Essential spiritual care 2 Executive changes 7 Warm handoffs in Illinois hospitals 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
OCTOBER 2022
SACRED SPACES
SUBLIME DESIGN ELEVATES HOSPITAL CHAPELS. PAGES 4-5
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 16
Providence forges unified culture while nurturing pride in ministries’ local legacies By JULIE MINDA
Jason Keen/Courtesy of PLY+
Top, Trinity Health Livonia hospital in Michigan; below, from left, CHI Health Immanuel hospital in Omaha, Nebraska; Mount Carmel Grove City hospital in Grove City, Ohio; The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio; and Penacook Place in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
When Providence Health & Services and St. Joseph Health merged in 2016 to form Providence St. Joseph Health, the sponsors decided that instead of suppressing one of the two public juridic persons they brought together they’d enter into a covenant to form a new sponsor council with five representatives from each legacy PJP. Dougal Hewitt, Providence executive vice president/chief mission and Hewitt sponsorship officer, says that spirit of collaboration has guided the system’s efforts to create a unified culture, with influences from each of the congregations that had at one time sponsored one or more of the 52 hospitals and the network of other facilities that make up the seven-state system. Hewitt, who is completing his sixth and final year as a CHA board member, spoke to Catholic Health World about how the system struck a balance between system culture and local tradition and flavor. The conversation has been edited Continued on 3
CHI Health mission department embraces technology to expand reach of formation work By JULIE MINDA
discharge. “Even if we didn’t have a formal program, this would have happened organically,” said Deacon Paul C. Lim, vice president of mission integration at the 250-bed hospital. “We are a Level 4 Trauma Center — the first line of defense for the Upper
For the several years that he’s been senior vice president of mission integration for CommonSpirit Health’s Midwest division, Andrew Santos and the mission leaders he directs have grappled with how best to engage nearly 13,000 employees at 28 hospitals and hundreds of clinics across four states in formation and spirituality work. Santos and his mission department colleagues Santos have found some success by creating video blogs and interviews, reflections, prayers and other content to help employees explore what brings them meaning in their work. Mission staff and managers use the resources as a starting point for discussions intended to be a prelude to personal reflection, integration and action. Santos says the resources “are reminders that God is still with us, and that helps bring meaning to the lives and work” of many staff members. He notes that while he and the mission department he leads began creating the resources before the pandemic, they greatly
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Sr. Jennifer Berridge, CSJ, left, a case manager at Catholic Charities West Virginia, visits with Laurie Quinn, a client in the Hospital Transition Program. The program, a collaboration between Catholic Charities and WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling, West Virginia, meets practical needs of vulnerable patients following hospital discharge.
Wheeling hospital partners to support recovery of high-risk patients after hospital discharge By PATRICIA CORRIGAN
The Hospital Transition Program, a collaboration between WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital and Catholic Charities West Virginia, both in Wheeling, provides individualized support to vulnerable, low-income patients after their hospital
Water symbolizes refreshment of body and spirit in a recent “Feeding the Spirit” video blog by CommonSpirit Health’s Andrew Santos.