Providence St. Joseph Health. During the pandemic, he and his colleagues in caregiver health have worked with Providence St. Joseph Health system infection prevention specialists, pharmacists Jome and human resources staff to give clinicians the latest information about personal protective equipment and COVID care protocols.

He has administered hundreds of vaccines, many of them to colleagues. One of the first was to Dr. George Diaz, the infectious disease specialist who treated the first known COVID patient in the nation.

“It’s been a difficult situation for all of us, but we’ve worked so hard together to bring forth solutions and comfort to each

other,” he says. “While the pandemic has been challenging, it has also inspired us to do things differently and make changes to meet the needs of our patients and caregivers.”

David Grunfeld/The Advocate

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Lauren Landwerlin

Executive director of corporate communications Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma “We often say that we do crisis well,” Lauren Landwerlin says of the Saint Francis Health System. As the largest health system in Oklahoma, “people look to us in hard times for reassurance and trusted information,” she says.

And that’s been especially true during the pandemic when Landwerlin misinformation about the benefits of masking and social distancing and then anti-vaccine rhetoric blew up across the internet. Landwerlin’s job as the lead communicator on the system’s pandemic incident command team is to get the message out to 10,500 staff and the public that Saint Francis is committed to science and guiding the community through a public health crisis of epic consequence.

She wants the public to focus on the pandemic risk and take action, the way a blaring tornado siren on a stormy day can focus the mind on survival.

At her suggestion, the system took out a two-page ad in late October in the Tulsa World newspaper that warned: “We’re headed in the wrong direction.” A graphic showed the steady rise in the COVID patient population at the system’s seven hospitals.

“It was around the time that there wasn’t as much attention on COVID because people had started to get used to living in a pandemic,” she says. “On the outside of a hospital, that may have felt OK, but on the inside, when our numbers were climbing, that was not reality.”

The ad got attention, including a mention in the Washington Post. “I think it sparked more conversation about the seriousness of where we were headed and the impact the pandemic was having on health care workers, which obviously was significant and is significant,” Landwerlin says.

Still, COVID continued to spread and at its peak in Tulsa, Saint Francis had 278 inpatients across four hospitals receiving care for symptoms and complications of the virus. As the COVID patient population has declined, Landwerlin has focused more of the system’s communications on overcoming vaccine hesitancy.

One of the biggest lessons she has learned from the pandemic is this: “You have to understand your mission and actively choose to represent it every day.”

Dr. Mary C. Raven, medical director for palliative care at Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, uses her cell phone to call the husband of a ventilated COVID-19 patient. The patient smiled when she heard her husband's voice.

Raven and others on her palliative care team began collaborating with the ICU staff to help them provide compassionate care to dying patients and to comfort families who, because of COVID precautions, couldn’t be at the bedside for final goodbyes. The care and comfort has included praying, hand holding and arranging phone or screen time to bridge the divide.

She and her palliative care colleagues have huddled with the care providers on COVID units to learn about the sickest patients. Afterward, they would call families to provide updates on their loved ones’ conditions, tell them about the care being provided and sometimes ask difficult questions about treatment. They braced the relatives for the direness of the situation before hosting virtual visits.

“Most of these patients were intubated and many of them sedated but it gave the families some comfort to at least have their voices be heard” by the patient. “Sometimes it was to provide encouragement and sometimes it was to say goodbye.”

Her team also saw to it that the care providers in the units had access to iPads so they could link patients with loved ones on video calls and they worked with hospital administrators to adjust visitation policies so families now can visit patients dying of COVID and other causes.

“I think that one of the things that’s kept me going over this past year is knowing that in the face of such immeasurable grief and horrible tragedy, we are needed and we have a skill set that we can bring to the table and we can do something,” she says.

Dr. Sriram Vissa

Vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer SSM Health DePaul Hospital in suburban St. Louis Dr. Sriram Vissa recalls that there were many unknowns when the first wave of COVID reached St. Louis in spring 2020.

“Things were evolving very rapidly,” he says. “There wasn’t clear information in Vissa the beginning. Also, we had a significant shortage of treatment

May 15, 2021 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

protocols and protective equipment such as masks, gowns and gloves.”

A big part of Vissa’s role has been to bridge the communication gap between workers and system and hospital leaders.

By keeping the information flowing in both directions, he has strived to keep morale up and anxiety down.

“It was certainly, I would say, a challenging ask of leaders,” he says. “In normal times we are dealing with various other safety, quality, credentialing and medical affairs issues, but 100% of our time during this pandemic was being the resource that connected the front line with the administration.”

By this spring, the staff at DePaul Hospital was catching its collective breath after a surge of COVID patients that started late in 2020. To handle the load, the hospital had to shift clinicians from other departments to COVID care, expand its ICU capacity, add negative pressure rooms and open a temporary morgue on its parking lot.

“Personally, I saw the best of humanity in the people that work at DePaul Hospital,” Vissa says. “I witnessed collaboration, collegiality and empathy. It just makes me feel that I’m at the right place.”

Cassie Visser

Wellness Director, foundation director and spiritual care coordinator Benedictine Living Community-Ada in Minnesota Cassie Visser felt a bit like a jailer when she enforced precautions including social distancing to keep the coronavirus from spreading among the residents of Benedictine Living Community-Ada. Before COVID, she delighted in planning all the fun social activities at the cam-

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CHA expands job board, makes access easier Cassie Visser, wellness director, foundation director and spiritual care coordinator at Benedictine Living Community-Ada in Minnesota, takes two residents for a ride in an all-terrain vehicle.

pus, now she had to tell residents to stay isolated in their rooms. “Honestly, I really struggled,” she says.

It didn’t take long before she and her colleagues were coming up with creative ways to keep residents amused and connected. For instance, for Mother’s Day 2020 they arranged a car parade. Families drove around the building waving and holding signs while the residents greeted them from sidewalks or waved from windows. “That was a really bright spot,” she says.

Another bright spot came this spring when the center was able to welcome back its volunteers. The first was a man who delivers activity calendars and menus to patients’ rooms. “When I called to ask if he could come back, he was in tears,” Visser says.

She continued to tap donors for contributions and found that the pandemic hadn’t diminished the desire to give. Her appeals brought in enough that the center was able to buy headboards, footboards

and nightstands for every room to finish a remodeling project started a few years back.

“Everybody could relate to isolation and being stuck in a room by yourself, so it was a good year to do that one,” she says of the fundraising campaign.

By this March, even as Visser was rejoicing that the skilled nursing and assisted living facility had managed to avoid a COVID outbreak, she still worried that due to infection control precautions her job might never go back to being all about making residents’ wishes come true. However, with volunteers beginning to return and the chapel reopening for in-person services, she was feeling hopeful.

“We are stronger than we would ever know and we’re so fortunate to have our faith and have a spiritual belief that we will get through to something bigger and better,” she says. leisenhauer@chausa.org

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CHA has revamped its online job board in hopes of making the site the go-to location for openings across the Catholic health ministry.

The CHA Career Center allows employers to post descriptions about open positions directly to the site, something that previously had been done only by CHA staff.

Any position within a health care system can be posted.

The board also lets job seekers search for openings in specific fields or job categories and apply for positions. In addition, they can upload their own profiles and resumes for prospective employers to review.

The postings are free for CHA members and for job seekers. Employers who are not CHA members can pay a fee to post jobs.

“It is kind of a win-win for both sides of the job equaHibner tion,” says Nathaniel Blanton Hibner, CHA’s director of ethics.

Hibner says the expanded job board is part of CHA’s Faithfully Forward initiative, a comprehensive three-year plan aimed at addressing shortages of qualified candidates to fill mission, ethics and pastoral care positions.

Just as Catholic health systems have challenges finding qualified candidates for openings in these areas, Hibner says those candidates have challenges just finding postings for the open slots. He says the postings can get lost in the mix of health care openings on job boards because keywords like “mission” and “ethics” tend to be part of the descriptions for many jobs.

“I realized this seems like something that maybe we could help with,” Hibner says.

On the new CHA job board “mission,” “ethics” and “spiritual care” are categories on their own and easily searchable. In addition to permanent positions, employers can post internships.

Hibner notes that many people either working in the mission, ethics and spiritual care fields for Catholic health care or wanting to work in those fields already are regular visitors to CHA’s website because of the resources available there.

The new job board can be found on the Careers page on CHA’s website as well as at careers.chausa.org. Postings can stay on the board for up to 90 days.

Nick Osterholt, CHA editor of digital communications, says the revamped job board is less of a bulletin board and more of an interactive job board. He says CHA will use social media, email blasts and print advertisements to promote the job board.

In addition to posting individual openings, CHA members can set up profile pages with their logos and all their listings.

Hibner’s hope is that the Career Center will become a clearinghouse for positions across the Catholic health ministry.

The postings actually will have a reach well beyond the CHA website because the board will be part of the National Healthcare Career Network. That network shares postings across various job boards that feature health care openings.

“If you decided that your vocation is to work within the ministry, this would be the place to go to find an opening,” Hibner says.

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May 15, 2021 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD May 15, 2021

Vaccination sprint

ment, if doses are available, no one who shows up and qualifies for a vaccine gets turned away, Edmonson says. Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City leaders made the decision early on not to give vaccine priority to Mercy patients. “We are going to take care of anyone,” he says of vaccines.

In recent weeks, demand for vaccines has tapered off, so Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City has reduced its standing clinic to three days a week. The clinic can give up to 600 shots a day and the two pharmacies that offer shots can give up to 300 a week. As of early May, one-third of Oklahoma County residents were fully vaccinated.

Edmonson says the big effort now is to overcome vaccine hesitancy in the community. To do that, the hospital has teamed up with public health officials and with other local care providers to create a public awareness campaign focusing on the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness.

From page 1

Hop to it The hospital jump-started its plan to open a clinic for frontline workers when the hospital’s first shipment of vaccine arrived two days ahead of schedule on the morning of Dec. 15. By 3 p.m., nurses were getting shots into the arms of their co-workers.

“Really, from that point forward, it was learn as you go and huddle together at the end of the day and say, Edmonson ‘What went well today, what are some opportunities, and what can we change?’” says Shane Edmonson, the hospital’s executive director of pharmacy.

Among the learnings has been how to schedule vaccines, how to give them in an efficient way in which patients feel safe and respected, and how to prevent any doses from going to waste, Edmonson says.

Within a few weeks, the hospital had finetuned its process to the point where staff could give 3,000 vaccines a day.

Early on, when the hospital was focused on getting its workers vaccinated, it ran a clinic that was open seven days a week. Staff volunteered for four-hour overtime shifts, oftentimes after they already had worked their regular hospital shifts. That effort continued into January with as many as 300 workers a day being vaccinated.

On Jan. 7, the hospital teamed up with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department to hold the first public vaccine clinic in the county. With the help of hundreds of paid staff and community volunteers, the clinic administered 1,200 vaccines in one day.

Shortly after that, the hospital opened its own vaccine clinic for the public, again with paid staff volunteering for shifts. The clinic is in the lobby of the Meinders Neuro– Science Institute on the hospital campus.

The lobby has lots of open space for social distancing. The clinic has administered 15% of all vaccines given by the Mercy system.

All hands on deck In addition to clinicians giving shots, the staffers volunteering for shifts at the clinic include professionals pitching it to do whatever is necessary. Administrators, pharmacists, ethics specialists and spiritual leaders have stepped up to coordinate parking, set up the vaccine booths, greet patients and take on the various other duties.

People assisting at a vaccine clinic in January at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City take part in a huddle to discuss practices and procedures before patients begin arriving.

David Argueta, the hospital’s chief administrative officer, has spent many hours at the clinic running logistics, directing traffic, wiping chairs with disinfectant between patients and doing other essential chores.

Argueta “There were times when we would reflect in the morning or in the evenings after we were done with a 14- or 16-hour day and all you could really think was how grateful you were to be a part of this and see how happy people were the first time they got their shot,” he says. “People would cry, they would cheer.”

Edmonson says one of the first challenges of the public vaccine effort was to figure out how to schedule appointments.

At first, the hospital relied on the state’s system and then on one set up by the county.

The hospital later transitioned to a system Mercy created that is incorporated into the hospital’s Epic electronic records.

Staff training has included how to use the scheduling system as well as how to perform their roles at the clinics, such as administering the shots, filling out the necessary forms and moving patients through the process.

“It was the epitome of teamwork and everyone centered on a cause that was greater than ourselves,” says Argueta. “We were focused, guided by our mission, guided by our values, and tried to embody

those in everything we did in this effort.”

Plan, try, revise As facilities across Mercy started vaccine clinics, the system had daily calls at 7 a.m. for the people running the clinics to share best practices, such as how to efficiently and safely guide patients through the process, and introduce new policies to staff. At 8 a.m., Edmonson and others in charge of the vaccine effort in Oklahoma City would meet with their colleagues to figure out how to incorporate the system’s practices and make adjustments that they had come up with on their own.

“We would introduce some of those changes, work through that day and then learn for the next day,” he says.

Edmonson says ideas for improvements to the process have been welcomed from anyone involved. Among the innovations that have been put in place was a revision of the parking system for patients coming to Meinders NeuroScience Institute for shots.

After seeing the backup from cars pulling into or leaving the 180-space lot, a hospital vice president came up with a traffic flow plan that made the process much smoother, Edmonson says.

Another adjustment was to set up private spaces at the clinic for patients who have had a history of bad reactions to shots and to provide extra monitoring for those patients.

While the clinics have been by appoint-

Upcoming Events from The Catholic Health Association Diversity & Disparities Networking Zoom Call May 24 | 1 – 2 p.m. ET

We Are Called – Confronting Racism to Achieve Health Equity Conversation Series II May 26 | Noon – 12:30 p.m. ET

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Pain and solace Argueta says he and his colleagues are always mindful that people coming to the clinic might have never before come to a Mercy facility for care. The care providers try to ensure that all patients have a positive experience.

“That is one of the things I’m most proud of, that that is at the forefront,” he says. “We aren’t focused on stewardship or money. It is really about doing good, doing good for the community, as a core of health care, a core of community health.”

To keep the patients’ needs top of mind, Argueta says people who have gotten the vaccine sometimes are invited to join the end-of-the-day huddles with those who have run the clinic. One woman who did so had lost both of her parents to COVID. “She came and spoke to our team and just expressed her gratefulness and just how thankful she was to be able to get the vaccine because of all that she and her family had gone through,” Argueta says. “Those stories will stay with us forever. In a time when there is so much pain and loss, there is a feeling of gratitude.” leisenhauer@chausa.org

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May 15, 2021 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

Sr. Mary Haddad appointed to Vatican office Pope Francis has appointed Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, to membership in the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. This Vatican office focuses on health care, immigration, charitable works and climate change to promote the well-being and Sr. Mary flourishing of the

human family worldwide. Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson is prefect of the dicastery and has led it since the creation of this new office in 2017.

Dicastery members are selected from the different regions of the world and represent various fields of expertise. As a dicastery member, Sr. Mary, who is CHA president and chief executive officer, will represent Catholic health care in the United States.

“I am honored to serve on the board of

this important Vatican office and look forward to representing our health care ministry.” Sr. Mary said.

Other dicastery members who have been appointed from the United States are Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego; Sean Callahan, president and chief executive of Catholic Relief Services; Sr. Shelia Kinsey, FCJM, of the International Union of Superiors General; and Msgr. Robert Vitillo, secretary general of the International Catholic Migration Commission.

‘It’s been a great run’: Saint Francis Health System president to retire

By LISA EISENHAUER

Jake Henry Jr. is retiring this summer from a career in Catholic health care that spans four decades.

June 30 will be his last day as president and chief executive of Saint Francis Health System, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has held that position for 19 Henry years. His successor will be Dr. Cliff Robertson, who is moving to the post from CommonSpirit Health, where he had been senior vice president of operations for its Midwest Division and chief executive of CHI Health, based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Before coming to Saint Francis, Henry was president and chief executive of the six-hospital Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi, Texas, now part of CHRISTUS Health. Prior to that Henry served a long tenure with the St. Joseph Health System of Orange, California, where he was responsible for its hospitals in Texas and northern and southern California. That system is now part of Providence St. Joseph Health.

He started his career in health care administration as president of the Univer-

sity Health System in Lubbock, Texas, and had his first chief executive position at age 30 in San Angelo, Texas, where he built the 125-bed Angelo Community Hospital.

“It’s been a great run,” says Henry, who is now 75. “I’ve been blessed in every single assignment, certainly in my Catholic assignments.”

Under his leadership, Saint Francis has added a 162-bed children’s hospital and a 168-bed heart hospital to the campus of the system’s flagship, Saint Francis Hospital.

That hospital added 150 beds under Henry and now has 1,100.

The system has also expanded its presence across eastern Oklahoma, adding Saint Francis Hospital South, a 96-bed community hospital; Saint Francis Hospital Vinita, a 55-bed regional hospital; Saint Francis Hospital Muskogee, a 320-bed regional facility; and Saint Francis Glenpool, a healthplex with outpatient services and a 24/7 emergency department, all in Oklahoma.

Under Henry, the net worth of the system climbed from about $450 million to almost $2 billion. Henry proudly points out that it remains locally owned and governed, has zero outstanding debt and gets outstanding credit ratings.

He says his top contribution has been to bring stability and organization to a system

that was headed by five different people in the 10 years before he was hired. That turnover had a toxic effect on growth, he says.

“They had never had a strategic plan and we went about instituting a planning process that exists to this day,” Henry says.

“We sort of have a mantra here that planning drives budget drives operations and that makes for a much more consistent, predictable and productive corporate life, I think, and it’s also created a sense of accountability.”

Henry says the COVID-19 pandemic has made the last year a challenging one for Saint Francis, as it has for every health care system. Saint Francis associates cared for hundreds of inpatients with the virus, expanded its telehealth services, distributed the first vaccine dosages available in the region and set up the state’s first drivethru vaccination site.

Henry says he would advise health ministry leaders to “continue to honor in a very palpable way our Catholic heritage and those things that constitute our Catholic identity and be very out front with that.”

He also says it’s important for systems to grow. “If you just go to the whole notion of system theory, it’s been pretty well demonstrated that when a system does not receive fresh inputs to restore it, that it will move toward entropy or move toward death.”

Ascension newscast From page 1

associates in 19 states and the District of Columbia, according to Nick Ragone, executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer.

“We want the stories Ragone to be very hopeful and inspirational — something that colleagues across the ministry can find inspiration in or learn from,’’ Ragone said. “We try to include some thoughts from leaders from around the ministry, but really the focus is on our caregivers and covering as much of our ministry as we can.”

The 15-minute newscasts are fast-paced and include a range of timely topics and human-interest stories. Segments have featured the Ascension virtual choir; a Tulsa, Oklahoma, associate who ran a marathon to honor nurses; a new pharmacy brand called Ascension Rx; and ABIDE, a framework that furthers Ascension’s commitment to addressing racism and systemic injustice.

The March newscast introduced Ascension associates who stepped up to help patients and one another during the winter storm in February that left Texas with power outages, broken water pipes, and snowcovered roads.

The newscasts are hosted on YouTube and shared on Ascension’s social media, with links emailed to all associates.

The response has been overwhelming, Ragone said.

“The newscast was originally designed as an internal communications channel, but our associates were so enthusiastic and supportive of it they began sharing it on social media. So, it has become an external

Candice Evans, left, and Rosie Ford, co-host Good Day Ascension. Because of COVID restrictions, the women livestream the program simultaneously from their home markets. Evans is director of marketing and communications at Ascension in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ford is senior director of brand marketing in St. Louis, the corporate home to the system, which operates in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

communication, as well,’’ he said.

A response to the pandemic The newscast joined existing internal communications tools that are branded “Good Day Ascension.” Those include a daily news summary, a quarterly magazine that is mailed to every associate’s home and a podcast that was introduced last year.

“We had been talking about extending the Good Day Ascension brand with a newscast someday, but COVID-19 accelerated it,’’ Ragone said. “It’s hard to reach all of our caregivers all of the time with meaningful conversation because they’re obviously working long days and don’t have time. We created a Good Day Ascension podcast, which has been hugely successful, because a lot of our caregivers told us they like to listen to podcasts. And when the podcast took off, our CEO Joseph Impicciche suggested that now is the right time for the newscast.’’

Good Day Ascension also supports the rebranding initiative that added Ascension to the names of all 2,700 sites of care, Ragone said.

“We call it our ‘Journey to One Ascension,’ which has been going on for five years,

trying to bring our ministry closer together under the Ascension name,’’ he said. “The newscast has really resonated on this idea that we’re one single ministry, Ascension.

We carry the same name, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with each other.”

The newscast is co-hosted by Candice Evans, director of marketing and communications at Ascension in Tulsa, and Rosie Ford, senior director of brand marketing at Ascension in St. Louis.

“We want everybody to feel like we are one family,’’ said Evans. “When we report on caregivers saving a life in Texas, the associate watching might be in Florida, but they do the same job. They can relate.”

Evans was surprised by the volume of emails from associates who saw the first newscast and wanted to suggest story ideas.

“The feedback was more than I could have ever expected,’’ she said. “And a lot of what I’m hearing is, ‘When are you doing the next episode?’”

Putting it all together Producing the newscast while following COVID-19 safety protocols requires the creative use of technology, said Heidi

7

KEEPING UP

Jagasia

Taylor

PRESIDENT/CEO

Dr. Shubhada Jagasia to president and chief executive of Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital, Midtown and West campuses of Nashville, Tennessee. She most recently was chief of staff for the Adult Hospital and Clinics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES

Jane Stirrup to vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at CHI St. Luke’s Health — Patients Medical Center in Pasadena, Texas, part of CommonSpirit Health.

Adrienne R. Mundorf to vice president, programs and strategy for the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland.

Colin McNabb to director of mission integration and spiritual care at St. Mary Health Care Center of Worcester, Massachusetts, part of Covenant Health.

Betsy Taylor to editor of CHA’s Health Progress.

GRANT

The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation has awarded Elizabeth Seton Children’s a second $1 million grant toward construction of a skilled nursing facility called The Elizabeth Seton Young Adult Center. That facility will serve the growing number of young adults with medically complex conditions who are aging out of pediatric care at age 21.

The 72-bed, lifetime home, co-located with Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center in Yonkers, has a total budget of $84.8 million. With the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, Elizabeth Seton Children’s has raised nearly $4 million toward a $30 million capital campaign goal.

The new facility is to open in late 2023.

Suppelsa, a director of marketing and communications at Ascension in St. Louis, who serves as executive producer of the newscast.

Because of travel restrictions, Evans and Ford are recorded while standing in front of green screens in studios in Tulsa and St. Louis. Backdrops of corporate office settings are inserted during post-production editing.

“It’s really cool because we’re livestreaming together,’’ Evans said. “We feed off of each other’s energy, and it feels like we are together. We wear earbuds, and she can hear me and I can hear her.’’

Suppelsa predicts that even after the pandemic ends, the newscast will continue using remote interviews.

“I think we’re going to use technology a little smarter than we have in the past, and maybe people are going to be more amenable to doing a Zoom interview Suppelsa versus sending a big fancy camera and crew just to shoot a 30-second sound bite,’’ said Suppelsa, who worked in television news broadcasting before joining Ascension.

Good Day Ascension newscasts conclude with the co-hosts thanking associates for their dedication to the Ascension mission — a sense of gratitude that drives the project, said Evans. She has witnessed firsthand the pressure caregivers have been under while caring for critically ill COVID19 patients.

“When we started pulling the newscast together, it was like we couldn’t get it done fast enough. We knew we needed something upbeat to help them find hope in all of the turmoil,’’ Evans said.

“These are incredible stories that people need to hear about.’’

8

CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD May 15, 2021

Homegrown CNAs

care of people of all ages, through all phases of their life.”

From page 1

hired at Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital, at DominiCare (Providence’s nonprofit agency that serves individuals in need of nonclinical home services), at Providence Mount Carmel Hospital (a sister institution 23 miles from Chewelah) and well beyond.

Last year, the hospital held six training programs.

“I know just how important the nursing assistant certification program is to bedside care,” said Branda, who has headed the program since 2006. “I love to watch the students grow into the role and get satisfaction from what they are doing for people. They always discover potential they may not have known they had — I love to watch that, too — and I love that my team leaves options open for the graduates, so they can select from different areas of work.”

Best foot forward Ronald G. Rehn, chief administrative officer of Providence Health Care’s Stevens County Ministries, is a member of that team, and he acknowledged Rehn Branda’s compliment with one of his own. “The key to a successful

Renae Fitzgerald, left, and her sister-in-law Stacy Fitzgerald both graduated from the nursing assistant certification training at Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chewelah and went on to become registered nurses at the hospital. Both women hold bachelor of science in nursing degrees.

nursing assistant certification training program is an engaged, excited person who is a champion for the students, and Jane is that person,” he said.

“The program offers education and employment, and that’s a leg up into the health care world,” Rehn said. “In a rural area, it’s nearly impossible to recruit for nursing assistants from outside, so it’s better to grow your own. We’ve found when we educate people and they get to know us, they are likely hooked, and they will come to work for us.”

Stacy Fitzgerald, a registered nurse who lives in Valley, did just that.

She completed the nurse assistant certification training in 1999, worked in various jobs at the hospital until 2010 and then entered training to become a registered nurse. “The nursing assistant certification program is amazing for people in the community,” Fitzgerald said. “I needed a decent job that was steady, and the training was just 12 miles away from my home. That allowed me to work around my job and my kids’ schedule and it allowed me to take

2 21 AWARDS

Recognizing Extraordinary Contributions to the Catholic Health Ministry SISTER CAROL KEEHAN AWARD

Samuel L. Ross, MD, former Chief Community Health Officer, Bon Secours Mercy Health, Cincinnati

SISTER CONCILIA MORAN AWARD

John M. Starcher, Jr., Esq., President and CEO, Bon Secours Mercy Health, Cincinnati

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Sr. Doris Gottemoeller, RSM, Chair, Bon Secours Mercy Ministries; Board Member, Bon Secours Mercy Health, Cincinnati

TOMORROW’S LEADERS HONOREES

Megan L. Roberts, MHA, Director, Orthopedic Services, CHI St. Vincent, Little Rock, Arkansas

For boldly championing society’s most vulnerable

For demonstrated creativity and breakthrough thinking

For a lifetime of contributions

Honoring young people who will guide our ministry in the future

Andrew Arai, Executive Director, Mission, Innovation and Assessment, Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington Doug Baxter-Jenkins, Community Integration Program Manager, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, Tacoma, Washington Catherine Kroll, Director of Infection Prevention, PeaceHealth, Vancouver, Washington Trent Pepper, Senior Vice President/General Counsel, Benedictine, Minneapolis Kyle Prochaska, Regional Director, Planning, Design and Construction, SSM Health, Madison, Wisconsin

ASSEMBLY 2021 | JUNE 14-15 Join us in virtual community to celebrate the amazing people and work of our Catholic health

chausa.org/assembly

Confidence builder The nurse assistant training has been free since the hospital first offered it in 1984.

Branda noted that similar courses at hospitals in big cities may cost $600-$800, and training at a community college requires attendance for an entire semester, plus the cost of textbooks. Students in the Chewelah program pay only for uniforms, registration certificates and the exam, which a state nursing agency administers.

Lexi Robertson, a senior at Jenkins Junior/Senior High School in Chewelah, completed the training in December. A doctor at a medical clinic where Robertson works part-time suggested she enroll. “I used to let our patients in, take their temperatures and help with cleaning, but now I take blood pressures and give COVID-19 vaccines,” she said. “I’m proud of myself.”

When she started the program, Robertson wasn’t sure she could do the work.

“But Jane makes sure you know the field, and the people at the hospital also helped make it easier, so I became more confident.

Now I’m planning to become an ultrasound technician, which requires two or three more years of training.”

The hospital offers employees tuition reimbursement for nurse assistant certification graduates who want to further their education. “At least a third have done that,” Branda said. “Many have become registered nurses, aides, medical assistants, emergency medical technicians. One is a phlebotomist and one went on to become a doctor.”

Big returns Barbara Murray, a buyer for the pharmacy at Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital and Providence Mount Carmel Hospital, went through the nurse assistant training program in the early years, when it was offered as part of the curriculum at the local high school. “It gave me a window into the medical field,” she said. “First I did a stint in physical therapy, and that directed me to try massage therapy.”

Before accepting her current job, Murray worked at a retail pharmacy, completed a course for pharmacy technicians and then worked as a medical assistant.

Murray cited the value of the nurse assistant training program for many individuals in northeast Washington. “It’s great for students in a low-income town with not a lot of opportunities, it’s great for a single mom or someone who can’t move out of town and it’s great for someone looking for ways to change or further a career,” she said.

When hospitals elsewhere in the country call Branda about the training, she encourages administrators to start a similar program. “Hospitals seem to think it’s daunting to run the training, but it’s not,” she said.

“And when they ask me about whether to offer free tuition, I tell them they will get that back a hundredfold.”

Michael Talley, RRT, MHA, Vice President, Clinical Improvement and Virtual Care, CHRISTUS Health, Irving, Texas Wes Tidwell, Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, Ascension Seton Williamson, Round Rock, Texas Rainy Tieman, Clinical Nurse Manager of Labor/ Delivery and OB Emergency Department, St. Mary’s Medical Center, a member of SCL Health, Grand Junction, Colorado Kimberly King Webb, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, CHRISTUS Health, Irving, Texas Baligh Yehia, MD, MPP, MSc, Senior Vice President, Ascension, and President, Ascension Medical Group, St. Louis

CHA invites everyone to use its free resources at chausa.org/newsroom/ love-thy-neighbor to promote vaccine acceptance. #LoveThyNeighbor