‘A chance to breathe again’ 2 Contracting out chaplaincy services 3 Executive changes 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
MARCH 2024 VOLUME 40, NUMBER 3
Mercy’s AI-driven St. Joseph’s Health chemo care model bears in New Jersey trains name of co-creator who ED staff to spot trafficking victims died of cancer ‘It disproportionately affects the population we see: the underserved, potentially homeless patients’ By KATHLEEN NELSON
By KARI WILLIAMS
A researcher at Chesterfield, Missouri-based Mercy who helped develop an AI-driven program to serve at-risk chemotherapy patients received her own cancer diagnosis while working on the project. Jiajing Chen, the biostatistician assigned to the topic, had peripheral T-cell lymphoma. She died last year. After her death, the platform was named in her honor. “She was so instrumental that it never would have happened without her,” Dr. Jay Carlson, Mercy Cancer Care Performance
St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson, New Jersey, has formed a partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify victims of human trafficking and protect exploited persons. With inspiration and support from the department’s Blue Campaign and other sources, St. Joseph’s will train more than 400 emergency clinicians and staff before expanding to other areas of the hospital that are likely to interact with victims of human trafficking. “It’s a wonderful project,” says Dr. Marjory Langer, chief of emergency services at Langer St. Joseph’s Wayne campus. “Every day we wonder how many of these people we can help that come through our doors that we haven’t recognized.”
The scope of trafficking Human trafficking involves the use of force or fraud to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Polaris, which connects victims and survivors of human trafficking to support and services in North America, estimates that 28 million people were victims of human trafficking worldwide in 2022 and that about 68% have contact with emergency departments. “So, statistically, we’ve all had contact with patients who have been victims,” says Brian Dolan, director of the emergency departments at St. Joseph’s in Paterson and Wayne, both in northern New Jersey. DHS told St. Joseph’s that victims in southern New Jersey report more sex trafficking, while victims in northern New Jersey report more labor trafficking. The first Continued on 6
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Mercy researcher Jiajing Chen, pictured with her husband, Andy Greenwood, and children, lost her battle with cancer last year.
CommonSpirit hospitals send cafeterias’ surplus to community By NANCY FOWLER
David Clarke, a cook at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, readies packaged surplus food that will be shared with community partners in the hospital’s edible food recovery effort.
How to help rural hospitals? Ten takeaways from AHA conference The American Hospital Association recently hosted the Rural Health Care Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. Catholic Health World Associate Editor Valerie Schremp Hahn attended and shares some key takeaways.
A pilot initiative to tackle food insecurity while also reducing landfill waste is underway at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. The medical center’s system, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, launched the edible food recovery effort in July. The project sends surplus food from St. Joseph’s cafeteria to people who need it. The pilot program is an alliance between the hospital and three local partners, St. Leo’s Food Connection, the Tacoma Rescue Mission and the Oasis Youth Center, that offer free hot meals. “This is good food that would otherwise go to waste,” says Doug BaxterJenkins, division director Baxter-Jenkins of community health at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. “But the program gets the food to those who can use it right away.” Virginia Mason Franciscan Health is expanding the initiative to another hospital Continued on 4
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Rural hospitals are at a tipping point. Rural hospitals are closing services and some hospitals are closing altogether. More than half of rural hospitals do not offer labor and delivery service, said Jamie Orlikoff, an author, consultant and the national adviser on governance and leadership to the American Hospital Assocation. Orlikoff encourages facilities to use technology and artificial intelligence to increase productivity and reduce burnout, and to recruit strong, aggressive board members from outside the community. Continued on 8