Medicaid unwinding 3 Executive changes 7 Nursing excellence at PeaceHealth 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
OCTOBER 2024 VOLUME 40, NUMBER 10
I
Civics 101
n advance of this year’s general election, Trinity Health launched Civics 101: Care for the Common Good Challenge. The eight-week challenge is virtual. Once a week until Oct. 28, staffers are invited to watch a threeto four-minute video focused on an aspect of civics, such as the rights and duties of voters. Each video ends with a QR code that links to a quiz viewers can take to rack up bragging rights points. “Their goal is this champion status,” explains Tina Weatherwax-Grant, senior vice president, public policy and advocacy at Trinity Health. “We’re hoping it’s a
Catholic health systems take on educational role as election nears By LISA EISENHAUER
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Hochman reflects as he prepares to hand off top post at Providence
‘Not abandoned ... not alone’
ADDRESSING THE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
By JULIE MINDA
Jerry Naunheim Jr.
When Dr. Rod Hochman retires as Providence St. Joseph Health president and CEO at the end of this year, he will have worked 45 years in health care, with the last 17 at Providence or its affiliates. Providence Chief Operating Officer Erik Wexler will succeed him at the health system’s helm beginning Jan. 1. On the cusp of his retirement, Hochman speaks with Catholic Health World about how his passion for medicine propelled his career, how he decided to transition to health care administration, how he’s been formed throughout his tenure in Catholic health care and what he hopes retirement will look like for him. His responses have been edited for length and clarity.
SSM Health clinic offers behavioral health urgent care, long-term injectables
Ministers association equips parishes nationwide to support those dealing with mental illness By JULIE MINDA
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
ST. LOUIS — People experiencing a mental health crisis and seeking treatment here have a new resource to get help. SSM Health in August opened a behavioral health urgent care and long-acting injection clinic at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. The new urgent care, the first of its kind in the city, is expected to alleviate traffic in the Saint Louis University Hospital emergency room, where people often show up Continued on 7
Jerry Naunheim Jr./@CHA
The entrance to the behavioral health urgent care and long-acting injection clinic at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital is the emergency entrance to the former main building of the hospital. A new hospital opened next door in 2020.
Esteban Quintana prepares materials on mental health awareness he distributes as part of his work with a mental health ministry at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in San Diego.
When Deacon Ed Shoener’s daughter Katie made her first suicide attempt in 2005, his parish church “was the last place” he would have gone for help, he says. “The church didn’t know what to do,” he explains, when it came to supporting people with mental illness and their families. He hopes the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers is changing that. The association offers parishes training, resources and connections to provide meaningful support to people who have mental illness. Any parish can access the association’s resources. Deacon Shoener partnered in founding Continued on 6
Dr. Rod Hochman, president and CEO of Providence St. Joseph Health, at the 2022 Catholic Health Assembly in Indianapolis.
What did you enjoy most about being a physician? One of the most remarkable things about being a physician — and I was recently talking with a group of Sisters of Providence about this — is there’s a real similarity between becoming a sister and becoming a physician. Both take an oath for life, and we take it very seriously, and we take seriously the components that are service related — we care for everyone, no matter who they are. Continued on 4