Catholic Health World - October 1, 2021

Vaccines are pro-life 2 Reducing mental health stigma 3 Congregations as social media influencers 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION

OCTOBER 1, 2021 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 16

Late-summer surge in patients swamps some children’s hospitals As summer was winding down, Dr. Celeste Caballero was experiencing firsthand the results of the nation’s having let down its collective guard against COVID-19 in the spring when case numbers were falling and vaccines were becoming widely available.

Caballero “I can tell you what I’m seeing on the front lines right now with COVID and children is very concerning,” said Caballero, a pediatrician with Covenant Health who works at the only pediatric urgent care in Lubbock, Texas.

Covenant Health is part of Providence St. Joseph Health.

The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio

By LISA EISENHAUER

A couple visit their 4-year-old daughter as she’s recovering from COVID-19 at The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, where her treatment included some time on a ventilator. The parents, who declined to share their full names, appear in a video that is posted on the hospital’s Facebook page. It urges parents not to ignore symptoms of COVID in their children and calls on everyone who can to get vaccinated.

What Caballero was seeing in early September was two to three times as many children being brought in for testing because of suspected COVID exposure compared to last year and many grade schoolers and teenagers testing positive.

National figures back up what Caballero and pediatricians at Catholic health ministries elsewhere reported: that the late-summer COVID surge was taking a much harsher toll on children than previous surges did.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that from the start of COVID case tracking through Sept. 15, Americans age 17 and younger made up about 14% of cases despite being about 22% of the population.

However, for the week that ended Continued on 4

COVID caseload surges strain facilities’ capacity, test staff endurance

By JULIE MINDA

Associates with PeaceHealth’s Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, Oregon, cheer members of the Oregon National Guard deployed to assist with a surge of patients amid COVID-19 spikes.

More than a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, a fourth wave of infection was driving new caseload spikes in communities across the U.S. this summer. Already taxed by the ravages of prior surges and shortages of essential staff, many hospitals were stretched up to or beyond their capacity.

A sampling of ministry leaders in early September said their facilities were exhausting every viable mechanism to shore up their staffing, expand capacity and leverage the resource allocation efficiencies of partnerships with other hospitals. Many of these leaders worried about the short- and long-term costs of the continual strain.

Continued on 5

Miles, a Labrador retriever, is one of the trio of American K-9 Interdiction dogs training to detect the scent of COVID-19 in humans. He is shown sniffing a fresh sample in a work space at Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News, Virginia.

Courtesy of AK9I

Sisters of Charity Foundation to invest in Cleveland neighborhood

Bon Secours Mercy Health releases the hounds on COVID-19

By KATHLEEN NELSON

If you can resist the urge to make a pun, you’d say that Bon Secours Mercy Health is doing its part to make people feel safer on the pathway to normal. If you can’t resist, you’d add that the system has a nose for this sort of thing.

Three of its hospitals in Virginia have joined a study to determine dogs’ abilities to sniff out COVID-19 in humans. The Continued on 7

With ongoing input and ideas, the community will cocreate a health campus

By LISA EISENHAUER

A design firm has begun a monthslong listening tour as part of a collaboration to advance health and healing through a whole-person approach, especially in the neighborhood that is home to the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland and several of its sister ministries, including the St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.

The goal of the initiative, which includes community forums and outreach to various stakeholders, is to develop a health campus anchored by the medical center that will offer services well beyond acute care. Ultimately, the foundation hopes the project it is leading will revitalize the Central neighborhood, which is on the western edge of downtown Cleveland. Most of the neighborhood’s residents are people of color and 68.8% live below the federal poverty line, according to U.S. Census data.

“The health campus is really about serving as a companion to the hospital, to complement its services with a continuum of care to address the community’s holis-

People stop by the tent hosted by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland at Fresh Fest Cleveland, an arts and music festival held in September. The foundation asked people to mark where they live and a favorite place in the city on a large map. The outreach is part of the foundation’s work to involve the community in planning the St. Vincent Charity Health Campus.

tic needs,” says Robyn Gordon, chair of the oversight committee of what is to be the St. Vincent Charity Health Campus. She is also immediate past chair of the Sisters of Charity Foundation.

Determining exactly what those holistic needs Gordon are and how best to meet

them is the charge of the MASS Design Group, a nonprofit with headquarters in Boston that describes itself as being devoted to creating architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Its name is an acronym for Model of Architecture Serving Society.

Christopher Kroner is the firm’s principal assigned to the Cleveland project. He Continued on 7

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD October 1, 2021

‘A great blessing from God’: Expert panel urges Catholics to vaccinate

By LISA EISENHAUER

There was no doubt among a panel of experts who discussed the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rationale for vaccination from a Catholic perspective that inoculation is a moral imperative in line with Catholic teachings.

“It’s a great blessing from God,” Fr. Nicanor Austriaco said of the broad availability of COVID vaccines in the United States. “Let’s not abuse it. Let’s get this done.”

Fr. Austriaco, OP, is a Catholic priest, molecular biologist and professor of biological sciences Fr. Austriaco and of sacred theology at the University of Santo Tomas in his native Philippines.

He was one of six panelists who shared their experiences and insight during an online discussion Aug. 31 titled “Vaccination is a Life Issue” sponsored by the Center for Religion and Spirituality at Loyola Marymount University, a Catholic university in Los Angeles.

The discussion was moderated by author Jeannie Gaffigan. She asked the panelists to delve into “What is our duty as a part of the Catholic Church to be a part of the solution to this problem?”

Exhaustion and frustration Dr. Daniel Chavira, an emergency physician and professor of emergency medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, talked about the exhaustion and exasperation he is seeing among Chavira colleagues overwhelmed by providing COVID care.

“We regularly are short staffed. We regularly are short on nurses,” he said of the two hospitals where he practices. “And everyone who is there is tired and is frustrated

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and is having so much real difficulty dealing with the fact that at this point a lot of this is avoidable.”

Chavira said 95% of hospitalized COVID patients and nearly all of those in intensive care are unvaccinated. With the highly contagious delta variant spreading, he bemoaned how much higher the toll from the virus would go. By mid-September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the number of COVID deaths in the United States at more than 660,000.

Like others on the panel, Chavira pointed to vaccination as the best hope to end the plague. “We have the capacity to not get sick from this disease,” he said. “We have the capacity to avoid straining the health care system anymore. We, your health care providers, would, I think, universally beg you to get vaccinated.”

Strains on staff, finances Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA’s president and chief executive officer, said Catholic health care providers across the nation are straining under the relentless demands of caring for COVID patients.

“It has gotten such that we are worried about the well-being of our staff,” she said. “We have redirected chaplains who generally serve our patients. They’re now caring for the frontSr. Mary line caregivers.”

Sr. Mary noted that many health systems are struggling to recruit workers, and some are in financial straits as service lines get put on hold amid the pandemic.

“We worry about the current moment but I’m wanting to voice the concern about the future,” she said. “What is this looking like for us when all our resources are focused right now on COVID?”

‘A life issue’ Two of the panelists were married physicians who work as hospitalists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and teach at Harvard Medical School. They identified themselves as “pro-life, daily Mass type of Catholics.”

Dr. Nancy Hernandez Heyne said she opted to be vaccinated for COVID in January during her third trimester of pregnancy.

Her decision came down to balancing the risks of the virus, which have been shown to be worse for expectant mothers, and the risks of the shot.

She said neither she nor her infant son suffered adverse effects from vaccination.

“This is truly a life issue. As a pro-life church, we’re pro-baby, we’re pro-mother,” she said. “When we protest abortion, we talk about loving both the mother and the baby. I very strongly feel that by vaccinating pregnant women we are also vaccinating the most vulnerable, which are the unborn babies in the womb.”

Her husband, Dr. Tommy F. Heyne, said while some “fringe doctors” are spreading disinformation about the vaccines, he and all of the physicians he works with are vaccinated.

“Honestly, to us physicians, receiving the vaccine is as commonsensical as wearing your seat belt when you’re driving or putting on a helmet when you ride on a bike,” he said.

Trusting in science Tommy Heyne mentioned that the pope and most bishops are urging people to get vaccinated. He said the embrace of the vaccines by the Catholic hierarchy is in line with the church’s long history of supporting scientific advances.

“Anyone who is telling you that we shouldn’t trust science is honestly not being

very Catholic,” he said. “They don’t understand Catholic history, Catholic theology.

The church has very long opposed a sort of faith vs. science dichotomy.”

Thomas V. Cunningham, the bioethics program director with Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center and a lecturer for the Bioethics Institute at Loyola Marymount University, weighed in to say that vaccination follows Catholic social teaching.

It is in line, he said, with principles that call on the faithful to do good because vaccination reduces death and suffering, and it means fewer delays of care for people with other medical conditions.

‘Love can triumph’ Fr. Austriaco said Catholics need not avoid the currently available vaccines out of moral concerns that stem cell lines derived from fetal tissue were used in the manufacture or testing. He said the merits of the shots far outweigh those concerns.

“Not using the vaccine today — and this is important for our pro-life viewers — could lead to the death of someone who is old, someone who is poor, someone who has got diabetes and so we have to consider and weigh the moral repercussions of our actions,” he said.

He ended the discussion with a prayer for those with COVID and for health care workers and their families. The prayer also addressed those who are vaccine hesitant.

He prayed: “We ask that you give them the grace to increase their courage and their charity so that they may see that, in spite of fear, love can triumph if they would do this for themselves, for their families, for the world.” leisenhauer@chausa.org

Community Benefit 101 Virtual in 2021!

VIRTUAL

Community Benefit 101: The Nuts and Bolts of Planning and Reporting Community Benefit OCTOBER 12, 13 & 14, 2021 Each day from 2 – 5 p.m. ET

Who should attend: CHA’s CB 101: The Nuts and Bolts of Planning and Reporting Community Benefit, a virtual conference, will provide new community benefit professionals and others who want to learn about community benefit with the foundational knowledge and tools needed to run effective community benefit programs.

Attendees will receive a copy of CHA’s A Guide for Planning and Reporting Community Benefit!

What you will learn: Taught by community benefit leaders, the program will cover what counts as community benefit; how to plan, evaluate and report on community benefit programs; accounting principles and a public policy update.

While it is designed for new community benefit professionals, the new virtual format now makes this meeting accessible to a wider audience, including:

v Staff in mission, finance/tax, population health, strategic planning, diversity and inclusion, communications, government relations, and compliance who want to learn about the important relationship of their work and community benefit/ community health.

v Veteran community benefit staff who want

a refresher course to update them on current practices, inspire future activities and connect with others in nonprofit health care doing this work.

WE HOPE YOU’LL JOIN US ONLINE! LEARN MORE AT CHAUSA.ORG/COMMUNITYBENEFIT101

© Catholic Health Association of the United States, Oct. 1, 2021

October 1, 2021 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

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Providence hospitals promote open communication on mental health Stigma is a barrier to mental health care access, especially among older immigrants, say experts

By JULIE MINDA

Starting about a decade ago, mental health began percolating up as a pressing public health concern on the community health needs assessments of Providence Mission Hospital Mission Viejo in California. Even after the Providence St. Joseph Health facility added mental health professionals to increase access to care in the community, mental health issues remained among top concerns on needs assessments.

Probing deeper through research, hospital leadership keyed in on a significant access barrier: There was pervasive stigma — particularly among vulnerable immigrant populations — when it came to mental health care. To tackle the problem, Mission Hospital embarked on an extensive public health campaign around 2016 to combat stigma and to encourage people to talk openly about their mental health challenges. Two other Providence St. Joseph Health hospitals in the greater Los Angeles area — Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange and Providence St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton — since have joined the campaign.

The primary audience is economically and socially disadvantaged groups within Orange County, skewing toward women and including English, Spanish, Vietnamese and bilingual speakers. The secondary target audience is the general public living in Orange County.

The initiative is having a positive and measurable impact on attitudes about mental health treatment.

“If you don’t deal with the stigma, it doesn’t matRoss ter how much access you offer,” says Barry Ross, regional director of

Upcoming Events from The Catholic Health Association Community Benefit 101: Virtual Conference

Oct. 12 – 14 | 2 – 5 p.m. ET

Global Health Networking Zoom Call Nov. 3 | Noon ET

United Against Human Trafficking Networking Zoom Call Nov. 9 | Noon – 1 p.m. ET

Deans of Catholic Colleges of Nursing Networking Zoom Call Nov. 10 | Noon – 1 p.m. ET

Faith Community Nurse Networking Call Dec. 15 | 3 – 4 p.m. ET

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community health investment for Providence St. Joseph’s Southern California region. “The challenge we faced was that we really wanted to reach people who are hard to reach.

Finding trusted platforms to reach them is important. It’s all about trust.”

Lost in translation Research conducted over the past decade or so found that low-income Hispanic and Vietnamese-American populations in Orange County have worse mental health stressors and greater prevalence of mental health conditions than higher-income whites and are less likely to seek mental health treatment.

Christy Cornwall directs community benefit for Mission Hospital.

She says research by the three hospitals has shown that, in general, Amy Guerra, then an employee of the Westbound ComCornwall the older and less munications marketing firm, staffs a Promise to Talk acculturated that Hispanic and campaign booth at a community event in Orange County, Vietnamese Americans are, the less California, in 2019. The campaign from three Providence willing they are to talk about mental St. Joseph Health hospitals encourages people to talk health. There was — and still is — a openly about mental health challenges. perception that mental illness is associated with shame and weakness. paigns before determining that the Each Ross says that low-income immigrants Mind Matters campaign from the Califorwho overcome cultural taboos and are nia Division of Mental Health aligned well open to accessing mental health services with Mission Hospital’s campaign objecmay encounter significant barriers to care. tives. The campaign is a state program Barriers may include difficulty finding funded through the Mental Health Serbilingual, bicultural psychiatrists, and a vices Act, Prop 63. lack of insurance or money to pay out-ofMission Hospital and Westbound used pocket for care.

Each Mind Matters resources created by People without legal immigration sta- the division, co-branding materials with tus may fear accessing care will bring the both the hospital and health division’s attention of immigration authorities. names. The hospital and its agency transImmigrants who are covered by Medi-Cal, lated all materials into Spanish and VietCalifornia’s Medicaid plan, may worry that namese for outreach to low-income immiusing the benefit will harm their appli- grant populations, with a focus on young cations for permanent legal status even mothers. These women make health care though the federal government stopped decisions for their children and can influapplying the Trump administration’s pub- ence their parents’ health care decisionlic charge rule in March. making as well.

The Providence iteration of the Each Talk about it Mind Matters campaign is called PromMission Hospital hired Westbound ise to Talk. It has morphed over the years, Communications, a marketing and com- including with the addition of the two munications firm in Southern California, other hospitals. It has remained centered to help develop and implement a cam- on the message that it is not just OK, but paign to destigmatize mental health treat- essential to talk about mental health ment. Mission Hospital and Westbound because mental health is just as important studied social science research around as bodily health. stigma reduction and evaluated more Part of the campaign includes askthan 60 preexisting mental health cam- ing people to “Promise to Talk.” Cornwall

explains, “If you’re struggling or a loved one is struggling, keeping it inside is not helping you or anyone else, so we’re asking people to make a promise to talk to a friend, someone in their faith community,” and/or to a mental health professional.

Lime green benches Prior to the pandemic’s onset, Westbound’s bilingual, bicultural staff crewed booths at events, parks, churches, food pantries and other sites in medically underserved communities to talk about mental health and to share mental health education sheets and information on how to access bilingual, bicultural mental health treatment.

The team partnered with schools, churches and county health departments to extend the campaign.

The hospitals and agency commissioned several lime green benches — lime green is a color used to promote mental health awareness — and moved them around to locations where they would be readily noticeable. Signs explain the importance of talking about mental health and invite passersby to sit on the benches with someone to begin the conversation.

When COVID-19 ended this experiential outreach, staff beefed up hospital and campaign websites emphasizing the Promise to Talk call to action. They increased mental health messaging on the hospitals’ social media feeds. And they recruited social media influencers — mainly Hispanic and Vietnamese mothers with followings in those demographics — and paid them to post about mental health and the Promise to Talk campaign.

Traditional media relations and paid advertising are another part of the communications strategy.

Right time Each Providence hospital pays about $100,000 from its community benefit funds to Westbound each year for the campaign.

Westbound says in the 2020 calendar year, 1,176 people made the promise to talk about mental health with a friend or family member; 38,695 encountered the campaign through social and digital media and there have been more than 7.3 million impressions of online content.

This includes viewings of social and digital media, website content, influencer posts and earned and paid media.

Cornwall and Ross see the greatest evidence of campaign impact in changing perceptions.

Each fall, Westbound conducts impact surveys in the Orange County communities where the campaign has been most active, asking community members whether they would be willing to talk about mental health with someone in their social circle and whether they feel their local community is “caring and sympathetic” to people with mental health conditions. Generally, there have been improvements in these measures over time, with more people saying they are willing to talk about mental health and more people saying that they believe that their community is compassionate.

Ross says the immigrant communities that are the primary audience for the mental health messaging have been hit especially hard by pandemic impacts, and are reeling from resulting mental health concerns.

He says, “I think what we’ve been able to do is to raise awareness in these vulnerable communities that this is something Pattie Cordova is among nearly a dozen Hispanic or Vietnamese-American social media influencers in Orange County that can be talked about.” whom the Promise to Talk campaign engaged to post about mental health topics during Mental Health Awareness Month in May.

jminda@chausa.org

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CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD October 1, 2021

Children’s hospitals swamped From page 1

Trifecta of needs Mark Wietecha, chief executive of the Children’s Hospital Association, said weekly COVID case counts among children were below 10,000 in June.

“So, it’s an exponential climb,” Wietecha said of Wietecha the latest numbers, “and we’ve now exceeded the previous high level, which was January.”

He noted that the COVID numbers for children are spiking at the same time that children’s hospitals are seeing a surge in respiratory syncytial virus (commonly known as RSV) and other respiratory illnesses as well as heavy demand for behavioral and mental health care.

“The three combined have really served to sort of pile up the hospitals pretty substantially,” Wietecha said.

Dr. Marya Strand said that SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, where she is chief medical officer, was “atypically busy” in early September. Strand said it wasn’t so much that Strand COVID cases were stressing the hospital’s resources; it was just the overall number of kids in need of acute care with viral illnesses, traumatic injuries, chronic conditions such as complications from diabetes, and behavioral issues.

As at other pediatric hospitals, she said Cardinal Glennon was seeing a spike in viral illnesses. The increase began in the summer as kids headed off to camps and regrouped for social events like parties that weren’t happening early in the pandemic.

Strand said she and her colleagues worried that with schools just starting to reopen, the spread of viruses would only get worse.

COVID was especially worrisome because delta, the most prevalent strain, has proven to spread more easily than earlier versions of the virus.

“I think that it’s particularly treacherous to have that highly contagious variant at a time when kids are going back to school and getting into bigger groups together, particularly if we are not asking them to wear masks in such a circumstance,” Strand said.

Mitigation methods worked Dr. Melissa Puffenbarger, medical director for the emergency department at Mercy Children’s Hospital St. Louis, said that early in the pandemic her hospital was on trend with other children’s hospitals in seeing a sharp drop in patients. Typically, her department sees 60-90 children a day. One day in March 2020, it saw nine, as fears of infection kept patients from coming into facilities for care.

By early September, the patient count had rebounded. On Labor Day, Mercy Children’s had 94 patients in its ED. Many of the patients in late summer came to the hospital for respiratory illnesses. The results from one week of full

A second-grade class from Rogers Elementary School in Waterloo, Illinois, sent this drawing along with other thank-you cards and notes of encouragement to frontline health care workers at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis.

panel tests that were run on those patients found 32% were positive for RSV, 26% for rhino enterovirus and about 10% for COVID. One illness most of the hospitals are not detecting yet is flu. But like others, Puffenbarger expressed concerns that when what is typically flu season starts later in the year, it could be especially harsh.

Puffenbarger said 2020, when relatively few children came down with COVID or other respiratory illnesses, had proved a case study for the effectiveness of measures such as distancing and masking to check the spread of such diseases.

“It just showed that our mitigation methods worked pretty significantly and that’s why flu went away, and RSV went away,” she said.

Puffenbarger is concerned about what’s still to come, with many schools having just resumed in-person classes and with many of them not requiring masks or enforcing other precautions.

“I think the thing that makes me the most sad is that COVID containment measures within schools have been politicized and in certain states you are seeing that public funding for education is being affected by those decisions, which to me is just abso-

lutely appalling,” Puffenbarger said. “The only people that they are punishing are the children that need to be educated and need to be in school.”

Enabling wider COVID spread Even with the COVID case counts among the young rising, serious cases of the illness in children remain rare. A CDC surveillance system that monitors COVID cases in 14 states shows that few of those 17 and under who have been infected have required hospitalization. Most kids are sent home to quarantine and recover.

The fact that the virus in general has a milder impact on its youngest victims should come as no comfort, said pediatricians. The continued spread of the virus poses risks across communities and the only way to reduce those risks is to prevent the spread, they said.

Just as doctors are reporting for the adult population, pediatricians say the COVID patients they are seeing who have the most serious cases and who are old enough to have gotten vaccinations almost uniformly have not. They said many parents cite concerns about adverse effects from the shots.

Asked whether he or his colleagues at HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital in

Low vaccinate rates a factor Caballero said the COVID spike in Texas correlates with its relatively low vaccination rate. In Lubbock County, 55% of residents 12 and above had gotten at least one dose of vaccine and 46% were fully vaccinated by early September. Across Texas, the numbers are a bit higher: 58% with one dose and 49% fully vaccinated.

Like other pediatricians, she said vaccines coupled with masking, social distancing and hand hygiene were the best hope for keeping children from getting COVID and for halting its spread in communities.

Caballero said: “My advice and my plea to the parents is: Please know that COVID is an illness that can affect children and is infecting children this fall, and it is imperative that we come together as a community and get vaccinated for COVID because this is our hope to end this pandemic and this is our hope to protect our children.” leisenhauer@chausa.org

Sudden COVID surge catches San Antonio hospital by surprise U

ntil this summer, The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio had weathered the COVID-19 pandemic without going into surge mode.

The CHRISTUS Health hospital wasn’t seeing many patients with the virus and overall demand for care was generally below capacity, said Dr. Norm Christopher, its chief medical officer and vice president of pediatric emergency services.

That changed when the delta variant of Christopher the coronavirus began sweeping across Texas along with an unseasonal epidemic of other viral infections such as respiratory syncytial virus and influenza. Suddenly the hospital’s beds were filling, and its primary care centers, urgent cares and emergency rooms were inundated.

“I think it caught all of us off guard a little bit,” Christopher said. “We in the children’s space had not seen children impacted in the early part of the pandemic and when this delta variant became more disseminated in the community, we saw volumes increase. I don’t want to be dramatic and say overnight, but it was very, very quickly.”

The summer volume of patients, typically the lowest of the year, this year has already equaled or surpassed what is historically seen in the height of the peak winter seasons, he said in mid-September.

The care of the vast majority of the hospital’s COVID patients has been manageable on an outpatient basis, Christopher said.

Despite that, the number needing hospitalization pushed The Children’s Hospital to adopt surge protocols in mid-summer. He estimated that about 10–15% of inpatients were there because of COVID. As part of being in surge mode, the hospital’s physician and nursing leaders huddle three times a day to evaluate capacity.

The discussions focus on patient flow and throughput in the hospital’s various units and assessing whether inpatients can be moved to lower levels of care.

Meridith Kohut/The New York Times/Redux

Sept. 9, the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children represented about 29% of reported COVID cases, with 243,000 pediatric cases added just that week. (The academy was using state data that varies in terms of who counts as a child; some states categorize those as old as 20 as children and in some states the cutoff is age 14.)

CDC figures show that COVID’s toll on children has been much worse on those who are not white. For white Americans through age 17, the hospitalization rate for COVID is 23.2 per 100,000 in the population. By comparison, the rate for nonHispanic American Indian or Alaska Native is 85.7; for Blacks it’s 77.3; and for Hispanics it’s 79.8.

Springfield, Illinois, had seen any signs of severe reactions to vaccines among patients, Medical Director Dr. Douglas Carlson said: “No, not a one.” HSHS St. John’s is part of the Hospital Sisters Health System.

Carlson said in addition to generally having milder symptoms when infected with COVID, children age 9 and younger seem to share it less. “It has to do with body size,” he said. “Those younger Carlson when they cough or breathe are probably not spreading it a lot, but once you get to 10 it looks like it’s about the adult rate of spreading.”

Carlson credited a comparatively high rate of vaccination in the central Illinois region that his hospital serves for keeping COVID cases lower in late summer than in other regions of the country. He nevertheless feared that a surge of the virus could be in the offing.

“Our hospital is nearing capacity with RSV, other infections and injuries,” he said.

“We can’t afford to have COVID also on top of that.”

Six-year-old Christopher Gantt is held down by his mother, Jennifer Gantt, during a nasal swab to test for COVID-19 in the emergency department of The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.

A major factor in accommodating patients is staffing, Christopher said. Because of shortages of pediatric nurses and other providers trained in pediatric care, the hospital has had to leave up to 30% of beds in some units vacant at various times.

Christopher said that even when The Children’s Hospital hasn’t been able to accept patients, its clinicians have consulted on the patients’ treatment with their counterparts at the facilities where the patients were getting care.

As summer was winding down, the hospital had gotten something of a reprieve in its patient load, Christopher reported.

By mid-September, it was finding beds for most patients in need of hospitalization.

He didn’t want to speculate on whether demand was actually beginning to wane or whether the surge would continue into the fall.

He noted that the hospital’s administrative and clinical leaders were doing what they could to rally staff’s spirits and recruit more workers, but exhaustion was apparent. “It’s a delicate time,” he said.

— LISA EISENHAUER

October 1, 2021 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

COVID surge From page 1

During a late August press conference, Dr. Steven Nemerson, Saint Alphonsus Health System’s chief clinical officer, said, “We are losing the COVID battle. This fourth COVID surge is the worst we’ve seen. Patients are dying unnecessarNemerson ily” as the vast majority of hospitalizations and fatalities are among unvaccinated patients. The Boise, Idahobased system is part of Trinity Health.

‘A pandemic of the unvaccinated’ Jennifer Burrows, chief executive of Portland’s Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and of Providence St. Joseph Health’s Western Oregon region, said capacity strains at Providence’s two Portland hospitals resulted in part from rural Burrows Oregon facilities transferring patients in need of higher acuity care, most of them with COVID. She said many of these rural areas had lower rates of vaccination than Portland.

Oregon had locked down during much of the pandemic, but it had eased restrictions in late June before the highly contagious delta variant swept through the state.

Gov. Kate Brown reinstated strict coronavirus restrictions in late August.

During a Sept. 2 press conference, clinical and administrative leadership of Dignity Health’s Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, California, said their intensive care units were full of COVID patients.

Many ventilator-dependent patients were dying. The hospital was treating a younger patient population with COVID than earlier in the pandemic, likely because older generations have higher vaccination rates, hospital officials said. Dignity Health is part of CommonSpirit Health.

When he spoke to the press in August, Saint Alphonsus’ Nemerson said although Idaho had not yet hit a caseload peak, COVID patients were crowding emergency rooms. He warned of increasingly long waits and delayed emergency care for all patients. He called the latest surge “a pandemic of the unvaccinated and the young.”

St. Joseph Regional Medical Center of Lewiston, Idaho, said almost 90% of the COVID patients it hospitalized between mid-August and mid-September were

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transfers of patients who no longer require tertiary-level care, but are not ready to be discharged home, said Nemerson.

On Sept. 7, Idaho implemented “Crisis Standards of Care,” protocols allowing hospitals in its panhandle and north central area to balance the needs of the community and the needs of individuals. The designation permits hospitals to provide care outside of the usual standard if they exhaust their resources. For example, hospitals may conserve their supply of oxygen by using air for nebulizers, when possible, or reusing single use items after sterilization. The standards also allow hospitals to “allocate resources to patients whose prognosis is more likely to result in a positive outcome with limited resources.”

Lewiston’s St. Joseph Regional Medical Center is in the affected area. A hospital spokesman said Sept. 13 that although it was operating at the very edge of its capacity and its COVID caseload was at its heaviest, it had not yet had to activate Crisis Standards of Care.

In mid-September, Saint Alphonsus was outside the area where the state authorized Crisis Standards of Care. Saint AlphonSaint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center nurse Stepheno Zollos cares for a COVID-19 patient in the hospi- sus was delaying elective procedures in tal’s intensive care unit. The facility is in Boise, Idaho.

September as capacity levels dictated and expanding patient care into hospital unvaccinated. According to media reports, all Medicare- and Medicaid-certified facili- classrooms. data from the Idaho governor’s office show ties get vaccinated. Carley said about 85% Providence’s Oregon region stood up a that since January the unvaccinated have of Benedictine facility residents and 65% to statewide logistics center early in the panaccounted for 98.6% of COVID hospitaliza- 75% of staff were vaccinated. demic that was being put through its paces tions and 98.7% of COVID deaths statewide. in the late summer surge. Burrows said the In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the 988- Anticipating problems center uses data from a local university and bed Our Lady of the Lake Regional MediMinistry leaders said their systems and internal Providence data to help predict cal Center had 155 COVID patients facilities have been collaborating with com- and respond to surges. in early August, with 55 of them in its petitors to address surge complications An intensivist on the logistics center’s 166-bed capacity intensive regionally, and they’ve been making opera- staff provides consultation to rural criticare units. It was admitting tional changes to stay ahead of emerging cal access and rural community hospitals, an average of one COVID problems. including those outpatient per hour.

Saint Alphonside of the Providence Jerry Carley is president sus participates in network, to help them and chief executive of the a statewide collabsafely treat patients Benedictine long-term orative of health in place instead of and continuum-of-care care providers that transferring them to a Carley system. Its facilities are addresses labor and higher level of care. concentrated in North Dakota and Minne- supply challenges In late August, in sota. In an interview in early September, he related to COVID Roseburg, Oregon, said that while many of the cities and towns surges. Participants CommonSpirit’s CHI where Benedictine operates were experi- are in regular contact Mercy Health Mercy encing COVID caseload increases, he sus- to deploy resources, Medical Center partpected the Upper Midwest was just at the including staff, to nered with primary start of its peak.

Idaho communities care provider Aviva He added that while only a couple where health care Health to triage COVID Benedictine campuses had residents who capacity is strained. patients as they arrived were COVID-positive, dozens of campuses To free beds at at the hospital’s emerhad COVID-positive staff. Carley spoke to the tertiary level for gency room. Working Catholic Health World before President Joe very sick patients, Dr. Barry Feldman treats a patient with COVID- from a tent near the Biden announced Sept. 9 that he would smaller hospitals 19 in the Marian Regional Medical Center ICU. emergency departmandate that health care workers within have been accepting He is chief medical officer of that unit. ment entrance, Aviva staff sent those with mild to moderate symptoms to an on-site mobile unit also operated by Aviva for an exam and follow-up care.

Clinicians with the Mercy health system of Chesterfield, Missouri, have been encouraging the use of its telehealth service to keep COVID patients from deteriorating to the point they require hospitalization. A team of emergency medicine physicians care for patients via phone, text and video links.

As of early September, all of Mercy’s hospitals in four Midwestern states had experienced an influx of patients with the delta variant.

Deb Moore, CHI Memorial Hospital Hixson administrator, talks with Tennessee National Guard members Sept. 7 about the duties they will perform at the Tennessee hospital’s monoclonal antibody injection clinic. CHI Memorial is among the ministry sites that relied on the guard to augment staff during COVID-related patient surges this summer.

Uncertainty ahead During the Marian press conference in early September, Dr. Barry Feldman, chief medical officer of the intensive care unit, said, “There is a lot of dying in our hospital now, and we’re feeling really frustrated because this is preventable. It weighs on everyone. It’s been a very, very long year and a half.”

Providence’s Burrows said, “It is humbling to realize we’re a long way from beating this. It’s humbling to realize that we have to stay diligent and keep learning. We have to practice self-care and be resilient because there’s still work ahead of us.” jminda@chausa.org

6

CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD October 1, 2021

Intractable staffing challenges make it difficult to respond to surges

By JULIE MINDA

The chief factor limiting health care facilities’ ability to respond to surging COVID-19 patient counts is the shortage of frontline staff for the departments that treat seriously ill patients.

A sampling of ministry leaders say they are exploring both short-term fixes and long-term solutions to staffing challenges that predate the pandemic.

Linda Hunt is president and chief executive of the Southwest Division of Dignity Health, part of CommonSpirit Health.

She is quoted in a COVID update press release Hunt issued Sept. 1 by the Arizona Department of Health Services saying, “This latest COVID-19 surge has been challenging for health care workers. They are exhausted yet continue to step up in the most heroic ways. The high volume of patients compounded by the shortage of doctors and nurses across the country is creating intense competition for a limited pool of nurses nationwide.”

Similar shortages exist for other clinician groups including respiratory therapists and certified nursing assistants, ministry leaders said.

Disrupted pipeline Several ministry leaders said many health care workers left the field during the pandemic. Some retired early and some quit, worn down by understaffing and the relentless influx of patients. Others stepped away because they feared bringing the virus home, or had child care issues when schools and day care providers closed.

Many health care staff have been sidelined temporarily at different times over the past 20-plus months by COVID exposures or infections and related quarantines, further complicating staffing.

Additionally, the pipeline of new health care job candidates was interrupted when the pandemic closed down or curtailed operations of nursing schools and other clinical education programs. The pool of new graduates contracted as a result.

KEEPING UP PRESIDENT Rhonda Adams Scott to market chief operating officer and president of CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She Scott was chief operating officer and executive vice president of Grady Health System in Atlanta.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES Tyler Hedden to chief operating officer for PeaceHealth’s Oregon network. He will be based in Springfield, Oregon.

Scott Christensen to vice president of operations at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, which is part of Trinity Health.

GRANTS The Federal Communications Commission will provide funding totaling nearly $42 million for the second round of its COVID-19 Telehealth Program. The funds will reimburse 62 health care organizations for the telecommunications services, information services and connected devices necessary to provide telehealth. Among the recipients are SSM Health in St. Louis, which will receive $914,400; Mercy Health in Cincinnati, $812,876; and St. Francis Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina, $853,062. Mercy and St. Francis are part of Bon Secours Mercy Health.

to lighten the load on strained hospital staff members. The HHS team, which included physicians, midlevel providers, nurses, paramedics, a respiratory therapist, pharmacists and administrative support specialists, provided assistance to COVID units at the hospital and helped with admissions.

This team also enabled the hospital to open an additional intensive care unit.

The HHS team has been replaced by a medical team provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Nurse Brennen Magagna treats an ICU patient at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, on Sept. 9. Weeks earlier, the hospital’s chief clinical officer, Dr. Steven Nemerson, called the COVID surge, “The worst we’ve seen.”

Shifting locales, roles Ministry systems and facilities have been handling the shortages in many ways. Large systems including Ascension are sharing staff among their facilities, with nurses and other frontline providers sometimes traveling across state lines to aid sister hospitals.

However, according to information from Ascension Wisconsin, this was much easier to do when outpatient facilities were temporarily closed at the start of the pandemic, and those clinicians were free to take temporary assignments in acute care sites. With outpatient sites open now, the bench isn’t so deep.

CommonSpirit Health’s Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, California, is among hospitals that have been crosstraining nurses to work in other departments. It is actively prospecting matriculating nursing school students — they are in short supply. It is hiring nursing students for jobs they are qualified to take at the hospital so that the facility will have a leg up in recruiting once the students are licensed nurses.

Extra hands In late August, multiple Providence St. Joseph Health hospitals in Western Oregon welcomed Oregon National Guard personnel, who trained to aid with COVID patient care support, including safely repo-

sitioning frail patients. Jennifer Burrows, chief executive of Portland’s Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and of Providence St. Joseph Health’s Western Oregon region, said the guard brought much needed fresh enthusiasm and energy to the hospitals.

PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Oregon and other PeaceHealth sites also accepted National Guard aid. In late August and throughout September, the guard helped with data entry, clerical work, food tray delivery, bed cleaning, supply chain and other tasks, to support overwhelmed hospital staff.

Two Saint Alphonsus Health System hospitals in Oregon added a total of 13 National Guard to their staff. The system’s hospitals in Idaho got 64 state-allocated contract workers through Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.

CommonSpirit Health’s CHI Memorial in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in early September welcomed nine men and women from the Tennessee Air and Army National Guard to work in the hospital’s monoclonal antibody injection clinic. The group was to provide administrative and clinical support in the clinic for at least two weeks.

In early August, Louisiana’s Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center accepted the assistance of a 33-member Disaster Medical Assistance Team from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dollars and cents Providence St. Joseph Health is addressing the staffing challenge from a system level in part through a $220 million fund announced in early September. The money will cover a $1,000 “recognition bonus” for its 120,000 associates. It also will enable the system to recruit to rapidly fill 17,000 job openings at Providence sites. The system will use some of the dollars for referral bonuses for employees who recruit job candidates for vacancies.

Some hospitals will get help from new state funding initiatives. For example, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has announced hospitals can apply for funding of $1,000 per licensed bed to shore up staffing. And the Arizona Department of Health Services is allotting $60 million to health care facilities in the state, primarily to address staffing problems.

Competitive pressures Jerry Carley is president and chief executive of the Benedictine long-term care system, which operates primarily in the Upper Midwest. In the regions Benedictine serves, hospitals are rapidly raising staff pay to address workforce shortages. But long-term care sites do not have the same access to capital to keep their pay scales competitive and are losing staff to acute care facilities, Carley said. The problem has become so severe that sometimes hospitals are unable to discharge patients to nursing homes for short-term rehab because the nursing homes do not have the staff to care for them.

Carley said that in his three decades in long-term care, “I’ve never seen staffing issues like this.” jminda@chausa.org

Share the joy of the season with a Christmas message to the ministry Include your organization’s Christmas message in the Dec. 15 issue of

Catholic Health World invites you to extend a holiday greeting to your employees and to colleagues in the Catholic health ministry.

Visit chausa.org/Christmas for more details. Send an email to ads@chausa.org to reserve your ad space.

Ads due by Nov. 19.

October 1, 2021 CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD

Health campus

congregation sponsors four other ministries in the Central neighborhood. Carrying forward the legacy of Sister Ignatia Gavin, CSA, a pioneer in the treatment of alcoholism, two have areas of focus on providing behavioral health services.

From page 1

says the proposals it brings to the foundation will be informed by deep community engagement throughout its research and design work.

“We understand that there’s nothing better than to take a walk with someone or to take a bike ride with somebody and try to understand the experience from their position, their perspective, or their lens,” Kroner says.

COVID sniffing dogs From page 1

hospitals are partnering with American K-9 Interdiction, which usually trains dogs and their handlers to detect explosives and narcotics.

“We want to get the country back to some sense of normalcy and figure out if the dogs can help,” said James Overton, AK9I’s director of marketing and business development and one of the dog handlers in the study. “We knew we needed to partner with a health care system that had access to COVID patients.”

Based on previous research, the dogs seem up to the task. Canines can sniff out cancer, epilepsy and diabetes because of their ability to detect changes in volatile organic compounds in sweat and saliva.

In the last year, researchers in Paris and at the University of Pennsylvania conducted proof-of-concept studies indicating that dogs could detect COVID-19 infected individuals through a change in the infected person’s volatile organic compounds. Based on the research, dogs have been used recently in pilot projects for COVID screening at airports in Dubai and Helsinki as well as Miami Heat games. AK9I wanted to verify the findings and put all the pieces together for itself starting with its own research and eventually placing its dogs in a suitable venue.

Overton estimated that AK9I invested $100,000 in man and canine hours in the project between May and August. The group selected three dogs — Labrador retrievers named Miles and Dexter and a German shepherd-Belgian Malinois mix named Blade. The trio had begun training in explosives detection. They possessed a relatively calm demeanor that was suited to the COVID detection study and later to working in an environment full of people and distractions.

Two of the attendees at last month’s Fresh Fest Cleveland, an arts and music festival, draw their response to a “What's for dinner?” prompt on an art project at the tent hosted by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland. The foundation is soliciting the community’s ideas and experiences in planning the St. Vincent Charity Health Campus.

expand Cleveland State University, that offer potential opportunities for collaboration. “Those connection points are really, really terrific to try to work together as a synergistic effort, as a once-in-a-generation moment,” Kroner says.

MASS Design’s community engagement work will continue until the end of the year.

The firm will present its vision for the health campus to the Sisters of Charity Foundation early in 2022. The proposal will include recommendations for structures, services, costs and potential sources of funding.

In for the long haul Susanna H. Krey says that while the specifics of that vision are as yet unknown, she expects it to focus on addressing social needs such as education and workforce development that affect health outcomes in Central. Krey is president Krey of the Sisters of Charity

Foundation and senior vice president of the Sisters of Charity Health System.

“We all know these are needs of the neighborhood and of the greater Cleveland community, and the services are important to support the neighborhood revitalization goals of the campus,” says Krey.

St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, which was founded by the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, is part of the Sisters of Charity Health System. The area around the medical center planned for the health campus is owned by the congregation. The foundation, the health system and the congregation are all partners in the project.

Gordon sees the campus as the continuation of the congregation’s service in the Central neighborhood.

“While we’ve never had the opportunity to undertake something of this nature like a health campus, the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine have a 170-year legacy of addressing health, education and human services in our area,” Gordon says.

In addition to the medical center, the

Working dogs The scent from samples deteriorates rapidly as they dry out, so AK9I needed a partner willing to collect saliva samples from COVID-positive patients and provide a space for the dogs to train nearby. Overton’s request to the Eastern Virginia Healthcare Coalition led him to Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospi- Selected because of his relatively calm demeanor, Blade, a German tal in Newport News, Bon shepherd-Belgian Malinois mix, is participating in a study to deterSecours — Southampton mine whether dogs can detect COVID-19 infected individuals. Blade Medical Center in Franklin may go on to work sniffing the crowds at an airport or sporting event and Bon Secours Rappah- to identify people who may be infectious. He is shown here at AK9I’s annock General Hospital in facility in Carrsville, Virginia.

Kilmarnock.

“They’re so great to work with,” Overton negative samples. said. “Everyone from the nurses to the exec“So many of the patients were interested. utives is on the same page. And everyone They would say, ‘If something good can loves dogs.” come out of it, then I’m all in,’” she said.

Among the dog lovers is Jan Phillips, To eliminate time for transporting the vice president of nursing and chief nursing samples, the dogs worked on-site at each executive at Mary Immaculate, whose fam- of the hospitals. Samples were placed on ily includes two Scottish terriers, Boswell gauze that was then positioned at the far and Piper. end of a tube. Overton and his partner “For so long, we’ve been seeing the bad would bring the dogs to the room, guiding side of COVID and reacting to that,” Phillips the dogs from one tube to the next. The dogs said. “If there was an opportunity to be pro- were trained to sit and stare straight forward active and demonstrate a positive outcome, in front of a positive sample.

I thought it was important to be involved.

The process was quick; Overton estiAnd as a faith-based organization, we have mated that the dogs could move through a a mission to improve health. This was a dozen samples in a minute. Through about chance to live our mission.” two months, the dogs correctly identified She assumed responsibility for ask- about 90% of the samples. ing for and collecting saliva samples from COVID-positive inpatients who were not What the nose knows in the ICU of the 123-bed facility. Of the In mid-August, AK9I set up a blind peer dozens she asked to participate, just two review at Mary Immaculate, where a pair of declined. Many provided samples mul- veterinarians not associated with the study tiple times. Phillips insisted on patient set up the samples. In the earlier phases, anonymity; the only information given to Overton and his fellow handler knew which Overton was whether a sample was posi- samples were positive and which were negtive or negative. Staff volunteers provided ative. This phase eliminated the possibility

Courtesy of AK9I

Connecting with community To connect with the community, MASS Design Group is working with Shemariah J. Arki, an educator, activist and organizer in Cleveland. Arki is accompanying the firm’s team as they meet with Central residents and business owners. She is helping engage community members in dialogue and assuring them that their voices will be heard, and that the intent of the process is to address their needs.

The MASS Design team began its work in June. In July, Arki and the team did the first of several planned “immersion weeks” with walking tours and casual meetups with people on the streets and at community events.

Arki says that unlike with some other community projects, there’s no starting blueprint to influence what the MASS Design team will come up with. “Often in the community we get plans that are coming from municipalities, organizations, building plans, demographic plans, streetscapes, and the plans are already written, and community members are then invited to the table for focus groups, or feedback, or responses,” she says.

Kroner’s team also is meeting with representatives of major institutions across Cleveland to seek input and ideas for working together.

The health campus project coincides with other development efforts across the community and region, such as plans to

7

Towards a healthier community The foundation began laying the groundwork for the health campus in 2020, when it engaged a firm to do what Krey calls a “national landscape analysis” of how health care is evolving and create four case studies of similar campuses. The analysis and case studies provided lessons learned about how to address unmet needs in communities that will inform the foundation’s efforts.

“It’s a very innovative and cutting-edge approach that is nascent but really gaining traction around the country as more health systems and organizations recognize the importance of the social determinants of health as a complementary strategy to improve health outcomes,” Krey says.

Although the early research was being done as COVID-19 was sweeping the nation, Krey says the pandemic hasn’t slowed the initiative. Rather, she says, the disparities and inequities the pandemic brought to the fore have only further emphasized the importance of giving communities access to services beyond acute care that address needs that impact health.

Gordon says the foundation is confident the keys to transforming Central will come from the community itself.

“At the foundation we’ve had a longstanding practice of listening to the community and not telling someone what they need but asking what will help them,” she says. “We believe in deeply listening to the community and seeing what the community has for us as feedback and they join us as cocreators. That’s what we would like to extend into this health campus. The community is a cocreator of the health campus.” leisenhauer@chausa.org

that the handlers could give the dogs unintentional cues. In addition to the veterinary observers, Overton invited the hospital staff. Each of the dogs correctly identified 100% of the positive and negative samples.

“We went into this skeptical of whether the dogs were able to do this,” Phillips said.

“Watching this amazed all of us. There is a lot of buzz now about how incredible these dogs are at their ability to discern positive and negative.”

But considerable work remains. “We’ve been able to answer yes, dogs can discriminate between positive and nonpositive samples,” Overton said. “But how long does the person have to be infected before the dog can detect it? What if the person has flu or bronchitis: can the dogs discriminate?

We don’t know if other viruses or respiratory illness cause the same reaction.”

Working the crowd To answer these questions, AK9I will use its initial findings to seek additional funding. Both Overton and Phillips agree that the dogs could be most useful where large crowds gather for extended periods: airports, stadiums, subways, museums and event venues. Identifying potential positive cases for isolation and further testing would provide the crowd an added layer of peace of mind that reinforces proof of vaccination.

“I don’t know how soon that will happen,” Phillips said. “But I told James I hope the next time I’m standing in the TSA line, if I see him with Miles or Dexter or Blade, I’ll feel safer then.”

As AK9I seeks further funding, Bon Secours Mercy agreed to provide samples so the dogs could continue to train, which is necessary to keep their noses sharp.

“The folks at Bon Secours are so busy with the virus resurgence, but to them the study seems like a change of pace and an opportunity to be proactive,” Overton said.

“They’ve been terrific partners.”

8

CATHOLIC HEALTH WORLD October 1, 2021

Congregations use social media to amplify social justice work They’re engaging on immigration, trafficking, violence prevention and environmentalism

By JULIE MINDA

W

ith the world rightly consumed with the coronavirus last year, a group of leaders of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word congregation in San Antonio had a discussion about how best to keep the plight of vulnerable groups, particularly poor migrants from Central America, in the public’s consciousness.

They greenlighted a social media campaign to build public awareness of the asylum seekers and economic refugees waiting in crowded camps at the U.S. border and for migrants seeking safety and a better life in developed countries around the world.

The “Human Dignity Knows No Borders” campaign reached thousands of the congregation’s supporters between June 2020 and May. And while the campaign has ended, its influence continues.

Sr. Katty Huanuco, CCVI

This is according to Sr. Katty Huanuco, CCVI, a leader in the congregation’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office. She says, “We see social media as a tool to educate people on social justice issues and to use our congregation’s influence to nurture social change. We are conscious that in social media we have a very powerful tool and a very powerful opportunity and space to reach people. I believe we are called to use it to spread love.”

Many religious congrega-

The Incarnate Word Foundation, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio, teamed with other congregations of women religious to erect this billboard in St. Louis, where the congregation has a presence.

tions connected with the Catholic health ministry have reached the same conclusion.

Posts and tweets Cathleen Farrell is communications officer for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas of Silver Spring, Maryland. She directs the canonical Farrell institute’s content strategy, and a social media strategist executes that strategy. Farrell says the institute uses social media channels to inspire action around its areas of critical concern: care of the Earth, immigration, nonviolence, racism and women’s issues.

Many Mercy sisters manage their own social media accounts.

Occasionally, there is collaboration on social media messaging.

For example, the congregation and individual sisters may post online content to combat the crippling impact of poverty and human trafficking on women.

The Mercy institute has more than 63,000 Facebook followers, more than 15,000 Twitter followers, more than 3,700 Instagram followers, more than 570 Pinterest followers and 86 subscribers to its YouTube channel.

The institute represents more than 2,000 sisters in North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Guam and the Philippines.

The institute, or congregation, is part of an international network of more than 6,000 Sisters of Mercy.

The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas uses its social media feed to inspire action to protect the Earth, support immigrants, advance nonviolence, fight racism and promote the economic and physical health and spiritual well-being of women.

Extended reach The Americas congregation’s 3,100 lay Mercy associates, nearly 1,100 Mercy Volunteer Corps alumni and thousands of coworkers in Mercy-sponsored programs and institutions are a core audience for these posts. (Mercy Associates are secular women and men who are pledged to incorporate the sisters’ charism into their daily lives through fellowship, prayer and service.)

The Sisters of Mercy’s affiliated

The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio decries hate and violence in this March social media post featuring congregation members.

organizations and devoted followers sometimes repost Mercy institute content giving it wider reach.

The Incarnate Word sisters of San Antonio, a congregation with about 270 members internationally, likewise uses social media platforms to broaden the reach of its social justice activism on immigration, human trafficking, care of creation, nonviolence and the promotion of human dignity.

Sr. Huanuco says more than 6,700 follow the San Antonio congregation on Facebook, about 750 on Twitter and nearly 1,000 on Instagram. The Incarnate Word sisters and their sponsored ministries collaborate on their social media strategies and repost each other’s content.

The congregation co-sponsors CHRISTUS Health.

Creating community Farrell says the Mercy institute has found online venues to be an ideal medium for sharing the sisters’ perspective and work.

She says good writers, including Mercy sisters and institute staff, are able to distill the complex topics that Mercy prioritizes into content that is accessible and interesting to a broad audience. The goal of the posts is to entice and inspire social media users to go deeper into the topics and to act on them, she says.

Farrell adds the Mercy institute aims to show its social media followers how they can be agents for change through “personal transformation, influencing community choices, educational out-

reach, legislative advocacy, corporate engagement and spiritual practices.”

She notes that when done correctly, the congregation’s social media efforts around social justice create a community of likeminded people who come back to the online space regularly to learn and to engage with the congregation.

Sr. Huanuco says the Incarnate Word sisters are intentional about building a social media presence that is inclusive and welcoming of new ideas and perspectives.

“To me, social media is a place — it’s a space of encounter, creativity and collaboration” with others, she says.

No borders Sr. Huanuco points to the Human Dignity Knows No Borders campaign to show how social media work lends itself to expansive collaboration. The San Antonio congregation’s communications team partnered with their counterparts at CHRISTUS and at the congregation-sponsored University of the Incarnate Word to develop the messaging and reach select audiences.

Part of the campaign involved interviewing migrants and refugees to create a digital audio series where people talk about their pursuit of a dignified life, their journeys and their dreams. Sr. Huanuco explains: “We wanted to share that when we listen to others and when we encounter others, we are encountering another human being.”

She says while the congregation, the health system and the university tracked the online measures of engagement with the series, true success in her view will relate to whether the campaign changes hearts and minds.

Social media fatigue Farrell and Sr. Huanuco say there are many challenges to using social media effectively.

There is a great deal of noise on every social media channel, and it can be difficult to break through that clatter, Farrell says. She adds that many users are getting turned off by the vitriol voiced on social media platforms and are disconnecting. It’s important that social media not be “the only arrow in your quiver,” she says.

Sr. Huanuco says, for now at least, the pros of having an active presence on social media outweigh the cons. “I feel called to address the priorities of our congregation, and I believe it’s a benefit to us to be on social media to do this.

“I think we as congregations can continue to explore how social media use can be a way to transform the ways we do things in our ministries. It encourages us to think more openly,” Sr. Huanuco says.

Visit chausa.org/chworld to learn how the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of Houston, the Incarnate Word sisters of San Antonio and the Sisters of Mercy have been using social media during the pandemic, to offer hope and comfort to others. jminda@chausa.org

Overset

Through social media cha congregations provide spi nourishment, advocacy, h W

Quiroga

hile congregations of women religious long have ha many such communities significantly have stepped during the pandemic. This has enabled them to maintain in-person contact is not an option.

Social media has become a preferred conduit for send tual nourishment to people worn down by loss and stress That is according to representatives of ministry-affiliated their social media channels humming throughout the pan “The congregation’s strategy for social media is basica individuals and families during this health crisis,” says Sr. munications director for the Congregation of the Sisters o Word in San Antonio, a sponsor of CHRISTUS Health.

Sr. Kevina Keating, CCVI, congregational leader of the S Incarnate Word of Houston, another CHRISTUS sponsorin congregation long has found having an online social medi tools for mission. What’s different (since the pandemic’s o our connection with the global community is now more d some cases, it is completely dependent on it.”

Sr. Keating

Hunger for spirituality

Cathleen Farrell is communications officer for the insti the Americas. She says a central role the sisters have play one that became amplified during the pandemic and othe is that of spiritual comforter. “We knew even before the p hunger for spirituality, but during the pandemic this has b have been frightened. They have been needing something we can provide” them with spiritual resources.

The Mercy institute posts prayers, reflections, messag spiritual guidance on its website and blog as well as on its including on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Farrell says Mercy has received numerous messages f the spiritual resources, saying they were powerful and a r Sr. Keating of the Houston Incarnate Word sisters says a deep feel for those who are suffering, a desire to reach o to bring healing and hope. With social distancing (and oth media is the perfect platform” for fulfilling this mission. H content in English and Spanish.

When lockdowns began during early peaks of the pand of Christian Charity of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, quickly piv services in-person to providing them virtually. Sr. Elena Go rosary recitation offered for those patients with COVID-19 When she recorded the rosary outdoors on the grounds o tions sometimes were punctuated by the honking of an e

Open doors

Sr. Strodhoff

Sr. Caritas Strodthoff, OSF, Franciscan Sisters of Christ at the start of the pandemic, sisters from many of the con U.S. contributed video greetings for a “Message of Hope[ compiled and posted on YouTube. And, for a spark of joy, t videos of sisters singing “You Are My Sunshine[JM7]” and frail elderly sisters sequestered in the infirmary of the con towoc, Wisconsin.

The Houston Incarnate Word sisters also post videos o occasions, such as a June “Live, Love and Laugh” event to and a July associate appreciation event. Sr. Keating says, “ beauty and the good being done especially in a difficult ti and even false information out there. As religious and as C ute a constructive voice.”

Built connections

Sr. Keating notes that with so many people isolated at “Social media allows us to reach a larger audience, to dire way, to maintain communication and conversation when gregation responds to individuals who comment on its po The San Antonio Incarnate Word sisters developed a c start of the pandemic focused on keeping internal and ex about how the congregation and its ministries were affec how they were coping. Among the sisters’ online activitie email every week and sharing spiritual resources daily.

Mercy’s Farrell says that at the start of the pandemic, Facebook group for sisters, and hundreds quickly joined to updates from their daily lives, encouragement, prayers, re other contributions. Facebook has been a great connector nect sisters who are spread out geographically. Farrell cal lent of sharing a cup of tea among friends.

annels, iritual hope

ad an active presence online, d up their use of social media their outreach ministry when

ding encouragement and spiris as the pandemic grinds on. d congregations that have kept ndemic. ally the accompaniment of Martha Quiroga, CCVI, comof Charity of the Incarnate

Buffalo’s Catholic Health to build micro-hospital in Lockport, New York

By JULIE Sisters of Charity ofMINDA the ng congregation, says the Health of Buffalo, New York, ia presence toCatholic be “excellent plans to buildthat a micro-hospital in Lockport, onset) is the realization New York, by 2023 dependent on social media.

In to preserve health care

services in that community. Lockport’s sole hospital is in bankruptcy and set to close.

The new hospital will be a campus of Catholic Health’s Mount St. Mary’s Hospital of itute of theLewiston, Sisters of Mercy New York. of Lewiston is about 20 yed throughout milestheir westhistory of Lockport.

— er 2020 and 2021 Thestressors plans are— the result of ongoing talks pandemic that between peopleCatholic have a Health and Eastern Niagbeen provenara in spades.

Health People System. Eastern Niagara operg meaningful. atesAnd thewe not-for-profit are glad Lockport community hospital called Eastern Niagara Hospital, ges of encouragement which has an and emergency department, acute s social media care,channels, cardiac services, diagnostic imaging and an inpatient chemical dependency from peopletreatment who haveunit. used Eastern Niagara also operreal source ates of comfort. a separate outpatient facility offering s, “something urgent in ourcare, DNA occupational has medicine and out, to encourage, diagnostic to support, services as well as an ambulaher restrictions tory insurgery place), center. social Eastern Niagara HosHer congregation pital filed postsfor all Chapter its 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2019, and its board demic, the subsequently Franciscan Sisters agreed to partner with Cathvoted from providing olic Health spiritual on a management agreement onzales, OSF, that posted will preserve a daily services at Eastern Niag9 and for their aracaregivers.

Hospital until the micro-hospital opens. of the motherhouse, Catholic Health the recitacurrently manages Eastern errant goose.

Niagara Hospital.

Joyce Markiewicz is Catholic Health executive vice president and chief business tian Charitydevelopment archivist, says officer. She says that while ngregation’s Catholic locations Health in thewill own the new hospital, [JM6]” thatitthe willcongregation seek to have representation in facility the congregation governance has posted from Eastern Niagara Hospital d other tunes andtototheir employ fellow staff from that site. ngregation’s convent Markiewicz in Manisays Eastern Niagara Hospital once had two campuses that together of their celebrations amounted of special to more than 274,000 square o celebrate feet. cultural Eastern diversity Niagara Hospital has shuttered “It is important one of to the remember campuses and has been closing ime. There is sections plenty negative of the other one, including that Catholics we hospital’s want to contribintensive care unit and surgical services. The financially ailing hospital currently has 20 beds.

The micro-hospital will be a prefabrit home during cated theconstruction pandemic, of about 50,000 square ectly connect feet. in an It will individual open with 11 private inpatient

avenues are limitedThe conosts. communication plan at the xternal audiences informed cted by the pandemic and es: sending out a “Good News”

the institute set up a private to share with one another eflections, photos, art and or for the sisters, helping reconlls it the modern-day equiva— JULIE MINDA

Cutline

beds. Designed to allow for quick expansion, Markiewicz says if inpatient volumes rise, Catholic Health will build additional inpatient rooms using a modular building system. She says the flexibility is needed because it has been difficult to predict inpatient volume given COVID’s skewing effect on patient numbers at Eastern Niagara Hospital.

Markiewicz says Eastern Niagara Hospital will close in phases as the new campus opens. That new campus — Lockport Memorial Campus of Mount St. Mary’s Hospital — will function as part of a Catholic Health continuum that includes Catholic Health’s five hospital campuses. The new campus will offer emergency, inpatient, imaging and laboratory services. It also will have medical office space for primary care, women’s health and specialty medical practices.

In a press release on the micro-hospital, Catholic Health President and Chief Executive Mark Sullivan said Catholic Health’s goal is to provide a state-of-the-art facility that will preserve health care for the more than 80,000 residents of the greater Lockport area.

The New York State Department of Health’s Public Health and Health Planning Council approved the certificate of need for the new campus in July.

The state health department has awarded Catholic Health and Eastern Niagara Health System $18 million in “vital access provider” funding. Sullivan said in a press release that the funding will help finance the redesign of the health care delivery system into a sustainable model for the long term, while also providing financial stability during that transformation.

One of the parcels in the new campus is home to the locally popular Hall’s Apple Farm. Five generations of the family have lived and worked on the site and the patriarch is somewhat of a folk hero, said Markiewicz. The family will retain a portion of the land to operate a market and bakery.

The call during which Catholic Health leadership and the Hall family discussed this arrangement was emotional “on all sides because the Hall family, like Catholic Health, was humbled and honored to play a role in creating something so vital for Niagara County residents on land that was such an important part of their family and the history of this community,” Markiewicz said.

Plans call for construction of the microhospital to begin in the fall.

The Lockport activity comes as Catholic Health jumpstarts a strategic plan it had put on pause when COVID hit. The system intends to create regional centers of excel-

lence across Catholic Health’s Western New York footprint.

The strategic plan includes: At Mercy Hospital of Buffalo: maintaining comprehensive cardiac and stroke services and growing neuroscience services.

At Sisters of Charity Hospital’s main Buffalo campus, expanding vascular, bariatric and women’s services.

AAt Kenmore Mercy Hospital of Kenmore, New York, growing orthopedic services.

AAt Sisters of Charity Hospital’s St. Joseph campus, growing orthopedic services.

The St. Joseph campus had been restructured to serve solely as a COVID hospital during the pandemic. It had experienced declining inpatient volumes and increasing ambulatory care volumes prior to coronavirus’ onset. Now that COVID rates have fallen, St. Joseph will discontinue admitting patients with COVID at that facility and will reopen as a campus primarily focused on ambulatory care. St. Joseph will reopen its emergency department, but patients who need a high level of care will be stabilized and transferred to another Catholic Health hospital. Over time, St. Joseph will close its intensive care unit and most of its inpatient nursing units, according to a press release from Catholic Health.