CHRISTUS food locker 2 FMOLHS’ employer branding 6 Executive changes 13 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
AUGUST 2024 VOLUME 40, NUMBER 8
Surgeon General calls gun violence public health crisis Catholic health leaders urge conversation, action By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
Catholic health leaders are voicing support for the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on firearm violence released earlier this summer, noting that they also have long believed the issue is a public health crisis. “I think it’s a thoughtful report, and a very, very important topic of discussion,” said Mike Slubowski, president and CEO of Trinity Health. “One of the questions is: Is anything going to change as a result of it?” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s advisory, “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America,” was released June 25. It came Continued on 9
“All Americans deserve to live their lives free from firearm violence, as well as from the fear and devastation that it brings. It will take the collective commitment of our nation to turn the tide on firearm violence.” — Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General “Catholic social teaching is about the common good, and you can’t speak to the common good unless you can talk about physical and psychological safety from gun violence.” — Mike Slubowski, Trinity Health president and CEO
ATTENDING TO THE NEEDS OF MOMS
Mercy’s volunteer time off benefit enables staff to build bonds with one another, community By JULIE MINDA
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Nursing student Molly Meihak plays with Ayden Lott while his mom is at a doctor’s appointment at Ascension St. Joseph in Milwaukee in May.
Milwaukee’s Ascension St. Joseph offers free child care so patients can get to appointments By JULIE MINDA
Milwaukee-area mom Ajah Lott knows how important it is to get to her prenatal appointments as she nears the September due date for her twins’ arrival. But as a busy mom of six who also lacks child care, it would have been extremely difficult for her to get to those appointments were it not for the free child care that her doctor’s office provides. Since 2020, Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital — St. Joseph Campus in Milwaukee has been providing child care in its Women’s Outpatient Center at no cost, Continued on 14
Making sure these moms can get to their
SSM Health uses screenings to connect maternal care patients to needed social services
necessary
By LISA EISENHAUER
medical
SAN DIEGO — SSM Health is replicating across its four-state footprint a screening program to identify and address social needs that affect health among maternal care patients. “We need to continue to invest in these women because it’s the right thing to do and should become the new standard of care,” said Elizabeth Voss, an SSM Health obstetrics nurse navigator based in Madison, Wisconsin, where the program started. During a session at the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly here, Voss and Stacy Dorris, an SSM Health obstetrics nurse navigator in St. Louis, shared why the system
appointments without worrying about child care is a great way to remove at least that barrier.” — Molly Meihak
Voss
Several years ago, the Mercy health system repeatedly heard through co-worker feedback that associates want to benefit their community through volunteerism. But, given their busy work schedules, it can be very difficult to take the time to do so. The Chesterfield, Missouri-based system is making it easier for employees to serve their community by offering a volunteer time off benefit. Both full- and parttime employees are eligible to take up to eight paid hours off annually, either individually or in groups. Ayanna Pierce, Mercy vice president of benefits and talent relations, says, “Paid time off is golden — it’s what co-workers value. We wanted to enhance paid time off, especially coming off the pandemic when employees couldn’t take as much time off. But we wanted the new paid time off to be aligned with our mission, vision and values.” The benefit has been in place since 2022. Employees are finding numerous ways to volunteer in their communities. Pierce says, “We are getting to see service to the community in action.”
Rare offering Pierce says in the past, individual departments or units within Mercy allowed paid time off to volunteer, but there was no systemwide policy in place. When Mercy learned from co-worker feedback several years ago that staff would value this type of benefit, the system worked with its employee benefits committee and a benefits consultant to come up with a systemwide offering. Continued on 10
Dorris
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PLACENTA DONATIONS SUPPORT LIFE Trinity Health, Intermountain Health and Mercy hospitals partner with organizations that find treatment and research uses for tissue. Page 12
‘CARMEL EMBODIES THE CORE VALUES OF HOLY CROSS’ Holy Cross Health honors 97-year-old seamstress for six decades of volunteer work. Page 11