Catholic Health World - May 1, 2023

Formation for Formation Leaders 2

Fr. Charlie Bouchard, OP, to retire 6 Diarmuid Rooney heads mission, sponsorship 7

As COVID emergencies end, attention turns to potential impacts

By LISA EISENHAUER

Executives and policy advocates at CHA and its member health systems are on the alert for the ripple effects of the end of the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies that created temporary flexibility in how care is delivered.

Parishioners celebrate Mass in the chapel of the St. Nicholas House of Mercy in Lviv, Ukraine. CHA was represented on a three-man delegation that visited places in Ukraine — including this House of Mercy — where Catholic organizations are aiding people harmed by the war.

Delegation visits Ukraine communities helped by Catholic organizations

By JULIE MINDA

When a trio of leaders from Catholic organizations visited Ukraine in March, they saw how the Catholic Church and related charitable organizations are fortifying efforts by parish and other church ministries to accompany and aid people who have lost family members, homes and

peace of mind in the war with Russia.

Over 10 days, Msgr. Robert Vitillo, Bruce Compton and Christian Kostko learned firsthand about some of the church’s relief work in Ukraine. They visited parish-run centers where mental health therapy and psychosocial support aim to ease emotional and physical suffering. The delegation called on ministries housing and car-

ing for displaced children.

They spoke with seminarians gaining the skills and knowledge they’ll use to minister to parishioners who will no doubt be processing the trauma of war for years, if not lifetimes.

Msgr. Vitillo, who led the delegation, has made several trips to Ukraine in his

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CommonSpirit council spearheads systemwide push toward health equity

By JULIE MINDA

Within months of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became glaringly obvious throughout the medical field that while the pandemic was having an impact on virtually all people everywhere, there were some populations that it was hitting much harder than others. Data and anecdotal evidence showed that in the U.S. the public health crisis was disproportionately impacting people of color, the poor, the uninsured and the elderly.

Michael Richards, vice president of government programs and public policy at SSM Health, cited relaxed pandemic regulations related to telehealth, including the allowance for mental health services to be provided to Medicare enrollees by phone.

Richards leads the Interstate Healthcare Collaborative, which operates out of SSM Health. The collaborative advocates for and provides education on interstate license compacts and telehealth policy on behalf of health systems and medical associations.

“During the public health emergency we showed that caring for patients at home

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CommonSpirit Health in 2020 established a Vulnerable Populations Council to develop strategies for better reaching populations who do not have equitable access to health care information, resources and services. Migrant farmworkers are one such population. Here, farmworkers at Del Bosque Farms stack boxes of melons on a flatbed trailer in Firebaugh, California, in July 2021.

To ensure its 140 hospitals and 1,000plus other care sites in 21 states were taking on such disparities, CommonSpirit Health in late 2020 established a Vulnerable Populations Council.

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Mission of young Mennonites and Catholic hospital intertwine

By KATHLEEN NELSON

After graduating from high school in Ithaca, Michigan, Darren Benesh sought direction. A member of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, Benesh, “didn’t know where I fit in and what I really liked. I didn’t want to go to college with nothing settled in my heart.”

After working on a farm for a couple

years, he turned to his denomination’s service program with roots in the 1940s and found his purpose at Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut, part of Trinity Health Of New England.

“All of our volunteers enhance our mission, but these young men are on a mission of their own,” says Mary Liebig, manager of volunteer services for Trinity Health Of New England.

The partnership with Saint Francis is one of more than a dozen established by Christian Public Service, a Mennonite agency that originated during World War II. Its website says it was founded to provide “opportunities for conscientious objectors to serve their fellow men in lieu of military service.” Today, the agency fosters volunteer service for young churchmen and

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Dr. Chip Veal works in the TeleICU Command Center at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, part of Providence St. Joseph Health. Health systems rapidly expanded telehealth services early in the pandemic.

“

These young men walk the walk. But they do it quietly. They don’t look for pats on the back or accolades. They don’t want a letter from us confirming their hours.”

— Mary Liebig

Terry Chea/Associated Press

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CHA offers professional development, community-building program for formation leaders

By JULIE MINDA

For the spirit and culture of the ministry to flourish, the people who make up the ministry must be well-grounded in the tradition and theology of Catholic health care and be able to connect their personal vocation with their organization’s mission. Formation leaders play the essential role in ensuring this grounding is done authentically and effectively, says Diarmuid Rooney, CHA’s vice president of sponsorship and mission services.

To equip and support formation leaders in their crucial work, CHA is offering an indepth professional development program called Formation for Formation Leaders. The course is open to CHA members who lead and facilitate formation programming. Participants must have a graduate degree in theology or spirituality or the equivalent combination of education and experience and they must commit to complete the entire 24-month course, among other criteria.

In addition to sharpening skill sets, the course is designed to foster lasting relationships among peer participants. Course designers hope these connections will strengthen the shared commitment to the unified mission of Catholic health care as a church ministry. The vision is that the network will constitute a “community of practice” capable of creatively leading formation into the future.

“We are better together than we are alone,” says Mary Anne Sladich-Lanz, one of four seasoned formation experts on the program faculty who are intent on passing on their accumulated wisdom to the next generation of formation leaders while also learning from those participants. “We have the ability to learn from each other and to engage this community in a way that will benefit Catholic health care organizations” as well as their leaders, staff and patients, she adds. Sladich-Lanz is a formation consultant for ministry systems including Providence St. Joseph Health.

The CHA program begins in August and concludes in fall 2025. The registration

Mennonite partnership

From page 1

churchwomen through nine service units for young men and six for young women. Its volunteers spend six months to a year in such diverse arenas as Navajo reservations in New Mexico and Arizona; health systems in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Canada; and in rebuilding projects following natural disasters in the U.S. and Canada.

Saint Francis’ involvement began in 2012, when Mennonites living in Hartford who had volunteered at the hospital suggested a permanent, formal relationship. Four men volunteer for six months each, spending two to three days a week at Saint Francis helping in the emergency department and assisting in discharging patients.

“Because they come from small communities, they aren’t used to some of the challenges from injuries, incidents or problems that are common in inner cities,” Liebig says. “They are thrown into a Level 1 trauma center and see a lot of things. But they are very insightful young men and not judgmental.”

They also unload and organize donations at the Joan C. Dauber Food Pantry on Trinity’s Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital campus in Hartford and occasionally sing hymns a cappella in the main lobby at Saint Francis. They also spend time each week volunteering at Hartford Hospital, where they work in the surgical unit’s family waiting area, and Habitat for Humanity.

deadline is June 30. The program includes four in-person and nine virtual sessions over the 24 months. CHA plans to offer the course on an ongoing basis, with up to 50 formation leaders participating in each cohort.

The curriculum covers the theological underpinnings of Catholic health care. Faculty will guide participants in exercises to deepen their individual psychological and spiritual development. They will delve into practical elements of designing formation programs for executive, professional and support staff. Course participants will have readings and reflection questions to complete before the live session and postdiscussion forums for the virtual sessions. They also will have projects, practicums and a capstone project. Rooney estimates the time commitment to be about five hours per month, excluding virtual and in-person meetings.

In a 2022 CHA survey, mission lead-

ers said formation is the competency that they most wished to improve. Rooney says ministry formation is needed throughout all Catholic health systems and facilities — including for sponsors, board members, executives and other leaders and frontline staff. In systems and facilities where there is no leader with the sole responsibility for formation, it usually falls to the mission leader to shape and present formation programming.

“Ministry formation is the cultural catalyst of Catholic health care and it’s the essence of what keeps us unique and distinct in all of health care,” says Rooney. “If we don’t have enough people properly trained to do formation, the implications are vast.”

Generational change

In addition to Rooney and Sladich-Lanz, program faculty include Celeste Mueller, ministry formation and leadership con-

sultant with Vocare Partners; and Stephen Taluja, chief sponsorship and ministry formation officer for Bon Secours Mercy Health.

Taluja says many seasoned ministry leaders who had developed a proficiency in formation are retiring, so there is some urgency to preparing those who will take on the formation responsibilities.

Mueller says, “we really want to secure the knowledge, wisdom and practices we’ve gained” for future formation leaders.

Mueller believes Formation for Formation Leaders will increase the professionalism and the level of excellence in ministry formation practice.

Emerging discipline

Rooney says contemporary ministry formation is a nascent but quickly growing discipline in its own right. Taluja adds that universities don’t offer courses in the nuts and bolts of formation programming. In addition to having theological grounding, to be effective, formation leaders must tend to their own spiritual development and have the empathy and skill to guide others in this type of personal discovery.

Formation for Formation Leaders builds upon work CHA and a 13-person committee completed in 2019 to define ministry formation and set out competencies for formation professionals. They wrote CHA’s “Framework for Ministry Formation” booklet and generated other tools for formation programming. The four faculty for Formation for Formation Leaders were on the committee.

CHA’s Ministry Formation Advisory Council continues to inform the development of the resources and content that the framework outlines.

Visit chausa.org/FFL to learn more about the program and register. The fee of $5,500 per participant covers all materials as well as accommodations and meals for the in-person sessions.

jminda@chausa.org

researched it in the denomination’s annual financial and activity report, which catalogs all the public service opportunities. Rather than a rebuilding project, Benesh was drawn to Hartford’s “more humanitarian work, which I was more comfortable with and could put my talents to use.” His parents co-owned a small assisted living facility, where he volunteered as a youngster. “I felt like I could draw on that experience and use the tools God has given me.”

“I want to be a light and help where I can,” he says.

Members of the Church of God in Christ,

Liebig emphasizes that regardless of their assignment, they do not preach, proselytize or recruit.

“These young men walk the walk,” Liebig says. “But they do it quietly. They don’t look for pats on the back or accolades. They don’t want a letter from us confirming their hours.”

The foursome lives in a church-owned home in nearby Glastonbury with a Mennonite couple on a one-year volunteer mission as unit parents. Many of these couples also have volunteered at Saint Francis in the gift shop, emergency department, food

months

bank and as visitors to patients on nursing floors. Since the program’s inception, 82 young men from the U.S., Canada and Brazil have done their service mission at Saint Francis.

Though a volunteer service mission is no longer required in his denomination, Benesh says many men and women continue the tradition of donating months or a year of their young adult lives to service “because we want to give time to the Lord and our country.”

He heard of the Hartford Service Unit program through word of mouth and

He applied in September 2020 but because of COVID, wasn’t chosen by church officials for the assignment until 2022. His favorite days, he says, were spent in the emergency department. “It’s fastpaced, and it’s not easy.” He adds, “The staff in the emergency department really cares about us. And that means a lot.”

By the time he finished his service in February, he says, he received more than he gave and set his course for the future. “Coming out here, praying about it and working and thinking, I feel like I have the tools to start being a nurse,” he says. “This experience has made me think deeply, made me look inside, to see who I really am and what I’m capable of.”

As soon as Benesh departed, another young man arrived to fill his slot and continue the shared mission. “Their service enhances their spiritual lives and what this hospital system stands for,” Liebig says. “Our missions have matched up very well.”

Sladich-Lanz

Mueller

Taluja

Mennonite, come from across the country to perform six

of voluntary service at Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut, as part of the denomination’s Christian service project. A recent group of volunteers included, from left, Kade Peaster of Mississippi, Matt Johnston of California, Brent Nichols of Kansas, and Darren Benesh of Michigan.

Courtesy of Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center

Delegation to Ukraine

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capacity as secretary general of the International Catholic Migration Commission. Based in Geneva, the commission brings together a worldwide network of Catholic bishop conferences and Catholic-inspired organizations working on migration and refugee issues. Msgr. Vitillo also leads Catholic Response for Ukraine Working Group. Kostko is a management consultant for that group. Compton is CHA’s senior director of global health.

The three began their journey March 1 in Warsaw, Poland, where they met with representatives of Catholic Relief Services and the Polish Rescue Organization to learn how those organizations are responding to the urgent needs of the Ukrainian people.

The trio also met with Polish officials. According to the United Nations, 1.58 million Ukrainians are registered for temporary protection in Poland. Msgr. Vitillo said at various periods since February 2022, upwards of 5 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have sought refuge there.

Crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border, the delegation traveled to Lviv in Western Ukraine. Representatives of the Sovereign Order of Malta and that Catholic lay group’s charitable arm talked to the delegation about the relief the organization has delivered or funded in Ukraine throughout the war, including food, beds, generators, medical equipment and services, psychological health care and social work. Much of the supplies come from Europe and from North America.

The delegation visited a state-run orphanage in Lviv as well as a foster home taking in displaced children who receive volunteer and professional support through St. Nicholas House of Mercy. St. Nicho-

las and other House of Mercy facilities are diocesan- and parish-affiliated centers that offer social and mental health services.

Recounting aspects of the trip with ministry peers during a special March 30 CHA global health networking call, Compton said that everywhere the delegation traveled, there was evidence of destruction — annihilated buildings, bombed out cars, shrapnel, walls pocked with bullet holes, fresh graves in rapidly expanding cemeteries.

But Compton said he was struck by the nation’s resilience: people busily going about their daily tasks mere minutes after civil defense sirens had gone quiet, children at the orphanage who sang and danced just steps away from the entrance to the facility’s bomb shelter.

Building up local capacity

During an interview for the CHA podcast

“Health Calls,” Compton said the Catholic Church’s relief efforts in Ukraine are largely focused on directing resources through existing church ministries to build local capacity — an approach CHA endorses.

Msgr. Vitillo emphasized the value of this approach in a video about the series of visits he has made to Ukraine. He said that during crises, the church responds in a way that goes beyond meeting pressing material and physical needs. He said the church often already has a presence in communities hit by disaster and “it will stay during the crisis … and then it will be there afterwards, too. It’s accompanying the people.”

Msgr. Vitillo’s organization, the International Catholic Migration Commission, is providing financial and technical support to Ukrainian parishes to bolster their capacity to deliver spiritual care, mental health care, and child protective services. The commission is funding trauma care and mental health training for seminarians in formation programs associated with both Greek and Roman Catholic Churches in every part of the country.

The delegation spent time at Sheptytsky Hospital, which is preparing to equip patients with prosthetics and provide them with rehabilitation services. Msgr. Vitillo has appealed to Catholic health systems in the U.S. to provide prosthetics and other resources to Ukrainian amputees. The country is rife with minefields.

During his networking call, Compton noted that the work going on in Lviv illustrates the value of providing resources to build up local capacity rather than bringing in outside practitioners to direct and deliver emergency relief services.

Faulty assumptions

for purchase in Ukraine or in bordering countries. The Catholic Medical Mission Board and Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach are providing some of these supplies, and the Knights of Columbus is paying shipping and handling costs to get them to Ukraine. The container with goods valued at nearly $1 million was to be shipped to Ukraine in late April.

Hot war, living history

Christ the King parish in Khmelnytskyi also is using money from the International Catholic Migration Commission to increase the number of and provide training to mental health professionals, so they can tend to the psychosocial needs of parishioners.

Compton shared with participants in the networking call that it felt surreal to tour a military museum in the basement of the Christ the King church. Some artifacts of the bloody modern conflict over Ukrainian sovereignty date back over a decade. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The church gives Ukrainian troops heading to the battlefield prayer books, rosaries and small pins that have religious significance to the troops and to the people in the parish. Parishioners from the Khmelnytskyi church collect basic supplies that they periodically deliver to troops on the frontlines.

The delegation’s time in Kyiv coincided with a Russian drone and heavy missile offensive targeting infrastructure in major cities. Air raid sirens sounded their first morning in the city.

When the shelling stopped, the group visited memorials to fallen soldiers. In towns on the outskirts of Kyiv, they met with locals who shared their experiences and losses. One woman tended a flower garden on property that her husband’s family had owned for generations. All three houses on the property had been destroyed by bombs and resulting fires. Most of her family members had fled Ukraine, but the woman and her husband remained, living with neighbors and holding out hope for rebuilding.

The delegation visited Bucha and Irpin, cities that had been under siege and occupied by Russian forces before being retaken by Ukrainian troops in March 2022. In that area, the three delegation members viewed the site of a mass grave containing the victims of the earliest attacks on these towns, which were less than 10 kilometers from the capital city of Kyiv.

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The delegation made stops in three other communities in Western Ukraine — Zolochiv, Chortkiv and Ternopil. They toured a center for children and adults with Down syndrome and for survivors of human trafficking and sexual violence. They also visited a House of Mercy and a foster home for displaced children. They met a pastor/farmer in a rural parish who has been selling produce, honey and candles to generate funds for Catholic Church ministries that serve disabled people in the area.

The group spoke with clinicians and seriously wounded soldiers at a hospital in Ternopil. Compton said during the networking call that he had been surprised to see the advanced medical technology in use at the hospital.

Compton underscored that while wellmeaning health care facilities may think they are helping by donating outdated medical equipment to facilities overseas, it is always best to learn directly from intended recipients what is needed. Money is almost always preferrable to used equipment, according to Compton, especially if replacement parts will prove hard to come by.

The delegation learned about medicine and medical equipment that is unavailable

The woman who brought them there also showed them a small building where she and neighbors had holed up during shellings, tank fighting and rifle fire. The military action occurred over two weeks’ time. Compton said the delegation learned that when the civilians were hunkered down, each time a small contingent of the civilians would run from the building to a well to get water, Russian snipers would shoot at them, and this resulted in casualties.

At their last stop, in Kosiv, the delegation observed weekend retreats for veterans and their spouses who are processing the emotional, mental and spiritual fallout of the war. The International Catholic Migration Commission is financially supporting the retreats, which are run by the Knights of Columbus.

Light in the darkness

Compton called his time in Ukraine a “life-changing experience. It was devastating and yet encouraging. It was hopeful in so many ways, but also awful, to see the reality of what has happened in Ukraine and is continuing to happen.”

But, he said, “We saw the church in action. We saw the beauty of the people, the amazing humanity” of their response to the countless needs all around them.

Information on how Catholic organizations are responding to Ukrainian people’s needs, a link to Compton’s “Health Calls” podcast, information on recommended ways to support the people of Ukraine and other details are available at chausa.org/ global-health/Ukraine.

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Stops made by Catholic delegation Communities visited in March by representatives of the International Catholic Migration Commission, the Catholic Response for Ukraine Working Group and CHA

Near Bucha in north central Ukraine, Ukrainian Olga Shatylo shows the delegation cars destroyed in the Ukrainian-Russian war. From left are Christian Kostko, a management consultant for the Catholic Response for Ukraine Working Group; Msgr. Robert Vitillo, secretary general of the International Catholic Migration Commission; Bruce Compton, CHA senior director of global health; and Shatylo.

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Join The Celebration

Be sure to join us for the heartwarming celebrations that spotlight our remarkable award winners and the amazing work happening in Catholic health ministry!

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

For a lifetime of contributions

SISTER CAROL KEEHAN AWARD

For boldly championing society’s most vulnerable

SISTER CONCILIA MORAN AWARD

For demonstrated creativity and breakthrough thinking

TOMORROW’S LEADERS HONOREES

Honoring young professionals who will guide our ministry in the future

Dzenan Berberovic, MA, CFRE, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Avera Health, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Brian Li, System Director, Community Health Strategic Initiatives, CommonSpirit Health, San Francisco, California

John R. Albright, Jr., Director of Home Care and Georgia Infirmary, St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System, Inc., Savannah, Georgia

Jessica Darnell, MSN, RN, CENP, Vice President Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer, Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown, Nashville, Tennessee

Sr. Linda Werthman, RSM, PhD Past Member of Trinity Health Board, Trinity Health, Livonia, Michigan

Rod Hochman, MD President and Chief Executive Officer Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington

Sr. Catherine O’Connor, CSB, PhD Congregational Leadership Team of Brigidine Sisters and Covenant Health Board, Covenant Health, Tewksbury, Massachusetts

Elliott Bedford, PhD, Director, Ethics Integration, Ascension St. Vincent, Indianapolis, Indiana; Ascension Via Christi, Wichita, Kansas

John Kohler, Sr., MD, MBA, Southern Illinois Regional Chief Medical Officer, Medical Group President, SSM Health, Saint Louis, Missouri

Zachary Melick, Director of Business Transformation, PeaceHealth, Vancouver, Washington

Tyler Limbaugh, Regional Integration Officer, Ascension Florida and Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, Florida

Lauren King, Senior Director, Talent Strategy and Innovation, HR, Ascension, Saint Louis, Missouri

Ratish Kumar Mohan, Biomedical Engineer, Hospital Sisters Health System, Springfield, Illinois

Fr. Bouchard, CHA senior director of theology and sponsorship, to retire

Fr. Charlie Bouchard, OP, is retiring as CHA’s senior director of theology and sponsorship at the end of June after decades in leadership in Catholic education and the church’s health care ministry.

Fr. Bouchard joined CHA’s mission services team in 2015. He has counseled and assisted sponsors and members of ministerial juridic persons in carrying out their canonical responsibilities for the Catholic health ministry. He also has worked with church leaders and bishops at the United

Health equity push

From page 1

While the group first convened with a charge to broadly develop a vulnerable patient strategy it quickly pivoted to increasing vulnerable groups’ access to COVID-19 information, screening, vaccines and resources. Since 2021, it has been exploring how to ensure vulnerable populations are aware of the importance of preventive care and can access it.

“We’re looking at how do we make sure that a vulnerable populations strategy is embedded in CommonSpirit from a clinical, operational and strategic perspective,” says Brisa Urquieta De Hernandez, system director of operations for CommonSpirit’s new Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness & Health Justice. “We’re some-

States Conference of Catholic Bishops and at the Holy See on a range of issues involving health care, social justice, public policy and the church.

“Working at CHA, meeting our members, sponsors, and execs, is the best job I have ever had. I have been able to think about church and ministry in a whole new way,” Fr. Bouchard said. “I love the CHA staff and would stay another 10 years if I could!”

Diarmuid Rooney, vice president of sponsorship and mission services at CHA,

times having uncomfortable conversations about what patients are experiencing and we’re amplifying the work that is happening” to address concerns.

‘Incubator of ideas’

The Vulnerable Populations Council is made up of about 40 leaders representing clinical, operational and strategic disciplines. Among the council members are people with experience in community health, population health, value-based care, behavioral health, political advocacy and nursing care coordination. The council meets over videoconference. Dr. Alisahah Jackson, president of the Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness & Health Justice, helps guide the work.

De Hernandez says the Vulnerable Populations Council has become “an incubator of ideas.”

Rachelle R. Wenger, CommonSpirit system vice president of public policy and advocacy engagement, is a member

CommonSpirit institute to advance causes related to human kindness, health equity

An institute that CommonSpirit Health started late last year will leverage “the science of kindness, compassion, empathy and trust to accelerate health equity and social justice.”

That is according to Dr. Alisahah Jackson, who is the first president of the Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness & Health Justice. The new institute is named for the CommonSpirit chief executive who retired in August, and it advances his “long-standing commitment to health equity and the power of human kindness,” according to a press release announcing the institute’s launch. The institute’s name also references an area of focus and the “Hello Humankindness” branding campaign started by one of CommonSpirit’s legacy systems, Dignity Health.

The institute is helping to lead the Vulnerable Populations Council work that CommonSpirit is undertaking to accelerate health justice.

CommonSpirit Chief Executive Wright Lassiter III says that “recognizing the systemic inequities in health care and taking meaningful steps to reverse them is at the core of our work as a mission-driven health organization and an important way to honor Lloyd’s legacy. The institute’s work will save lives and strengthen our communities.”

The institute will convene CommonSpirit staff to promote health justice and human kindness across the system, including through clinical and community initiatives and workforce development, according to the release.

Brisa Urquieta De Hernandez, system director of operations for the institute, says “at CommonSpirit, humankindness means inspiring change in health care that leads to more empathy, listening,

and respect — because we believe that humanity holds the power to heal.” De Hernandez adds that “studies have shown positive health outcomes when showing and receiving kindness, compassion, empathy and trust. The institute hopes to support the continued work in this space.”

The institute’s programming will center around five areas:

Funding new research on building trust in health care among historically medically underserved populations to improve health status.

Helping coordinate community health initiatives addressing the social determinants of health.

Bolstering and adding to CommonSpirit programs and academic partnerships nationwide that seek to diversify the health care workforce.

Increasing and speeding health justice research aimed at eliminating race-based disparities in health care.

Aligning data and reporting techniques with clinical initiatives that are seeking to reduce race-based health disparities, while addressing social issues that also contribute to these inequities.

De Hernandez says that with the institute, CommonSpirit is “amplifying existing efforts within our ministry that are addressing a patient’s needs outside of clinical walls and integrating it into clinical care.” For example, if a clinician becomes aware that a diabetic patient is also food insecure, he or she may create a treatment plan that ensures the care team helps the patient to access healthy foods as well as their diabetes medication.

CommonSpirit’s foundation has launched a $50 million fundraising campaign to support the institute’s programming.

said Fr. Bouchard “has been very active in deepening the ministry’s understanding of the church’s teachings and pastoral concerns for the transgender community.”

He said Fr. Bouchard was instrumental in arranging a meeting where transpersons and parents of transchildren shared their experiences with the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.

Before moving into his current role, Fr. Bouchard was CHA’s senior director, theology and ethics, supporting the Catholic health ministry nationwide as an author, educator and consultant on the

of the council. She says group members each bring distinct perspectives on issues related to vulnerable populations and are able to meld their expertise into coordinated approaches to challenges.

The advocacy team supports the aims of the council by working on policy issues that promote health equity and social justice, such as by addressing disparities in maternal health, housing and food security, immigration-related health access concerns, and climate change, Wenger says.

Members of the Vulnerable Populations Council have been exploring how best to define and categorize these and other priority areas and standardize data collection to inform their health disparities work.

Subcommittees are using the expertise and the high-level action plans of the council to assess CommonSpirit’s markets, identify care gaps, inventory assets the markets have to work with in addressing those gaps and develop implementation plans.

A Vulnerable Populations Care Collaborative made up of frontline practitioners from throughout CommonSpirit’s regions is championing the efforts.

Intentional outreach

De Hernandez says the Vulnerable Populations Council’s first order of business was to convene experts from around CommonSpirit to grapple with and respond to the disproportionately poor health outcomes that CommonSpirit was seeing among populations experiencing the worst COVID outcomes. The council later took on challenges around vaccine hesitancy.

De Hernandez says the council considered how to acknowledge the distrust many African Americans, migrants and people with low household incomes have for medical providers, how to acknowledge discrimination and racism that often caused the mistrust, how to build trust with disadvantaged people, how to engage them and how to create resources that resonate with them.

The council and its subcommittees created tool kits for CommonSpirit frontline staff to use in undertaking the work. The council and affiliated groups also engaged information technology professionals in creating electronic medical record and data tools for identifying patients and community members at risk of missing out on COVID information resources, vaccines or treatments. Clinicians in CommonSpirit health care facilities used this information to conduct targeted outreach.

church’s theological and ethical teachings. He also was executive editor of CHA’s quarterly online publication Health Care Ethics USA

Prior to joining CHA, Fr. Bouchard was provincial of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great in Chicago. He also held several other leadership positions, including vice president of theological education at St. Louis’ Ascension Health from 2007 to 2011. He was the president of the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis from 1989 to 2007.

Guerrero states of Mexico. That migrant population was identified as especially at risk of COVID infections and poor health outcomes.

“This was truly a matter of life and death,” says Diaz. She and colleagues worked with a local community service to translate important CommonSpirit COVID literature and videos into Mixtec, and then the CommonSpirit team got that information to the migrants, including by providing it through physicians who people in that community already trusted.

Turning the wellness visit on its head

Diaz says now that the Vulnerable Populations Council and related groups are devoting their time and energy to preventive care, the population health framework that she and her colleagues erected under the council’s prior COVID work is being used in new ways. “We intend to build upon it as we educate on important health screenings, like those for colorectal cancer, which is the third most common cancer in the United States,” she says.

She says every patient encounter is an opportunity to educate and encourage patients to seek preventative care and manage chronic disease.

De Hernandez says the Vulnerable Populations Council has turned its attention to primary and preventive care because it recognized that in part due to exigencies of the pandemic many people were avoiding health care facilities and had stopped seeking preventive care, including wellness exams and screenings.

Preventive care avoidance is most common among minority populations who already are at heightened risk for chronic diseases that can worsen if ignored, says De Hernandez.

De Hernandez says the council is working to better understand why populations of medically vulnerable people continue to stay away from primary care and what might persuade them to return. The work acknowledges that members of medically marginalized groups are not always able to access preventive care, and this problem was exacerbated during the pandemic.

The council also is thinking through how to use the annual wellness visit to assess not just physical health but also mental health and social needs.

As CommonSpirit gains traction around preventive care in medically underserved populations, it likely will use its Vulnerable Populations Council framework to take on other broad public health problems, such as smoking and diabetes.

Diaz

Dr. Monique Diaz, CommonSpirit chief medical information officer for the Pacific central coast health centers of its Dignity Health division, served on a care collaborative that developed information technology tools for reaching out to migrant workers. One subgroup that the collaborative concentrated on was Mixtec migrants; the indigenous Mesoamericans had come to California from the Oaxaca, Puebla and

The granddaughter of a migrant farmworker from Mexico, Diaz says, “this work touches upon all of my passions in medicine. It takes health information technology, plus population data and centers it on social justice in the name of making God’s healing presence known.

“I can’t think of anything else in a professional setting that can top that.”

CommonSpirit explains more about the model in a Dec. 3, 2021, article published in the online edition of Number 6 of Population Health Management

jminda@chausa.org

De Hernandez

Wenger

Fr. Bouchard

Rooney promoted to CHA vice president of sponsorship & mission services

Diarmuid Rooney, CHA’s newly promoted vice president of sponsorship & mission services, wants to help the Catholic health ministry reinforce a positive image of what it is and what it does.

“My vision and hope are that CHA will become an even stronger unifier and hub for the collective voice and mission of Catholic health care,” he said.

Rooney took on the vice president duties on an interim basis in October.

“Diarmuid helped the mission services team navigate through this challenging transition while he managed the ongoing

work of ministry formation,” said Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA president and chief executive officer.

She added: “In addition to the wealth of experience and energy he has brought to CHA, Diarmuid’s warm and compassionate spirit has touched us all.”

Rooney joined CHA in January 2018 as the association’s first senior director of ministry formation. In that role, Rooney led the creation of CHA’s “Framework for Ministry Formation” to develop foundational elements of formation for the ministry. He also expanded opportunities for

ministry formation with the development of CHA’s On-Demand Foundations of Catholic Health Care Leadership program. That program has enabled greater access to formation and has served as a catalyst to strengthen the Catholic identity of CHA’s member organizations in carrying out their healing mission.

Prior to joining CHA in 2018, Rooney was vice president, formation and communication technology, at the Ministry Leadership Center in Sacramento, California. The center was focused on expanding and enriching executive health care leaders’ commitment to the Catholic tradition’s mission, vision and values. Previously, he

Senior volunteers keep giving through Project Warm Embrace

By LISA EISENHAUER

Betsy Garin says it made her happy to be among a group of volunteers assembling colorful goody bags to give away at Easter.

Garin and her neighbors at Marguerite’s House in Lawrence, Massachusetts, filled the bags with candy, tissues, toothpaste and a brush, a box of macaroni and cheese and other goods. Residents of the Mary Immaculate Nursing/Restorative Center, a skilled nursing facility on the same campus as Marguerite’s House, staffed their own gift bag assembly line. The residents together prepared about 50 Easter bags for a giveaway at a food pantry.

“It’s helping, and that is what I like to do,” says Garin, who also took part in a midApril work session to fill gift bags for Mother’s Day.

Marguerite’s House and Mary Immaculate Nursing/Restorative Center are part of Mary Immaculate Health/Care Services. The continuum-of-care campus is part of Tewksbury, Massachusetts-based Covenant Health.

The gift bags were the first product of a yearlong volunteer program at Mary Immaculate Health/Care Services called Project Warm Embrace. The community got a one-year, $10,000 award from the St. Marguerite d’Youville Grant Fund for the project. The fund is an endowment of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, or Grey Nuns, who founded Covenant Health.

nearby. She still calls herself “a St. Mary’s girl.” She says she’d been active in the parish’s community efforts and is heartened to have volunteer opportunities at Mary Immaculate.

She also is grateful to have a meaningful social outlet. “It’s very important, just being able to get together with other residents and do things,” Garin says.

Adrienne Cullen, Mary Immaculate Health/Care Services’s director of mission integration, is the mentor for Project Warm Embrace. Cullen says the goal of the project is to lift the spirits of the residents along with those of people in need in the community.

“It’s important for our residents to feel like they can help others as opposed to only being helped,” she says.

Gifts and a prayer

A Grey Nun was one of the founders of Lazarus House Ministries in Lawrence. The nonprofit gave out the Easter bags and Mary Immaculate Health/Care Services planned to send it the Mother’s Day bags for distribution by its food bank staff.

Working together

Garin has lived comfortably at Marguerite’s House assisted living residence for six years. “I get help with everything I do and need,” she says. She’s aware that Lawrence has many residents who are struggling. The U.S. Census Bureau says about one-fifth of Lawrence’s population of about 90,000 lives below the poverty line.

Garin is a lifelong Catholic whose family parish, St. Mary of the Assumption, is

The Easter bag work sessions drew about 20 volunteers from the assisted living side and 20 from the nursing care side. Cullen says some of the volunteers were people she hadn’t seen at other less-interactive gatherings such as when entertainers perform.

She suspects that, like Garin, many of the Project Warm Embrace volunteers had been active in church and community work for most of their lives and welcome opportunities to serve others.

In addition to assembling bags, the Mary Immaculate Health/Care Services volunteers had the option of tying thin strips of fleece together to create blankets. The four blankets they made at the first work sessions also went to Lazarus House Ministries, which provides food and clothing to those in need in Lawrence.

Cullen says the manager of Lazarus House’s mobile pantry has told her that it brings people joy when their food pickup comes with an unexpected gift.

The goodies in the Mother’s Day bags included body wash, a scrub sponge, facial tissues, candles and a prayer card with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A resident suggested the prayer card and image as a way to connect with the growing Hispanic population in Lawrence. Some of the prayer cards are in Spanish. Like the Easter bags, each of the Mother’s Day bags had a note tucked inside letting the recipient know that the gift came from Mary Immaculate Health/Care Services residents.

Something extra

After the bag-filling and blanket-making gatherings, Cullen says she and the others who are coordinating Project Warm Embrace — including Chaplain Beth Fullerton and the Mary Immaculate activities staff — served the volunteers refreshments and hosted a chat about what the next project should be. Among the ideas for upcoming giveaways is a beach pail for summer with sunscreen, bug spray and other seasonally appropriate items. An idea for fall is a backpack with school supplies.

Cullen proposed Project Warm Embrace after hearing about how engaged residents had been in a sandwich-making volunteer project years ago. That project also had been bankrolled by the St. Marguerite d’Youville Grant Fund. Cullen found that it couldn’t be duplicated under the fund’s rules, so she and her colleagues came up with Project Warm Embrace.

When Project Warm Embrace sunsets after a year, Cullen hopes to be ready with another project to tap into residents’ altruistic spirit. She wants the next volunteer initiative to have the same flair and to stand out from the much appreciated but more routine food and coat drives that Mary Immaculate staff and residents undertake.

“I want this to kind of be something a little bit extra and fun for the people of the community to receive,” Cullen says. leisenhauer@chausa.org

was regional director of mission formation for Providence St. Joseph Health in Oregon.

As membership in the religious communities that once led health systems declines, Rooney said he sees a critical role for CHA in helping to form and advocate for the lay leaders who are taking on sponsorship duties across the Catholic health ministry.

Rooney said his hope is that ministry formation will become a more pronounced core competency of the sponsor body so that the participation of all leaders and associates in appropriate formation programs is a given, “to strengthen them spiritually and to ensure the continuity of the ministry of health care.”

KEEPING UP

PRESIDENTS/CEOS

Stonish Pierce to president and chief executive of Trinity Health Georgia region, which includes St. Mary’s Health Care System of Athens, Georgia, and Mercy Care in Atlanta. Pierce was chief operating officer of Trinity Health’s Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Kevin Speer to senior vice president and ministry market executive of Ascension Indiana. He was president and chief executive of Hendricks Regional Health of Danville, Indiana. He replaces Jonathan Nalli, who transitioned out of the role effective April 28.

Tom Clancy to president and chief executive of Mercy Iowa City in Iowa. He previously was clinical professor and associate dean at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing.

Dr. Ronald Place to regional president and chief executive of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, effective May 13. Place is a retired three-star Army general. He was director of the Defense Health Agency in Washington. He succeeds David Flicek, who will be chief operating officer for Avera Health while remaining chief administrative officer of Avera Medical Group.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES

PeaceHealth and its facilities have announced these changes: Amber Asbjornsen to chief development officer for the PeaceHealth Northwest network. Dr. Lorna Gober to chief medical officer of PeaceHealth’s Northwest network. Brad Membel to chief financial officer for the PeaceHealth Oregon network.

CommonSpirit Health facilities have made these changes: Dr. Anita Toussi to chief medical officer for the Centura St. Catherine Hospitals of southwest Kansas. The facilities are in Dodge City and Garden City. David M. Franz to market vice president of mission integration of CHI Saint Joseph Health of Lexington, Kentucky. Nancy Zuech Lim to CHA director, community health improvement.

Lisa Eisenhauer to editor of Catholic Health World, from associate editor. She succeeds Judith VandeWater, who is retiring.

Rooney

Residents tie off the edges of a fleece blanket at Mary Immaculate Nursing/Restorative Center, an eldercare community in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Before Easter and Mother’s Day, residents filled goody bags to be given away along with the blankets at a mobile food pantry. The seniors welcome the opportunity to help others.

Festive Easter gift bags assembled by Project Warm Embrace volunteers brought joy to the makers and recipients.

Cullen

Speer Eisenhauer March 1, 2022 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD 7 May 1, 2023

Gober VandeWater

COVID emergencies end

From page 1

through telehealth or digital health has been successful and widely accepted by the general public,” he said.

Regulators are in the process of deciding whether or how to make permanent some rule changes. Health care leaders said they hope the innovations spurred, the lessons learned and the examples set by Catholic health systems during the COVID pandemic will be taken into consideration by policymakers as they make those decisions.

“We really have to remember what that first year was like and what we did as a society to come together and the important leadership role that Catholic health care played,” said Kathy Curran, senior director of public policy at CHA. She pointed to the rapid development and deployment of COVID vaccines and to the work of the Catholic Cares Coalition. The coalition, which CHA and several of its member systems helped establish, has promoted equitable access to those vaccines at home and across the globe.

Phase out begins

The Biden Administration has said it will let the COVID public health emergency declaration lapse May 11. A separate national emergency that was declared because of the pandemic ended April 10.

The declarations, in place since early 2020, eased many federal health care rules and provided flexibility to triage health care services to combat the deadly novel virus. The changes increased access to virtual care at home for patients with chronic conditions at a time when hospitals and outpatient facilities were locked down early in the pandemic. Even years into the pandemic, many vulnerable patients feared inpatient appointments heightened their contagion risk.

Telehealth boom

Regulation waivers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gave Medicare enrollees wide access to virtual care outside of overwhelmed hospitals and providers permission to bill just as they would for in-person visits.

State Medicaid programs and private insurers quickly followed suit. Outpatient care providers stood up or expanded telehealth services with remarkable speed.

Dr. Hoda Asmar, executive vice president and system chief medical officer for Providence St. Joseph Health, said the impact of the temporary waiver was immediate.

The system was already a national leader in telehealth with 70,000 virtual visits across its seven-state service area in 2019. In May 2020, shortly after CMS eased restrictions, Providence’s virtual visits just for the month jumped to 200,417.

Asmar called it particularly helpful that the telehealth waivers by both public and private insurers have covered mental and behavioral health care visits at a time when the pandemic and its impacts have driven up the need for those services.

CMS has extended the telehealth flexibilities for Medicare through 2024. CMS also extended through next year the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative, which has allowed hospitals to expand inpatient-level care into patients’ homes.

Curran said the extensions give the agency and other policymakers time to study whether the flexibilities improved care delivery and health outcomes for patients and whether they were cost effective. She said the findings will help guide CHA’s advocacy efforts around making the

COVID

FLEXIBILITIES

Here’s what happens to some of the special heath care provisions that federal officials approved early in the pandemic as the COVID-19 emergency declarations end:

States have 14 months to complete the process of redetermining Medicaid enrollees’ eligibility for continuing coverage.

The enhanced 6.2% increase in federal funding for Medicaid is phasing out through Dec. 31.

The easing of restrictions on telehealth visits for Medicare enrollees will continue through 2024. States have broad authority to cover telehealth in Medicaid.

Providers will no longer be able to use telemedicine to prescribe certain medications — including the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug Adderall and painkiller OxyContin — to patients without an in-person evaluation, although regulators have proposed some allowances.

The continuance of licensure waivers for care providers to practice across borders will be decided by states.

special provisions permanent.

Medicaid reenrollments

Another key aspect of the COVID emergencies was to temporarily lock in Medicaid recipients’ eligibility and coverage.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that the number of enrollees in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program jumped to 95 million by the end of March, a 32% increase from February 2020. The spike was primarily due to the emergency continuous enrollment provision but some of it was because of coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act.

Legislation passed in December decoupled the Medicaid coverage provision from the public health emergency and allowed it to lapse on April 1. Starting then, states could begin determining whether enrollees still qualify for coverage and the federal government began scaling back a 6.2% funding enhancement. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 5 million to 14 million people could lose coverage during the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision.

Paulo Pontemayor, senior director of government relations at CHA, said Congress did put some guardrails in place to prevent the unwinding from having an abrupt impact. For one thing, states have 14 months to complete the redetermination process.

Pontemayor said Congress also authorized CMS to work with states to ensure that there is extensive outreach to patients and efforts to move those who are no longer eligible for Medicaid to other options, such as subsidized policies purchased on the health care marketplace. CHA created a toolkit of resources called Protect What’s Precious for its member health systems related to Medicaid reenrollments.

Brenda Chilman, chief revenue officer for SSM Health, said her system is working with its Medicaid eligibility vendor on an outreach campaign to people who have to reenroll to provide support and resources to secure Medicaid coverage or to direct them to other sources for coverage.

Among the complicating factors, Chilman said, is that the redetermination process varies in each of the four states where SSM Health operates. “The risk is that those patients who are eligible for Medicaid won’t successfully complete the reenrollment,” she said. “Our approach here is to provide active outreach to help them navigate this reenrollment process.”

Asmar said Providence has trained its frontline staff on how to guide patients who rely on Medicaid to reapply or access other options such as the health insurance exchange. The system also is offering people who are potentially losing their coverage access to financial counselors who can navigate them through options based on their needs.

In part because of the Medicaid continuous coverage provision, the nation saw its uninsured population drop to around

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

8% last year, a historic low. In addition, the number of uninsured children decreased during the pandemic, reversing a decline in coverage.

Asmar is concerned that those advancements will be lost during the Medicaid redetermination. She noted that estimates say at least 6 million children will lose coverage. “This is a setback in our journey on improving health equity and access to care for all,” she said.

A provision that is lapsing completely to the disappointment of Asmar and others regards Medicare coverage for people in need of skilled nursing care. That waiver has allowed patients to file Medicare claims for nursing home care without first spending three days classified as a hospital inpatient. Asmar said the waiver helped reduce backlogs and create capacity in acute care settings.

Lessons learned

Lucas Swanepoel, CHA senior director of government relations, praised the overall effort by policymakers and providers to ensure patients’ access to care during the

health emergencies. He said that effort — including rule waivers and substantial federal financial assistance to hospitals — was critical to keeping health systems afloat at a time when many nonemergency services had to be suspended and supply and labor costs soared.

He noted that the policy waivers and financial aid were a piece of a massive pandemic economic policy response that included loans to businesses, direct payments to families and enhanced unemployment benefits as well as small, but significant, increases in food assistance to families — all of which worked to lessen the impact of the pandemic on the nation.

“I think moving forward, this will continue to be a lesson on how we create policies that support a stronger social safety net while also supporting health care providers,” he said.

Asmar pointed to three big takeaways from the nation’s response to COVID. The first is that the U.S. needs to be in a better state of readiness before the next pandemic. She urged a hard look at supply chain, stockpiles and public health infrastructure.

The second lesson is to continue the progress on policies and action to address health equity, as was evidenced by the drop in uninsured Americans while the Medicaid moratorium on ending coverage was in effect.

Lastly — and Asmar said this keeps her awake at night — is that health systems must become better at caring for their caregivers. Providence, she said, is focused on safeguarding and promoting the well-being of its caregivers.

CHA created many resources related to caregiver well-being that are available for members’ use at chausa.org/well-being.

leisenhauer@chausa.org

FORMATION for FORMATION LEADERS

Strong and vibrant ministry formation programs are essential in sustaining the flourishing of Catholic health care as a ministry of the church. Formation for Formation Leaders is designed to establish a dynamic community of practice that will creatively lead ministry formation into the future.

CHA’s 24-month program requires attendance at four in-person and nine virtual sessions. Among other criteria for participation, individuals must be actively engaged in leading/facilitating formation and possess a graduate degree in theology or spirituality (Catholic theology — MA, MTS, MAPS, MDiv, etc.) or have an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Curran

Asmar

Pontemayor

Chilman

Swanepoel

Richards