KEEPING UP

PRESIDENTS/CEOS

Bob Sutton will step down as Avera president and chief executive Sept. 30. According to a press release, his departure will be due to a recently diagnosed serious medical condition that requires an intensive treatment regimen. Avera is retaining an executive search firm to conduct a national search in the coming months for the next Avera leader.

Tim Prestridge to president of Cincinnati-based Mercy Health — Clermont Hospital, from chief financial officer of Mercy Health — Anderson Hospital. Mercy Health is part of Bon Secours Mercy Health.

Dr. Guy Hudson stepped down as chief executive of Providence’s north division on April 1 and will depart as president and chief executive of Swedish Health Services on Sept. 30. Dr. Elizabeth Wako will continue to oversee Providence Swedish operations in King County as the chief executive for the Central Puget Sound service area, while Kristy Carrington will continue as chief executive for the North Puget Sound service area and maintain responsibility for Providence Swedish operations in Snohomish County and Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.

Administrative Changes

Dr. Brian Chesebro is the first medical

Prestridge McMurtrie Rhodes Harper Leggio director of environmental stewardship for Providence St. Joseph Health.

Bon Secours Mercy Health organizations have made these changes: Shiley Harper to chief financial officer of Mercy Health — Clermont Hospital in Cincinnati. Danny Warren to chief financial officer of Mercy Health — Kentucky.

Dr. Robert McMurtrie to chief medical officer for Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital of Darby, Pennsylvania, and Saint Francis Hospital of Wilmington, Delaware. The facilities are part of Trinity Health.

Amy Leggio to executive director of the PeaceHealth St. John Foundation of Longview, Washington.

Maureen Rhodes to executive director of the foundation for St. Mary’s Healthcare of Amsterdam, New York.

Anniversary

CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick Hospital,

Lake Charles, Louisiana, 115 years.

Campus Expansions

St. Luke’s Health of Houston has opened the O’Quinn Medical Tower at McNair, the latest addition to the Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center McNair Campus. The 12-story, 420,000-square-foot facility includes an ambulatory surgery center with 12 additional operating rooms and 10 endoscopy suites. The tower expands the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center by tripling its size with an additional 80-bay infusion center, more than 70 exam rooms, and imaging and radiation treatment equipment.

CommonSpirit Health, St. Luke’s parent, invested $426 million in the expansion.

Ascension Seton of Austin, Texas, broke ground in March at its Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin campus on a $320 million tower. Women’s services will be moved from the main medical center to the new tower. The construction will add 28 inpatient rooms to the campus and the facility will have the capacity for 7,500 deliveries annually. The facility will house private neonatal intensive care unit rooms, cesarean section suites, clinical space where minimally invasive gynecologic surgeries can be performed, expanded antepartum space, a dedicated obstetrical and gynecological emergency department and an education center.

Grants And Gifts

Holy Rosary Healthcare of Miles City, Montana, part of Intermountain Health, has received a $6 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Holy Rosary will use the grant to build a cancer center. The center will provide radiation and medical and surgical oncology services. The center will be built on the Holy Rosary campus in Miles City. Construction began this spring, and the $17 million project is expected to be completed in late 2024.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has granted $682,498 to Avera and Access Health to purchase ultrasound machines as part of a $26.4 million ultrasound initiative in Minnesota. Seven new ultrasound machines will be purchased for three Avera hospitals and three Access Health clinics.

Ministry facilities provide private spaces for nursing moms at tourist destinations

By JULIE MINDA

Finding a private place to nurse or pump breast milk at tourist destinations can be a challenge. Two ministry facilities are meeting this need as part of broader partnerships with tourist sites in their communities.

The foundation of Saint Joseph Hospital donated a freestanding lactation privacy pod to the Denver Zoo. And Chesterfield, Missouri-based Mercy has partnered to locate five baby care and nursing stations at the Silver Dollar City theme park near Branson, Missouri.

Denver Zoo

The $35,000 Mamava-brand lactation pod came courtesy of Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation’s NICU/Family Health fund. It is prominently located inside an entrance to the zoo’s giraffe house. To access the private space, a mother signs into the Mamava app and gets the code to open the door.

The large pod, which was put in service in July, accommodates a double-wide stroller. It is wheelchair accessible. The pod has a changing table, seating for mothers and babies and electrical outlets to power a breast milk pump.

Photos of baby mammals — including human, rhino and giraffe — and their mothers decorate interior and exterior walls. The women who are featured in lactation stories displayed in the pod delivered their babies at Saint Joseph and consulted with the hospital’s lactation specialists.

Katie Halverstadt, clinical manager of lactation and family education for Saint Joseph, says that as a designated BabyFriendly Hospital, Saint Joseph has committed to support new moms in successfully feeding their babies, including after their discharge from the hospital.

Before the pod was installed, women were left to their own resources to find a quiet, clean, safe place to feed their babies or pump breast milk for them. Halverstadt says women in Saint Joseph’s breastfeeding support groups have told her they appreciate the convenience and privacy of the pod. It allows them to enjoy a family outing while sticking with their breastfeeding goals. Halverstadt says participating in wholesome social activities can counter postpartum depression and anxiety.

The family lactation pod is part of a sponsorship that Saint Joseph’s former parent company SCL Health forged with the zoo. Intermountain Health, which merged with SCL Health in April 2022, has continued the sponsorship.

collaboration that Mercy and Silver Dollar City announced in spring 2022. The southern Missouri theme park, which welcomes an average of 2 million-plus visitors each year, says it consults with its “official health care sponsor” Mercy on meeting the health needs of park visitors. Mercy has more than 40 acute care, managed and specialty hospitals across Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas. jminda@chausa.org

Also as part of the sponsorship, Mercy provides and brands numerous courtesy hand sanitizing stations throughout the park.

Mercy and Silver Dollar City worked together to create a family calming space, a room at the park where families can bring their children who have sensory processing disorders. The room has a subdued color palette; soft seating; low lighting; books; and a “crash pad” for kids to use to rest, roll around or play on.

A highlight of the park is artisans who demonstrate to visitors how products were made in the 1880s. Some of those craftspeople created the décor in the family calming space. They made a large, textured wall mural portraying the Frisco Silver Dollar Train that traverses the park. The wall has dimensional layers of smooth and rougher surfaces, artificial grass, wood for the railroad ties, stone for the tunnel and glass beads for the sky. According to information from Mercy, some kids with developmental disabilities find comfort in touching textures. The mural was designed with them in mind.

Saint Joseph staff present two educational events annually at the zoo to highlight services for expectant and new parents. Saint Joseph also has provided free zoo tickets to families who delivered at the hospital or who participated in the hospital’s breastfeeding and toddler support groups.

Silver Dollar City