Paramedicine brings care home 2 Taking on homelessness 3 Executive changes 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
MARCH 2026 VOLUME 42, NUMBER 3
CULTIVATING BETTER HEALTH
CommonSpirit Trinity Health prioritizes nutrition, using clinical and social care strategies offers resource to help human trafficking survivors heal By JULIE MINDA
Multiple Trinity Health regions address nutrition concerns through Food Is Medicine programs. From left: At St. Peter’s Health Partners in Albany, New York, Matt Senko, right, provides a Food Farmacy bag to a program participant. Senko is coordinator of the Food Farmacy program. In Pontiac, Michigan, a volunteer at The Farm at Trinity Health Oakland prepares a soil bed to be planted. Cooking instructor Caitlin Greenbaum prepares a dish in the teaching kitchen of Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. By JULIE MINDA
Food insecurity is an intractable and long-standing issue in the U.S., and a concern that Trinity Health is prioritizing throughout its 25-state footprint through its Food Is Medicine strategy. It recognizes that nutritious food is an essential component of overall health, but many people do not understand that connection or they face significant barriers to healthy eating.
Through Food Is Medicine programs, multiple Trinity Health regions address nutrition concerns in the clinical environment and the broader community. While each Trinity Health facility’s particular approach varies based on local circumstances, all of them use some type of patient screening for food security, partnerships with community organizations to address food access issues, education of patients and community members as well as data
collection to monitor outcomes. Dr. Daniel Roth, Trinity Health executive vice president and chief operating officer, is helping to lead Food Is Medicine. “We’re educating people on food and lifestyle, and their connection to health … and we’re ensuring that they have ways to connect to healthy food in their community,” he says. “We’re making it easy to do.” He adds, “We know we’re saving lives.” Continued on 6
As betting expands, mental health experts worry public is blind to risks
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Gibbs
Bender
Holly Gibbs and Rebecca Bender coauthored the resource. “We know at CommonSpirit Health and within the survivor community that when a person escapes human trafficking, it’s not the end. It’s the beginning of a path to healing,” says Gibbs, system director of the Human Trafficking Response Program at CommonSpirit Continued on 5
Saint Peter’s Healthcare uses AI tool to get services to vulnerable patients
By LISA EISENHAUER
The sharp increase in sports betting since a Supreme Court decision led to its expansion shows gamblers are willing to accept the stakes. But some mental health experts worry the growth of sports betting, and of gambling in general, poses wider risks that are overlooked. “This rapid growth has normalized gambling and made it more accessible than ever,” says Dr. Arpan Waghray, a psychiatrist Waghray who is CEO of Providence’s Well Being Trust. The trust works to improve the mental health and well-being of communities within the footprint of Providence St. Joseph Health in seven western states and to advance mental health care nationally. At the same time gambling is expanding, Waghray sees what he calls a persistent
It is estimated that more than 20,000 people are trafficked in the U.S. each year. Their trauma does not end when they escape. Survivors — especially those who go on to work in helping professions — are at high risk of long-term impacts, including “retraumatization” and burnout. To ensure survivors are attuned to the long-term risks to their mental health and well-being and to provide them with guidance on reducing that risk, CommonSpirit Health has created the “Trauma and Recovery” digital booklet. The booklet is available for free online.
Sarah Ness, PeaceHealth president and CEO, applauds Ian Thompson, founder and operations coordinator of the Lower Columbia School Gardens, while visiting PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview, Washington. Ness awarded a donation from PeaceHealth for the gardens.
tem founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. Sr. Pruitt sits on its board. Ness calls Sr. Pruitt’s motto “my center point.” “I share it often with our leaders and our caregivers, because I think that is our keel,” she says. “If we can be who we say we are in every moment and with every decision and every interaction, PeaceHealth will be
Saint Peter’s Healthcare System is using an artificial intelligence tool to better identify patients who need social services — such as transportation and food — and connect them with assistance. As a result, fewer of those patients are showing up in the emergency room with health issues. The system, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, reported that the use of the tool led to a 7.1% reduction in emergency department visits by high-risk patients at Saint Peter’s University Hospital within a 90-day period. Those patients were identified through the tool, from Lightbeam
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PeaceHealth’s new leader looks to build deeper connections, ensure system’s health By LISA EISENHAUER
Sarah Ness often quotes Sr. Kathleen Pruitt, who has spent many years in leadership roles with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and says: “Let us be who we say we are.” In January, Ness became president and CEO of PeaceHealth, a health sys-
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN