January-February 2004

Volume 85, Number 1

Features

• Budgeting as Theological Reflection
  True stewardship of resources requires realism, generosity of spirit, and commitment to the common good.
• Balancing Act
  Conscientious budgeting helps an organization carry its heritage into the future.
• Health Care and the Church's Mission
  An Australian bishop reflects upon the health care ministry's role in the larger work of the Catholic Church.
• Improving Response to Life-Threatening Illness
  The nationwide CALL Care project involved 11 Catholic health care organizations.
• Making "Caring Connections"
  A new program enhances end-of-life care in a retirement community in Ohio.
• Ethical Decisions in Health Care
  A seven-step ethical discernment process can help organizational leaders make wise choices.
• Accountability and Action
  A strong, meaningful relationship between an organization's board and its medical staff will have five key elements.
• A Pathway to Franciscan Excellence
  A Louisiana health care system creates a process for developing leadership across the work force.

Columns

• Reflections — Toward a Theology of Sponsorship
• Ministry Leadership — Called to Lead at Ascension Health
• Communication Strategies — Building Patient Volume through "Runway" Management

Departments

• Briefing — Budgeting and Theology
• Book Review — The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Accommodating Pluralism
• Prayer Service — Cherishing the Gift
• Book Review — Planning Care to Prevent Falls

July-August 2004

Volume 85, Number 4

Special Section

• For Everything There Is a Season
  With the publication of clinical practice guidelines, palliative care finally enters the mainstream of American medicine.
• The Ethics of Loving Care
  Like pediatricians, palliative care practitioners understand that patients should always be seen as capable of growth.
• Listening to Stories of Pain and Joy
  In listening closely to what their patients have to say, caregivers can help them find comfort and meaning at the end of life.
• Giving Patients A "Good Death"
  A new program at a New Hampshire hospital helps patients walk their final journey with dignity, peace, and compassion.
• Aligning Values with Practice
  The nationwide Promoting Excellence program demonstrates the practicality of palliative care for patients, families, and caregivers.
• Spiritual Care at the End of Life
  A new study suggests that members of the clergy may lack preparation for offering the end-of-life care that dying patients want and need.

Features

• Recruiting Diverse Board Members
  In the second article in a series, the CEO of a Dallas-based system emphasizes the importance of diversity in board membership.
• Physicians and Spirituality
  A hospital in Indianapolis has a program that encourages the development of spirituality in its physicians.
• Are Health Professionals Ministry?
  A Christian physician or nurse may, in the performance of his or her work, also be acting as a minister of the faith

Columns

• Reflections — Thoughts on the Papal Allocution
• Ministry Leadership — "Pathways of Leadership" Formation at Mercy
• Communication Strategies — Publicizing Hospice Care

Departments

• Briefing — A "Good Death"
• Book Review — Ethical Patient Care: A Casebook for Geriatric Health Care Teams
• Book Review — Cutting-Edge Bioethics: A Christian Exploration of Technologies and Trends
• Book Review — Bioethics from a Faith Perspective: Ethics in Health Care for the Twenty-First Century
• Prayer Service — Now and at the Hour of Our Death

March-April 2004

Volume 85, Number 2

Special Section

• A New Vision of Rural Health Care
  Rural America, its economy, and its health care needs have all changed dramatically in the century since the sisters came to build their hospitals.
• Crisis in the Countryside
  Networking and telemedicine will be indispensable tools for rural health care.
• Challenges and Opportunities
  Rural communities also have advantages, such as a willingness to work together and an openness to innovation.
• Starting a Free Clinic in a Rural Area
  The members of a small Kentucky community have pooled their talents to solve the access problem.
• "Teleschooling" May Be the Answer
  A coalition of hospitals and a college is using teleconference classes to train nurses and other health care workers.
• Imaginative Responses to Problems
  On the northern Great Plains, health care frequently includes community development and economic development.
• "Adapt, Improve, Overcome!"
  The staff of a small rural hospital that has many Medicare-age patients finds the U.S. Marines' motto to be extremely relevant.
• Recruiting Physicians for Rural Settings
  Search comittees seeking doctors should consider strategies tailored specifically to today's labor market.

Features

• Measuring What Chaplains Do
  A study conducted by Catholic Health Initiatives sheds light on pastoral care competencies and productivity.
• Forming a Wellness Coalition
  The creators of a successful program for priests in the Milwaukee Archdicocese plan to expand it to include others as well.

Columns

• Reflections — "Freedom to Serve" Is Not A Lawyer's Quibble
• Ministry Leadership — Leadership and the Core Commitments
• Communication Strategies — Communicating with Senior Citizens
• Final Say — Spirituality and Medicine

Departments

• Briefing — Catholic Health Care in Rural America
• Book Review — Bioethics in America: Origins and Cultural Politics
• Book Review — More Humane Medicine: A Liberal Catholic Bioethics
• Prayer Service — Springtime Prayer

September-October 2004

Volume 85, Number 5

Special Section

• What Is "Leadership Formation" Now?
  The ministry's new leaders will respond to a call to service from God and from the communities in which they live and flourish.
• Formation and Governance
  Catholic health care organizations should institute theological and spiritual formation programs for members of their boards.
• Profiling Catholic Health Care Leaders
  A Denver research and consulting firm has, at CHA's request, developed a kind of "snapshot” of the typical ministry leader.
• Health Ministry and Community
  To preserve its sense of mission in a highly individualistic culture, Catholic health care needs a renewed emphasis on its communitarian roots.
• Nurturing the Ministry's Soul
  Five Catholic systems in the western United States have inaugurated a new center for the development of health ministry leaders.
• A Fellowship Program for Mission Leaders
  Trinity Health, Novi, MI, has a fellowship program that provides 12 months of training and mentoring for its prospective mission leaders.
• Beyond "Best Intentions"
  A leadership coaching program at Catholic Healthcare Partners, Cincinnati, has led to more productive meetings.

Features

• Against Human Trafficking
  The smuggling of illegal immigrants has introduced a new form of human slavery into the United States.
• Diversity Is a High Priority at CHI
  Kevin E. Lofton, president and CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, answers questions about diversity efforts at that system.
• Catholic Managed Care
  Like Victor Hugo's hunchback, the ministry's version of managed care has an inner beauty that may not be obvious at first glance.
• Continuing A Community Alliance
  For more than a decade, hospitals in one Louisiana parish have collaborated to improve community health.

Columns

• Reflections — Ministry Leadership Development: A New Pilgrimage
• Communication Strategies — New Styles in Trustee Leadership

Departments

• Briefing — Leadership for the Ministry
• Book Review — Allocating Scarce Medical Resources: Roman Catholic Perspectives
• Book Review — Aging, Spirituality, and Pastoral Care: A Multi-National Perspective
• Book Review — Compassion's Way: A Doctor's Quest into the Soul of Medicine
• Prayer Service — Prayers of Leaders

May-June 2004

Volume 85, Number 3

Special Section

• Who Cares about Ethics?
  Five ethicists and five executives discuss some of the more difficult ethical issues facing Catholic health care today.
• What's a Catholic to Think?
  Genetic science sometimes sounds like science fiction. Still, a genomics that promotes human flourishing can extend Jesus' mission.
• The "Next Generation" Model
  At Trinity Health, ethics committee members are beginning to hold themselves responsible for measurable results.
• Stewardship and Organizational Ethics
  How can hospitals and physicians balance allocation of scarce resources, on one hand, with their duty to serve the poor, on the other?

Features

• An Opportunity for Civic Leadership
  By acting as advocates for health care reform, our ministry can also help reinvigorate democracy in the United States.
• Diversity in Catholic Health Care
  Health Progress begins a series of interviews with ministry leaders who have undertaken significant roles in fostering ethnic and racial diversity.
• A Shared Vision of the Future
  Canada's counterpart to CHA convenes a nationwide dialogue concerning the future of the ministry in that country.
• Being Who We Say We Are
  "Culture change" helps two long-term care centers in New York align practice with their sponsor's values.

Columns

• Reflections — A Tale of Two Reports
• Ministry Leadership — Organizational Ethics is "Systems Thinking"
• Communication Strategies — Don't Forget Hospital Visitors

Departments

• Briefing — Ethical Health Care
• Prayer Service — Striving for Integrity
• Book Review — Health for All: Making Community Collaboration Work
• Book Review — Improve Your Competitive Strategy: A Guide for the Health Care Executive

November-December 2004

Volume 85, Number 6

Special Section

• Patient Safety and the Ministry
  Catholic health care has committed itself to creating a "Culture of Safety"
• Quality and the "Efficacious Work of God"
  Our ministry is the sacramental presence of the healing touch of Jesus in today's world
• Contract or Covenant?
  The Gospel context of Catholic health care should ease the disclosure of medical errors
• Medical Error: Some Ethical Concerns
  The best protection against error remains the physician's traditional sense of professional responsibility
• Maine Care Center Reduces Use of Bed Rails
  St. Marguerite d'Youville Pavilion launched its initiative in 2003
• The "Sentinel Events" Study
  Between November 2003 and January 2004, the association surveyed its members on the reporting and management of medical errors
• "Mercy Meds" Boosts Safety
  An initiative at a St. Louis-based system reduces the danger of medication errors

Features

• "A Moment of Grace"
  The leaders of St. Joseph Health System discuss their efforts to prepare to become a public juridic person
• Words, Actions, Beliefs: The Mission at Work
  St. Joseph Health System's recently retired chief executive reflects on its mission and history
• Integrating Spirituality and Work
  In response to a survey, mission leaders in Catholic organizations suggest a variety of methods and tactics
• Toward Workplace Spirituality
  Ascension Health has developed its own approach to fostering spirituality in day-to-day work
• Diversity in Multi-Institutional Settings
  Leaders at Bon Secours Health System describe their efforts to promote diversity
• "Baptizing" Deceased Infants?
  Is there a Catholic ritual that chaplains can perform to relieve grieving parents?
• Allowing the Elderly to Age in Place
  In Portland, OR, a catholic-sponsored PACE site provides community-based health care services

Column

• Communication Strategies — Enhancing Provider Quality

Departments

• Briefing — Patient Safety and the Ministry
• Book Review — Thinking Forward: Six Strategies for Highly Successful Organizations
• Book Review — The Wisdom of Top Health Care CEOs: A Guide to Success in Medical Management
• Book Review — Better Together: Restoring the American Community
• Prayer Service — Prayers for Safety