Nurse honor guards 2 First 1,000 Days program 3 Executive changes 16 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
MAY 2024 VOLUME 40, NUMBER 5
Retiring FMOLHS head reflects on 40 years in health care practice, leadership
“Ten years ago, a hospital was a safe space, a sacred space, better yet, like a school or church and you didn’t have to think about security to the level that we do today. Unfortunately, societal violence has changed.” — Todd Miller
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Despite backlash, DEI leaders say Catholic health systems remain committed By LISA EISENHAUER
Leaders of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the Catholic health care ministry say a conservative backlash against such efforts isn’t shaking their systems’ resolve. “I am proud that, in the face of external pressure, in the face of DEI being hijacked and sort of redefined as something negative and harmful, we have not been moved,” says LaRonda Chastang, senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at Trinity Health. At Bon Secours Mercy Health, Odesa Stapleton, chief diversity and inclusion officer, says the system is unwavering in its “culture of inclusion” that, as at other systems, extends into training and education, recruitment and retention, equity in care, community partnerships and supplier diversity. Marcos Pesquera, system vice president for community health and chief diversity officer, says of CHRISTUS Health’s DEI Continued on 15
Security officer Eric Visor shows nurse Brittany Drummond a self-defense technique at the SSM Health Security Academy in suburban St. Louis.
How to reduce violence in the B workplace?
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
SSM Health opens security academies to teach employees
BRIDGETON, Missouri efore SSM Health behavioral health nurse April Reitz joined her colleagues on a training mat to practice self-defense techniques, she smoothed a piece of red-orange painter’s tape onto her right jawline. The tape signaled to her group to avoid touching her there. Last year, a patient punched her in the face, dislocating her jaw, and she was still recovering. Before the attack, Reitz said, “I never dreaded going to work.” Now she does. “But yet, I still feel a calling in my life, and I feel like God equips you to what he calls you to,” she said. “And this is Continued on 8
Mercy Cedar Rapids partners on hub for dementia care innovation By JULIE MINDA
Josh Booth /Diamond Label Films
When Dr. Richard Vath retires this summer as president and CEO of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he will cap off a career spanning 40 years. Vath had practiced in Baton Rouge for 23 years as a pulmonary critical care physician before joining the leadership team of FMOLHS’ Our Lady of the Lake Regional Vath Medical Center in 2006 as quality and patient safety medical director. In 2019, Vath was named president and CEO of FMOLHS, which has five hospital campuses and a network of outpatient sites in Louisiana and Mississippi. Beginning May 1, E.J. Kuiper transitions to system president and CEO. During his tenure as CEO, Vath helped set a long-term vision for FMOLHS and spearheaded its expansion in Mississippi
Jerry Naunheim/@CHA
By JULIE MINDA
Facilitators and participants in a support group for people living with dementia gather in the vestibule of the Chris & Suzy DeWolf Family Innovation Center for Aging & Dementia in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The center offers numerous support groups for people with dementia, their caregivers and older adults.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Four years ago, Susie Winkowski and her husband, Walt, left the resort they’d owned on the West Coast because his dementia was making it too difficult to keep up with the business. They moved to Cedar Rapids to be closer to family. Susie Winkowski felt overwhelmed and under-equipped for her caregiving role, until she learned about the Family Caregivers Center here. Since connecting with the center, she’s been taking part in caregiver support groups, building deep friendships with other caregivers and their spouses and learning how she and her husband can achieve the best quality of life even given his diagnosis. The Winkowskis are among the dozens of people with dementia or caregivers who are benefiting from the offerings of the Family Caregivers Center and its new sister Continued on 12