SSM Health staff embrace Ukrainian refugees 3 Providence Clinical Academy 5 Holy Name Honey 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 15
Rural hospitals explore how best to expand care access By JULIE MINDA
PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center is a critical access hospital located in a county of about 13,700 people in southeast Alaska. Rural hospitals care for populations of people who are at greater risk for poor health as compared with people in suburbs or cities.
Research has shown that rural populations in the U.S. have health vulnerabilities that set them at higher risk of shortened lives, as compared with their suburban and urban counterparts. Three executives who run Catholic hospitals in rural communities fear the health status of the populations they serve could worsen because many people are more reticent to seek in-person care than they were before the pandemic, perhaps fearing COVID-19 contagion or the cost of obtaining care. Divining new approaches to address these and other challenges is a priority. Donald H. Lloyd II is president and chief executive of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, Kentucky. With 159 beds, St. Claire is the largest rural hospital in Eastern Continued on 2
Avera hotline gives stressed clinicians a place to vent, access treatment
Ministry executives applaud passage of major legislation, still wish for more
As health care delivery systems have waxed and waned in their commitment to mental health care over the decades, Avera Health and its predecessors have remained steadfast in efforts to increase access to — and reduce the stigma of — mental health care in rural areas. The system was formed in 2000 when the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Aberdeen and the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton Sacred Heart Monastery combined their sponsored health ministries. Avera Health opened Avera Mental Behavioral Health in 2006 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, putting its mental health inpatient and outpatient care on par with its medical services. Earlier this year, the center, now the Avera Behavioral Health Hospital, added a four-story wing with several new services including 24/7 mental health urgent care, residential addiction care services for youth and a day hospital program for youth. As it has broadened access to mental health services, Avera Health also has Continued on 8
Godofredo A. Vasquez/Associated Press
By LISA EISENHAUER
The Inflation Reduction Act addresses climate change by offering incentives to expand the use of clean energy, such as that generated by wind turbines like these in Livermore, California. In its many provisions, the act also addresses health care access and costs. By LISA EISENHAUER
While executives within the Catholic health ministry agree there’s much to celebrate in the Inflation Reduction Act, the measure signed Aug. 16 by President Joe Biden left a few of their hopes at least temporarily dashed. Mike Slubowski, president and chief executive of Trinity Health, says he would
describe his reaction to the act as “bubbling, overflowing enthusiasm.” Nevertheless, he is disappointed that the measure doesn’t provide any financial support for nonprofit hospitals like those within his system that have been financially drained by the demand for COVID-19 care and by the spike in labor costs. He points out that most of the subsidies Continued on 6
Sr. Mary Roch Rocklage’s visionary ministry spanned more than six decades Sr. Mary Roch Rocklage, RSM, the foundress of Chesterfield, Missouri-based Mercy health system, died Aug. 23, at 87, following a lengthy illness. The health ministry and career of Sr. Rocklage, affectionately known as “Sr. Roch,” spanned more than 60 years. It started when she was a staff nurse at a Sisters of Mercy hospital in St. Louis and continued through her pivotal role establishing and leading Mercy. “This is a tremendous loss for Mercy and
all who loved Sr. Roch,” said Steve Mackin, Mercy president and chief executive officer. “She inspired us through her visionary and principled leadership and was a constant source of joy to everyone around her.” Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA president and chief executive officer, said: “Sr. Roch shaped health care in this country at a time when women had little voice. She influenced many by her visionary leadership and passionate commitment to create Continued on 7
Sr. Mary Roch Rocklage, RSM
A Mercy staffer uses the Mercy Works on Demand app, which allows nurses to pick up extra shifts at Mercy hospitals.
Catholic health systems, facilities innovate to answer nurses’ call for more flexibility By JULIE MINDA
Large numbers of nurses have been leaving their jobs at hospitals, long-term care campuses and other health care facilities to accept high-dollar positions with nurse staffing agencies or to transition to other jobs that have better schedule flexibility and pay. The pandemic exodus has left health care facilities short-staffed and overly reliant on the same outside labor contractors that recruited away their nurses. To help restore staffing equilibrium and sanity, health care facilities have been seeking to understand more about why nurses are leaving. And they are using that intelligence to develop new programs and offerings that incentivize nurses to stay, and that attract new recruits. “We are listening to the voice of nurses and creating programs to respond,” says Robin Johnson, chief nursing officer at Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. Continued on 4