Executive changes 7 Trinity Health Michigan rebrand 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
MAY 15, 2022
Saint Anthony plans big for southwest Chicago campus By LISA EISENHAUER
An architect’s rendering shows the planned Focal Point Community Campus on the southwest side of Chicago. Saint Anthony Hospital, which will anchor the development, is on the right. The hospital will move to the campus from its home of 126 years, located a mile and a half away.
While it’s taken a decade to get to this point, the ground has been cleared — literally and figuratively — for a mixed-use development on the southwest side of Chicago that will be anchored by a new Saint Anthony Hospital. The Chicago City Council agreed in April 2021 to sell the last parcel for the project, an 11-acre tract that was once supposed to be donated by the city. In January, the council unanimously approved the zoning plan for the development, to be called the Focal Point Community Campus. Crews demolished the last of the structures on the 30-acre site this spring. The project is now moving toward its next phase, contaminated soil removal. If there are no other unforeseen delays, Guy A. Medaglia, Saint Anthony Hospital’s
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 8
MOM program at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital paves smooth course to motherhood
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Jessica Young drew on the expertise of lactation specialists in the Maternity onto Motherhood program at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She’s shown with her daughter Jubilee.
Bon Secours Mercy Health supercharges advance care planning By LISA EISENHAUER
Continued on 2
Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via Associated Press
By LISA EISENHAUER
At the start of the pandemic, when patients with COVID-19 who walked into emergency departments began to deteriorate so rapidly they were intubated and placed on ventilators within hours, Bon Secours Mercy Health kicked its advance care planning efforts into overdrive. “While ACP has always been part of Bon Secours Mercy Health’s mission, the onset of COVID catapulted us into more urgent Gruszkos and innovative action,” said Rebecca Gruszkos, the director of advance care planning for the Cincinnati-based system that has facilities in seven states. Starting in March 2020, Gruszkos and her colleagues set up trainings and developed guides on how to initiate conversations with COVID patients and their loved
A nurse in the intensive care unit of a Pennsylvania hospital disconnects medical equipment after the death of a COVID-19 patient in December 2020. Studies show that while most Americans say they would prefer to spend their last days at home, a majority die in hospitals, nursing homes or hospice facilities.
The Maternity onto Motherhood program at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, aims to give mothers the birthing experience they want. “We call it birth by design,” says Jenny Eckardt, program coordinator. The program, known as MOM, includes prenatal classes that cover what to expect during pregnancy and delivery, tours of the hospital’s suites and lactation consultation. Participants hear about their many options, such as care from a midwife, a water birth, circumcision for a baby boy and means of pain relief during delivery. “I always tell patients ‘You don’t have a choice unless you know what your choices are,’” Eckardt says. “I think when they have that knowledge they’re empowered, and empowerment really can lead to much better outcomes.” Continued on 8
Eating disorders program nourishes recovery with comprehensive care Directors say inpatient program at Saint Francis Health is one of the longest-running in the nation By LISA EISENHAUER
Jenn Fabian traces the start of her eating disorder to the Christmas holiday break of her senior year of college, when she decided to join her parents on the Weight Watchers diet plan so she could slim down a bit before her summer wedding. By the time she went Fabian home for Easter break, she had dropped 40 pounds from her 6-foot frame. “My parents were like, ‘Oh, my gosh. What is going on?’” Fabian recalls.
That was in 2005. Fabian’s mother moved back to college with her to help her graduate. The engagement broke off. For the next six years, she struggled with her eating patterns. She went to counselors and dietitians, getting help but never conquering her mental struggle with food. “I was better at hiding my compulsive behaviors and had people thinking that I was doing better,” she says. “I put on enough weight to keep my parents off my back but was nowhere near where I should be.” Not until a particularly miserable Christmas in 2011, when the stress of being Continued on 3
Jeffrey “Buck” Townes, a chef and licensed therapist who supervises food and nutrition in the eating disorders program at the Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looks over thank-you notes to the kitchen staff from patients. The hospital is part of the Saint Francis Health System.
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD May 15, 2022
Trinity Health to acquire CommonSpirit’s share of Iowa system MercyOne Trinity Health is acquiring all of CommonSpirit Health’s share in an Iowa health system that the two Catholic health providers have operated under a joint operating agreement since 1998. With the change, Trinity Health will become the sole parent of the regional subsidiary, MercyOne health system. Livonia, Michigan-based Trinity Health and Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health each have a 50% share in the MercyOne system. At this time, the systems are not disclosing the terms of the acquisition that will
make Trinity Health sole owner. Trinity Health and CommonSpirit expect to finalize the transaction this summer. In its press release, Trinity Health said the decision to move MercyOne to a sole parent ownership came after months of due diligence by both national health systems. The release said the ownership change will be seamless for the communities MercyOne serves. MercyOne has 16 medical centers, 27 affiliate organizations and more than 420 other care sites in Iowa. It employs more
than 20,000 colleagues including 2,000 doctors and providers. Trinity Health President and Chief Executive Mike Slubowski said in the press release that the change will result in MercyOne being more fully integrated and better able to care for more patients in “a unified way.” For instance, after Trinity Health becomes its sole parent, MercyOne will transition all its facilities over time to Trinity Health’s technology platform. With that change, all facilities will be on the same electronic medical record system.
Trinity Health said that ultimately this will allow patients to more easily manage their care across all MercyOne services and facilities. MercyOne President and Chief Executive Bob Ritz said in the release that when MercyOne becomes a full member of Trinity Health, the Iowa system will become a “stronger, more cohesive health system, better able to offer a convenient and personalized circle of care for all we serve.” Ritz expressed gratitude to CommonSpirit for more than 20 years of partnership.
Advance care planning
DEATH IN AMERICA
with the patient.”
care planning executive leadership team to oversee workgroups focused on planning, informatics and transformation among the medical teams. “We had a systemwide model, a training program, new patient engagement tools and conversation guides in place within three months,” Gruszkos said. “I’ve never worked harder in my life.”
From page 1
ones about documenting care preferences and designating a surrogate to make health care decisions in the event the patient were to become incapacitated. The system also created specific roles that were taken on voluntarily by staffers in emergency departments and inpatient units to identify patients who didn’t have advance directives and to coordinate immediate outreach to them or their relatives. Early on, only 30% of patients who died from COVID at Bon Secours Mercy Health hospitals had a documented health care decision-maker. Within a few months, that number had climbed to 60%. In May 2020, the system ramped up its advance care planning efforts in the ambulatory setting too. It hired full-time staffers to handle outreach to patients seen at clinics who had not designated surrogates for health care decisions in the event they were incapacitated or filed advance directives. It launched an online portal for patients with a MyChart account to access information in English and Spanish about advance directives, learn about the system’s process for ascertaining goals of care, get state-specific documents and upload completed forms. In March 2021 alone, 43,839 patients accessed the portal. Over the course of a year, the system received 26,000 updates from patients related to their advance care planning wishes via the portal.
Uneven uptake Gruszkos discussed how Bon Secours Mercy Health supercharged its advance care planning at the start of the pandemic during a session at CHA’s Theology and Ethics Colloquium in mid-March and in a later interview. She said the revised process brought solace to patients and family members who were separated because of COVID protocols and to frontline care providers ministering to a high volume of COVID patients in steep decline with little time to initiate complex end-of-life conversations. Gruszkos pointed out that well before the pandemic, studies had shown a disconnect in the United States between what patients say they want at their time of their deaths and what actually happens. While a majority of Americans prefer to die at home, only about a third do. Most everyone else spends their last days in hospitals, nursing homes or hospice facilities. The National Institute on Aging says that people who have advance directives are more likely to get the care they prefer at the end of life than those who do not. Nevertheless, only about one-third of Americans have completed such directives, a study published in 2017 found. Gruszkos said individuals with advance directives tend to be white, older, wealthier, more educated, suffering from a chronic condition and getting regular health care. “As you see, many patients whose lives we touch are not represented here,” she noted. Gruszkos said the uneven use of advance care planning is the result of various barriers. One is access to health care, which remains a challenge for the millions
Where we would prefer to die* Home
Where we die** Home
71%
31%
Hospital
Hospital
Hospice
Hospice
9% 7%
30% 8%
Nursing home
Nursing home
Unsure
Elsewhere
1%
5%
21%
10%
Sources: *Kaiser Family Foundation (Responses of “somewhere else” and “depends” are not shown) **New England Journal of Medicine, Dec. 12, 2019
of Americans who are uninsured. Another is the legal hurdles some states have in place. In Ohio, for example, the forms that constitute advance directives — a health care power of attorney and a living will declaration — number 20 pages and require signatures from two witnesses unrelated to and not providing care to the signatory or from a notary public. Another factor is that some care providers are uncomfortable broaching the topic of end-of-life planning. “The most obvious reason and maybe the most problematic is the diffusion of responsibility,” she said. “Everyone hopes or even expects that someone else will have this conversation
Legacy of commitment Bon Secours Mercy Health’s commitment to advance care planning goes back to its legacy organizations. In 2014, Gruszkos said what was then Bon Secours Health System joined other major health care organizations operating in the Richmond, Virginia, area in vowing to normalize advance care planning conversations; provide formal training on how to talk to patients about their goals, values and preferences instead of just urging them to complete forms; and devise ways to store and retrieve related documents. The commitment continued after the system’s merger with Mercy Health in 2018 and provided a foundation for the revamp that was kick-started by the pandemic. The revamp began with a directive from Bon Secours Mercy Health’s leadership. The directive called for Gruszkos and others to lead the process of standardizing advance care planning across the system’s footprint, in alignment with its intention to provide care oriented to each patient’s goals. That was followed by a ministry commitment statement that pledged an approach to advance care planning that “is easy for patients to access and efficient for clinicians to complete” and “achieves clearly defined outcomes consistent with national standards and the ministry’s mission and strategic plan.” Next up was the creation of an advance
New policies As part of the revamp, Bon Secours Mercy Health adopted several new advance care planning processes, including allowing virtual or telephone conversations about goals of care, letting patients access online platforms to designate surrogates or make their care preferences known, and approving the use of E-signatures and E-notarization for directives, at least where allowed by state laws. The uploaded documents go into the system’s electronic medical records, making them easily accessible. The system also created a dashboard with the informatics on referrals, online document filings and other related data to track the progress of its advance care planning initiatives. “We’ve been very pleased with the outcomes,” Gruszkos said. “I’ve experienced over 25 years the power of advance care planning when it’s done well. Patients and families cope so much better, there are better bereavement outcomes,” she said. leisenhauer@chausa.org
Upcoming Events from The Catholic Health Association Catholic Ethics for Health Care Leaders: A Deeper Dive into the Key Concepts of Catholic Health Care Ethics In-Person Meetings: May 10, May 16 and May 18 St. Louis
2022 Catholic Health Assembly June 5 – 7 Indianapolis
Diversity & Disparities Networking Zoom Call
Faith Community Nurse Networking Zoom Call
Long-Term Care Networking Zoom Call
Deans of Catholic Colleges of Nursing Networking Zoom Call
June 23 | 1 – 2 p.m. ET
July 12 | 3 – 4 p.m. ET Members only
United Against Human Trafficking Networking Zoom Call July 14 | Noon ET
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Global Health Networking Zoom Call Aug. 3 | Noon ET
A Passionate Voice for Compassionate Care®
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May 15, 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
Eating disorders
Part of eating disorder therapy centers on developing a healthy view of food, diet
From page 1
surrounded by people and food overwhelmed her, did Fabian decide on inpatient treatment. A few weeks later, she checked herself in to the eating disorders program at the Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The hospital, part of the Saint Francis Health System, is just two hours from Fabian’s home in Norman, Oklahoma. “I’ve been in recovery for 10 years,” says Fabian, now 39. “My first day of recovery I consider to be the day that I checked into Laureate. That was February second of 2012.”
Comprehensive care In addition to the adult program that Fabian entered, Laureate has a separate track for adolescents battling eating disorders. Each track includes acute, residential and partial hospital care. Patients receive whatever medical care is needed to stabilize their health along with psychotherapy, medication management and nutrition therapy services. Their therapist, primary physician and dietitian stay the same during their entire inpatient stay at Laureate to ensure continuity of care. The directors say the Laureate Eating Disorders Program, established in 1989, is one of the oldest inpatient ones in the nation and one of only a few run by a notfor-profit health care system. The program can have 18 adult and 15 adolescent inpatients at any given time and up to six young women at Magnolia House, a transitional living center. Inpatient care is exclusively for girls and women, or those who identify as female. The average length of stay is 70-75 days. Outpatient treatment is open to women and men, irrespective of age, although Dr. Scott Moseman, medical director of the Laureate Moseman Eating Disorders Program, says most of those patients tend to be girls and young women. The patient population is reflective of statistics that show eating
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S The office of a therapist in the eating disorders program at the Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has cheery home-like décor.
disorders are much more common among young females than other demographic groups. Moseman notes, however, that the gender gap in eating disorders has closed somewhat in recent years. Women who complete the intensive inpatient program can ease back into daily life as residents of Magnolia House, also on the 47-acre Laureate campus. Outpatient care is available for patients who complete the inpatient program and for those who do not require inpatient care. Eating disorders are illnesses with considerable morbidity and mortality and most health insurance covers the inpatient and outpatient treatment at Laureate, although the extent of coverage varies.
Pandemic increases need Heather Binkley Morrow is outreach manager for the clinic and hospital. Part of her job is to market the eating disorders program, which she says hasn’t been a challenge since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Pre-pandemic we needed to reach out to our Morrow community partners more frequently to keep our beds full,” Morrow says. During the pandemic, the call volume for referrals has increased 108%. “People are really suffering,” she says. In mid-March, Laureate had a waiting list of about six weeks for adults and four weeks for adolescents seeking inpatient care for eating disorders. Tulsa is not an outlier in experiencing a spike in demand for acute care for eating disorders during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in February that weekly visits to emergency departments for eating disorders among girls ages 12-17 doubled during the pandemic as compared to 2019. The National Eating Disorders Association says its help line had a 107% increase in contacts from March 2020 through December 2021. The association notes that eating disorders have one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness in the United States with one person dying every 52 minutes as a direct result. Stress and isolation Morrow partly attributes the spike in demand for eating disorder care to the added stress brought on by the pandemic. “You have a person whose brain is not very resilient to begin with and then you put all of the factors of the pandemic on top of that, it’s going to exacerbate those tendencies and how they self-treat their anxiety,” she says. Lauren Branz, an outreach coordinator and counselor in training with the eating disorders program, adds: “Something that a lot of our adult patients talk about is that Branz they’ve felt so isolated from their community and even their faith community and that allowed their eating disorder to take over in a way that maybe it hadn’t in the past.”
Multidisciplinary care Moseman, who is working with Dr. Sahib Khalsa at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research studying the neurobiologic underpinnings of eating disorders, conceptualizes eating disorder as a brain stress resiliency issue. This could be understood by the lay public as stress and anxiety disorders. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America says eating disorders commonly co-occur with anxiety disorders, with issues such as obsessive compulsive disorder impacting over a third of young women with anorexia nervosa. The more common forms of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating — any one of which can lead to nutritional issues and serious, even irreversible or deadly physical maladies. Although Laureate’s program has a closed “self-contained” panel of doctors, nurses and therapists solely focused on eating disorder patients, the program takes advantage of the full compendium of services available at Saint Francis Health System in order to better take care of patients, with specialty services that investigate gastrointestinal and bone related complications being more commonly utilized. “For eating disorders, when you don’t eat well it affects every organ system and every system in the body and so we have specialists in internal medicine and pediatrics who we can consult and work together with to treat the whole person,” says Moseman, who has been with Laureate for 17 years. ‘A very difficult illness’ The eating disorders program attracts patients of all ages and from across the nation and around the world. Some of them have been through multiple treatment programs. While the adult inpatient population at Laureate tends to skew young, women in their 50s sometimes seek out the program. Morrow says those older patients are likely to have been dealing with eating disorders since they were much younger and have developed a more recalcitrant form of the illness.
ince proper nourishment is a huge part of recovery, much of the therapy in the Laureate Eating Disorders Program involves instilling a healthy approach to food and diet. Dietitians create individualized meal plans for patients, who eat six times a day. Patients who adhere to special diets, be they kosher, halal or vegetarian, get an appropriate meal plan. The program has a dedicated chef, who oversees the preparation of the food on each patient’s meal plan. None of the food is prepackaged. Care providers attend the meals. Dr. Scott Moseman, the program’s medical director, says the idea is for meals to be therapeutic, with patients feeling supported as they nourish their bodies in a model which is known as “all foods fit.” The overall goal of care for all patients, Moseman says, is “to treat them in a way which is developmentally appropriate so we can pass them off into a place where their eating doesn’t get in the way of their day-today life.” — LISA EISENHAUER
“Many times, we see that (the disorders) have probably been there all along and maybe they’re just now recognizing it or able to get treatment for it,” she says. “It’s a very difficult illness.” In addition to providing physical, mental and nutritional services for patients, Laureate includes extensive family therapy and educational sessions so that loved ones can understand the disorder and how to help support patients in their recovery. Those sessions are available both in-person and virtually. Each month the center also hosts a week of events for patients’ relatives at which staff members lead discussions and recovered patients share their experiences. As part of her ongoing recovery and to show her gratitude for her turnaround, Fabian is a “recovery speaker” for the eating disorders program. She shares her story about how her Laureate counselor diagnosed her with obsession compulsive disorder and, working with doctors and dieticians, helped Fabian find a medication and eating plan that worked for her. She says she got a new start during her 90 days at Laureate. “It was a life-changing experience for sure,” Fabian says. leisenhauer@chausa.org
EATING DISORDER FACTS 9% of the U.S. population, or 28.8 million Americans, will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. 28-74% of risk for eating disorders is through genetics.
Fewer than 6% of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as “underweight.” Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses, second only to opioid overdose. 10,200 deaths in the U.S. each year are the direct result of an eating disorder — that’s one death every 52 minutes. About 26% of people with eating disorders attempt suicide. The economic cost of eating disorders is $64.7 billion every year.
Source: National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD May 15, 2022
Join us in Indy to renew our commitment to confronting racism to achieve health equity, to reimagine the delivery of care and well-being of staff, and to rejoice in the amazing work of our health ministry.
SPEAKERS
From the Main Stage A COMPELLING SPEAKER LINEUP FEATURING
Award-winning author and scholar Dr. Robert Bullard on environmental racism, climate justice and sustainable development
Best-selling author, columnist, CBS correspondent and PBS “NOVA” host David Pogue on new and emerging technology trends
Award-winning medical journalist and public health physician Dr. Seema Yasmin on “misinfodemics” and pandemic futures
Maestro Roger Nierenberg conducts The Music Paradigm, an immersive experience on organizational dynamics and leadership
MORE SPEAKERS TO BE ANNOUNCED!
CHA President and CEO, Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM
CHA Chairperson-elect Laura Kaiser, President and CEO, SSM Health
CHA Chairperson Dr. Rhonda Medows, President, Population Health Management, Providence St. Joseph Health; CEO, Ayin Health Solutions
May 15, 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
Join The Celebration HELP US CELEBRATE OUR REMARKABLE AWARD WINNERS
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Sr. Maureen McGuire, DC, Former Executive Vice President and Chief Mission Integration Officer, Ascension, St. Louis, Missouri
SISTER CAROL KEEHAN AWARD
Dr. Alexander Garza, Chief Community Health Officer, SSM Health, St. Louis, Missouri
SISTER CONCILIA MORAN AWARD
Mary Anne Sladich-Lantz, Senior Vice President, Mission and Formation, Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington
TOMORROW’S LEADERS HONOREES
Andrew G. Ochs, Regional Director, Mission Integration, SSM Health, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
For a lifetime of contributions
For boldly championing society’s most vulnerable
For demonstrated creativity and breakthrough thinking
Honoring young professionals who will guide our ministry in the future
Dave Benner, Chief Ancillary Officer, CHRISTUS Health, Irving, Texas Jacquelyn Bombard, Executive Director, Federal Relations, Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington Amanda Bottolfson, Director, Medical/Surgical, Swingbed, ICU, and PCS Staffing, Avera Sacred Heart Hospital, Yankton, South Dakota Ashley Brand, System Director, Community Health, Integration & Housing, CommonSpirit Health, San Francisco, California
Sarah Reddin, Vice President, Ministry Formation Mission Integration, Ascension, St. Louis, Missouri Andrew Ritz, Vice President, Operations, Mercy Hospital, Durango, Colorado Heather Runnels, Vice President, Patient Care Services, Our Lady of the Lake Ascension, Gonzales, Louisiana Ryan E. Stuhlreyer, Vice President, Service Line Strategy, Bon Secours Mercy Health, Richmond, Virginia Adrienne Webb, Director, National Communication, Issues and Reputation Management, Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington
And who will win this year’s Achievement Citation? BE ON HAND FOR THE AWARDS BANQUET ON JUNE 6 TO FIND OUT!
Register Now NOW! REGISTER
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD May 15, 2022
The goal of the campus, Saint Anthony Hospital executives say, is not to gentrify the surrounding neighborhoods but to bring in needed services and provide amenities and facilities enjoyed in more prosperous parts of the city.
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An architect’s rendering depicts the 30-acre Focal Point Community Campus on the southwest side of Chicago. In addition to a new Saint Anthony Hospital, plans for the campus include affordable housing, an outpatient clinic, educational facilities for child and adults and a recreation center.
Saint Anthony From page 1
president and chief executive, says construction will start early next year. Medaglia expects the project to “usher a new era of hope into a community that has seen too much disinvestment for way too long.” Medaglia
Mixed-use campus The new hospital will have 150 inpatient beds, just like the current one, with an emergency department and intensive care, pediatrics, maternity and behavioral health among its services. Medaglia describes a state-of-the-art facility with a wall-sized monitor in each of the private patient rooms that can display information about the patient’s condition and the medical team. Dedicated corridors will give nonclinical staff such as dietary and environmental services workers access to patient rooms without having their carts add to the traffic in main hallways. Besides the hospital, the campus will have affordable housing, an outpatient clinic, educational centers for children and adults, a recreation center, athletics fields and green space, a venue for private events and retail shops. The building site is 1.5 miles from the 126-year-old Saint Anthony Hospital, a Catholic nonprofit facility unaffiliated with a larger system. The new campus and the existing hospital are in a section of the city largely populated by working-class or impoverished families, many of them Black, Hispanic or Asian and many of them immigrants. Community on the margins Jim Sifuentes, senior vice president of mission and community development at Saint Anthony, says those it serves are largely marginalized, in that they have limited access to health care, employment and other critical planks on the ladder to social and economic advancement. Sifuentes “Much of the poverty that we see in these communities has continued for generations for a lot of systemic reasons,” Sifuentes says. The plans for the Focal Point campus stretch back to the administration of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who left office in 2011. Medaglia says the mayor came to visit Saint
Anthony and left so impressed with its community outreach and programs that he wanted to hand over the blighted 11-acre parcel to build a replacement hospital for $1. That plan got bogged down in what Medaglia calls city politics, with Daley’s successors hedging on and rethinking the commitment. In the end, the Chicago Southwest Development Corporation, the not-for-profit set up to build and manage the Focal Point Community Campus, paid the city $5 million for the parcel. Medaglia says the price was much higher than what the corporation, which he heads, paid for any of the other tracts.
Residents weigh in The size and plans for the Focal Point campus grew in the many years since it was first envisioned. Medaglia and Sifuentes say that is a result of input from residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. At forums that Saint Anthony hosted about the project, residents said they wanted not just quality health care but childcare, programs to keep kids off the streets, vocational training and more. “That’s how we realized that the initial 11 acres that the city was going to sell us was really not enough,” Medaglia says. It also became clear that those programs couldn’t be financed on hospital revenue alone, which comes mostly from Medicaid and other public insurance programs. That led Medaglia to the plan for a selfsustaining development with a mix of public and private enterprises, all of which will pay rent to Chicago Southwest Development Corporation to fund operations and community programs. The budget for the construction of the campus, estimated at $600 million, relies on $143 million from federal, state and city grants and loans; $200 million in private donations; and $257 million in commercial loans. To date, about $37 million has been spent to buy property and do prep work on the site. Saint Anthony has invited ongoing input from community residents and leaders and business owners and it is keeping all these stakeholders informed of its progress on the redevelopment project. Seeding grassroots programs Once the campus is in full operation, Medaglia says the financial plan shows it will generate $7 million more than needed to cover costs every year. He adds that the extra funds will be awarded in grants to not-for-profit organizations serving the surrounding community. Sifuentes says that is one way the
campus will be transformational to the approximately 440,000 people who live within its service area. The grants will be a reliable source of funding for the many church and community organizations that address food and housing insecurity and other social issues that affect health and well-being. Campus planners also expect it to generate many jobs, starting with 3,500 for construction and ending with about 1,200 at the new hospital, 500 at the retail shops and 400 from the various programs. The goal of the campus, Medaglia and Sifuentes say, is not to gentrify the surrounding neighborhoods but to bring in needed services and provide amenities and facilities enjoyed in more prosperous parts of the city. Aware of the high incidence of asthma in the hospital’s catchment area as well as lingering outrage about an earlier demolition project that blanketed the same Chicago neighborhoods in dust, the Chicago Southwest Development Corporation worked with the excavator demolishing buildings to set up a dashboard in several languages with information about dust remediation and air quality. “It just makes sense if these are the people that are going to be using your hospital, you want to build trust, you want to build a relationship,” Medaglia says. “And so how we build this, how we communicate with the communities that are involved, is critical for the success of the project.”
Landing the moonshot Even as the city of Chicago let the plans for the Focal Point campus languish, it drew attention from elsewhere as a model for sustainable developments. Medaglia went to Canada with representatives of the architectural firm that designed the campus, HDR, to discuss the concept with a top official in that nation’s health care system. He got a similar invitation from the United Kingdom, which was scuttled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medaglia says getting the campus zoning plan and property sale approved by the city took a sustained effort and some of the funding has yet to be secured. He’s nevertheless confident that the project will be completed in late 2025 to early 2026. As the project moves along, he’s hoping elected officials and donors will put financial support behind the praise they have voiced for the project. “It’s one thing to say, ‘Wow, this is a great, it’s a transformational project,’ but how are they helping?” he says. “I just expect more people to help more.” leisenhauer@chausa.org
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DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING CHA seeks a director of communications and marketing. This position is responsible for providing comprehensive communications, planning and strategy services to senior leaders in CHA’s St. Louis and Washington, D.C., offices. Responsibilities include collaborating in planning and implementing annual programs and events as well as developing and contributing to CHA's social media strategy and producing a diverse portfolio of educational resources and collateral material in print and digital versions and in video and web-based formats. Some travel may be required. This position also helps to develop, maintain and enhance strong relationships with association members. CHA's membership is composed of more than 600 hospitals and 1,600 long-term care and other health facilities. CHA is seeking candidates with a minimum of seven years’ experience in relevant and progressively responsible professional positions in communications, marketing and project management. Knowledge of Catholic tradition and experience in Catholic health care ministry, nonprofit organizations and/or health care industry are desired. This position requires a bachelor’s degree in English, communications, journalism, or related field, or equivalent work experience. Interested parties should direct resumes to: Cara Brouder Sr. Director, Human Resources Catholic Health Association 4455 Woodson Rd. St. Louis, MO 63134 Phone: 314-253-3498 Email: HR@chausa.org
CHA is an equal opportunity employer.
March May 15, 1,2022 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD
KEEPING UP
Anderson
Armour
Asic
Fikse
van Roekens
PRESIDENTS AND CEOS Allen Anderson to president and chief executive of St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll, Iowa, beginning July 1. He was chief executive and administrator of Avera Tyler in Tyler, Minnesota. Anderson succeeds Ed Smith, who had been St. Anthony president and chief executive since 2012. Smith will assist with the transition. Facilities within Bon Secours Mercy Health have made these changes: Jason Asic to president of Mercy Health — Cincinnati’s new Kings Mills Hospital in Mason, Ohio. Asic has been the project manager during that hospital’s construction, and he will continue in that role until construction ends and the facility opens in late 2023. Asic was interim president and chief operat-
Dardeau
Enderle
ing officer of Mercy Health — Cincinnati’s West Hospital. Also, Dave Fikse plans to retire in June as Cincinnati market president for Mercy Health. Cincinnati Chief Operating Officer Sean Dardeau will fill Fikse’s role on an interim basis as Mercy Health conducts a national search for a new market president. Carol Enderle to president of CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson in Dickinson, North Dakota, part of CommonSpirit Health. She was vice president of patient care services and chief operating officer/chief nursing officer for SCL Health–Holy Rosary Healthcare in Miles City, Montana. Benjamin S. Miles to president of Chelsea Hospital, formerly St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea Hospital, in Chelsea, Michigan. He replaces Nancy Graebner-Sundling, who retired. Miles was president of health plan services and chief advocacy officer at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Chelsea Hospital is a joint venture of Trinity Health and University of Michigan Health.
ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES Ascension has made these changes: Sally Hurt-Deitch to executive vice presi-
Miles
Fields
dent, nursing and operations infrastructure. Tom VanOsdol to executive vice president and chief mission integration officer, effective July 1. He is replacing Timm Glover, who is retiring. Anna Newsom to executive vice president and chief legal officer of Providence St. Joseph Health. Facilities within Bon Secours Mercy Health have made these changes: Brandi M. Fields to chief nursing officer for Mercy Health — Cincinnati. James Armour to vice president of mission for both Mercy Health — Lorain and Mercy Health — Youngstown. The facilities are in Ohio. Dr. Craig van Roekens to chief medical officer for St. Mary’s Healthcare of Amsterdam, New York. Dr. William Melahn to senior vice president of quality and clinical affairs for St. Claire HealthCare of Morehead, Kentucky.
ANNIVERSARY Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican of Las Vegas, part of CommonSpirit Health, 75 years.
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Trinity Health puts its name out front in Michigan rebranding The five-hospital Saint Joseph Mercy Health System and the three-hospital Mercy Health system in Michigan are rebranding as Trinity Health Michigan. The rebranding also covers two affiliated medical groups, IHA and Mercy Health Physician Partners, as well as 22 senior living communities, three home health agencies, MercyElite Sports Performance and Probility Physical Therapy. In total, the change announced April 13 will unite under the Trinity Health Michigan label facilities or services that had been covered by 25 separate brands. All of them are already part of Trinity Health, which is based in Livonia, Michigan, and one of the largest Catholic health systems in the nation with almost $19 billion in annual revenue and 123,000 employees caring for communities in 25 states. Rob Casalou, president and chief executive of Trinity Health Michigan and South- Casalou east Regions, said the name change will “build upon and embrace the strength of our national brand.” “Our patients and our communities will have a much fuller understanding of the services we offer across the state as well as our nationwide connection to one of the largest health care organizations in the United States,” he said. For most of the hospitals, the rebranding will begin with a transition to a new name that starts with Trinity Health followed by the legacy name. The Trinity Health logo will appear on signage, websites and documents. Starting in about a year, the legacy names will be dropped in favor of the facilities’ geographic locations. For example, St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor will become Trinity Health St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor and then Trinity Health Ann Arbor. An exception is St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea Hospital, a joint venture between Trinity Health and University of Michigan Health. The hospital will rebrand as Chelsea Hospital and use the logos of both systems. Casalou said the planning for rebranding began prior to the pandemic. The system put the process on hold until the health emergency eased. The official launch of the changeover was accompanied by a multimedia campaign called “We are Trinity Health.” The campaign includes a 30-second TV commercial that is airing across the Michigan markets the system services. A new website, trinityhealthmichigan.org, has links to the legacy websites. Patients will not have to create new online accounts or change any of their sign-ons. In addition to clarifying the connection between facilities and services across Michigan to Trinity Health, Casalou said the rebranding will be a financial boost to the system because it no longer will have the expense of marketing 25 separate brands. “A rebrand now is an investment in our future,” he said. “We fully expect to receive a return on this investment from a consumer perception standpoint, from a brand recognition standpoint and from a reduction in the amount of work required to maintain multiple brands.”
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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD May 15, 2022
MOM program From page 1
In addition, Eckardt offers mothersto-be and their partners or support teams referrals to services outside the hospital such as new parent groups, diaper banks and nutritional assistance programs. She’s sensitive in how she presents those resources. “I don’t say this is a resource you have to use or need to use,” she explains. “I say ‘These are the resources that are out there, do you think this might be helpful?’ And then they can make the decision for themselves.”
Support at no cost Since MOM started in October 2020, 60% of the women who have given birth at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital have taken part in at least some aspect of the program, which extends until the baby turns 1. Most participants are first time mothers, but Eckardt says sometimes women who have delivered elsewhere sign up so they can see the facilities and hear about the available services. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the prenatal classes have been held virtually. Starting this month, participants will have the option of attending the sessions in person. Only a few couples took part in the classes at first; now about 15 couples attend each month. “I’ve had families from as far as Spokane, Washington; Washington, D.C.; and New York participate in my classes because they’ve found it out there on the internet and it was available,” Eckardt says. Some of the participants are couples who are becoming parents through surrogates, and some of those surrogates participate in MOM programming. The classes, like all aspects of the MOM program, are free. Families aren’t charged and insurers aren’t billed. Eckardt says insurance doesn’t even come up, unless families have questions about it. “It has no bearing on their care from me at all and what resources I offer them,” she says. Eckardt’s main role at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital is as a labor and delivery nurse. She volunteered to be the MOM coordinator and she schedules the program’s courses around her nursing duties. She also gives in-person tours of the hospital’s obstetrics unit. Grateful new mom Jessica Young of Eau Claire is a MOM alumna. She learned she was pregnant with her first child about a week before much of the nation went into lockdown because of the pandemic. Young says the support she got from Eckardt and Teresa DeMoe, a registered nurse and lactation specialist with the hospital’s Women and Infants Center, helped her through some difficult days. She started to have “very intense emotions” each time she breastfed her newborn daughter, Jubilee. The nurses helped her identify what she was experiencing as a condition known as
Jenny Eckardt talks with Chase and Johanna Fitzgerald about breastfeeding baby Adalynn, at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Eckardt, a labor and delivery nurse, coordinates the hospital’s Maternity onto Motherhood, or MOM, program that provides a range of education and assistance to expectant mothers.
dysphoric milk ejection reflex, or D-MER for short. As Young explains: “You get really sad when you breastfeed, is the long story short.” The condition has no identified medical treatments. “Quite often Jenny and Teresa would check in on me to see how I was doing, and they would give me recommendations,” Young says. “I really appreciated that because in the middle of a pandemic being a new mom, it was really tough and then to be going through that additionally, it was hard.” Young breastfed for 14 months. She says Jubilee, born in November 2020, is “fearless right now. She’s walking and climbing.”
Good practices, outcomes Good outcomes like Young’s are what MOM is all about, Eckardt says. The program was initiated by Maria Green, director of HSHS Sacred Heart’s Women and Infants Center. Green based it on a similar program at HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital Highland in Southern Illinois and one at another hospital where she worked. Eckardt sees the program as a complement to Green’s efforts to standardize protocols and implement quality improvement initiatives at the Women and Infants Center. Along with discussing the birthing process and delivery options, Eckardt helps patients with gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and other maternity complications gain a better understanding of the conditions and follow through on their providers’ recommendations to navigate them. She also
“I don’t say this is a resource you have to use or need to use. I say ‘These are the resources that are out there, do you think this might be helpful?’ And then they can make the decision for themselves.” — Jenny Eckardt helps to educate mothers on postpartum issues and reasons to reach out to their providers. The MOM program provides bereavement support to mothers and families after the loss of a pregnancy or newborn. MOM was launched in conjunction with the start of a breast milk depot and dispensary. That program is a partnership between HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital and Mother’s Milk Bank of the Western Great
Lakes, a nonprofit based in Elk Grove, Illinois. In its first year, the dispensary at the hospital supplied 500 gallons of donated, pasteurized milk to babies born at the hospital or to the public for purchase.
Personal touch Eckardt is a mother of three adult children and due to become a grandmother this summer. She says she would like to have had a program like MOM back when she was new to motherhood. It might have even helped her avoid the emergency cesarean section she had for her first delivery. These days, many of the women who deliver at HSHS Sacred Heart are in their 30s, older than in past decades. Eckardt says these women are usually savvy about using the internet to get information about childbirth and delivery but nevertheless eager to have the support of the MOM program. “They can get information at the click of a button, but I think having someone validate that information is really helpful, too,” she says. leisenhauer@chausa.org
PAU S E . B R E AT H E . H E A L .
Courage in Uncertainty For just this moment, bring your attention to your breath. INHALE deeply and settle yourself into your body. EXHALE the stress and tension you feel.
In these days of uncertainty, a moment to pause is both a gift and a necessity. GENTLE YOUR BREATHING, your gaze, and your heart as you consider:
Where have I found courage in the past days? THINK FOR A MOMENT.
In these days of uncertainty where have I found courage?
(Pause to consider) DWELL in the courage you have found and bring it with you into the rest
of your day. Even now, God is with you, as near to you as your breath. Continue giving yourself the gift to pause, breathe and heal, knowing you are not alone.
Our God himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. DEUTERONOMY 31:8 © Catholic Health Association of the United States
Adalynn Fitzgerald was born April 11 at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Her parents took part in the Maternity onto Motherhood program.
For more prayer resources visit chausa.org/prayers