Warm welcome for Ukrainian visitor 2 Executive changes 6 New hospital decor as homage 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
SEPTEMBER 15, 2023 VOLUME 39, NUMBER 15
COMMUNIT Y PARTNERSHIPS BUILD TRUST, AWARENESS
Murder of hospital employee spurs creation of domestic violence toolkit
‘Absolutely an emergency’ Foster children, adults with disabilities living in Missouri hospitals By NANCY FOWLER
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
Edna “Patty” Hernandez was always smiling and cheerful as she floated throughout different departments cleaning rooms and hallways at the 700-bed Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. “She was very, very beloved to the point that a manager told me that he would get requests from units: ‘Can’t Patty just stay with us?’” said Susan Stacey, chief executive for the Providence Inland Northwest Washington service area, part of Providence St. Joseph Health. On the morning of April 3, 2019, Hernandez didn’t show up for work, unusual for her since she always came in early eating her breakfast, usually a Continued on 6
Pastor Sean Dogan, at the microphone, speaks at a men’s forum on colorectal and prostate health at the Long Branch Community Center in Greenville, South Carolina. The event was the result of collaboration among pastors involved with Bon Secours St. Francis Health System’s clergy council. Dogan directs community health at Bon Secours St. Francis. Behind him are, from left, Greenville-area pastors Matthew Long, Richard Donald and Herb Edwards.
Greenville’s Bon Secours works with pastors to bring health campaigns to Black churches By JULIE MINDA
Edna "Patty" Hernandez, a Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center employee, was killed by her boyfriend in April 2019.
Last year, Roy Williams joined one of the residents of the shelter he heads in Greenville, South Carolina, for a discussion on Black men’s risk of getting colorectal cancer. Throughout the talk, as the clinician presenter listed symptoms of the illness, the man repeatedly leaned over to Williams to say he had those symptoms. After the presentation, which was at a church, the man took one of the colorectal cancer screening kits offered free to attend-
ees. He completed the kit, submitted it and later was relieved to receive a negative result, Williams recalled. Williams noted that although the man largely had avoided health care providers previously, he went to this talk because it was in a place he felt comfortable and with people he trusted, including Williams. The man found that the people there “respected him and showed him they cared for him and that he mattered. They gave him the opportunity to Continued on 5
>> SSM Health partners with Urban League for training program. PAGE 3
Colossal lifesaving effort began with 60 minutes of CPR By LISA EISENHAUER
After she was awakened by her husband’s screams and found him in distress in the living room of their suburban Houston home early Jan. 2, Patricia Green let the emergency responders decide where to take him for treatment. The ambulance crew determined Clifford Green was having a heart attack and rushed him to St. Luke’s Health — The Woodlands, about 25 minutes away. While in the hospital’s cardiology lab being evaluated, Clifford went into cardiac arrest, prompting the cardiology team and emergency responders to start CPR. They kept at it for what cardiac surgeon Dr. Vivek Patel calls an “unheard of” 60 minutes. The long resuscitation was the start of Continued on 4
Clifford Green, seated between his daughter, Hannah Green, left, and his wife, Patricia Green, listens during a reunion event at St. Luke’s Health — The Woodlands for the dozens of emergency workers, clinicians and others who helped him survive after a heart attack and many complications.
Hospitals in Missouri, including those within the Mercy and SSM Health systems, are struggling to care for an influx of unusual patients: those who don’t need to be hospitalized. Dozens of foster children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are languishing in psychiatric units, medical wards and emergency departments because they have nowhere else to go. What was once an occasional issue escalated during the pandemic as employees of state-run facilities serving these populations left their jobs. As a result, the number of appropriate living options dwindled. Now, in a typical scenario, a teenager or adult with behavioral issues will show up at an emergency department, and once they’re stabilized, ED staff can’t find an appropriate placement for them. For the adults and youth who are affected and the hospitals that are already challenged with overcrowded emerMorrow gency departments, “it’s absolutely an emergency — and a crisis,” says Patricia Morrow, executive director of behavioral health for Chesterfield, Continued on 7
CHA provides guide to aid in interpretation, application of Ethical and Religious Directives By JULIE MINDA
CHA has released a new guide to help people understand, interpret and apply the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. The association also has produced a video that Catholic health care facilities can use to introduce new staff members and others to the directives and their use. Published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Ethical and Religious Directives document the ethical standards of behavior for providing health care services — standards derived from the Catholic Church’s teaching about the dignity of each person. The directives also provide authoritative guidance on certain moral issues that can arise in health care delivery. The purpose of the guide, called “The Ethical and Religious Directives: Annotations by the Catholic Health Continued on 3