Since CHA launched the online iteration of its Ministry Identity Assessment about three years ago, most of the largest Catholic health systems have signed on to use the platform. CHA has helped more than 170 health care facilities within those systems to complete the assessments.
Using this assessment, systems and their facilities have been able to evaluate their work — including policies, practices, community partnerships and treatment of patients and staff — to ensure they are adhering to their core commitments as Catholic health care facilities.
The tool has helped them standardize this work, benchmark their efforts alongside other Catholic health facilities, identify what needs improvement, and make and carry out plans to improve.
In a video CHA created to share the impact of the tool, Rachelle Barina, chief mission officer of Hospital Sisters Health System, said, "The Ministry Identity Assessment really allowed us to do some deep and even transformative reflection on what it really means to live the values of Catholic identity."
She added, "in addition to that deep reflection … the Ministry Identity Assessment challenged us to think about how can we live these commitments even further?"
A member need
CHA created the Ministry Identity Assessment in response to member demand. During a 2016 "Critical Conversations" gathering, CHA members — including CEOs, sponsors and mission leaders — discussed the need to maintain institutional integrity and ministry identity amid the rapid changes in health care. The group tasked CHA with identifying essential elements for a ministry identity assessment process and coming up with key performance indicators to evaluate how well a facility is maintaining its Catholic identity.
At the time that members made this ask, several large Catholic health systems already had their own internal tools for gauging mission effectiveness, but there were no standardized tools for use across the ministry.
In developing the Ministry Identity Assessment, CHA drew from the best practices of members and the expertise of task forces of ministry leaders. The assessment involves members completing a comprehensive evaluation of how they deliver patient care, carry out their operational work and make decisions. They make their assessments in light of the seven core commitments of Catholic health care facilities as delineated in the ministry's "Shared Statement of Identity." The assessments also are based on the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence. 
CHA debuted its paper booklet format of the Ministry Identity Assessment in 2018.
New and improved
In recent years, members have asked for enhancements to the tool, especially to have it available digitally.
After consultation with members and work with task forces of experts, CHA in 2022 launched the online platform and new protocols for completing the assessment. The platform guides users through all stages of what is typically a four- to six-month process. This includes pre-assessment work to educate people, gain leadership buy-in and identify the leaders and committee members responsible for coordinating the assessment. It also includes meetings to prepare people for the work, undertake it, check on progress, and meet with external experts to review it before finalization.
CHA encourages ministry systems to share widely the report generated through this process, including with sponsors and bishops and to use the report for continual quality improvement. CHA recommends repeating the process every three years.
Dennis Gonzales is CHA's senior director of mission innovation and integration, and Angela Henderson is CHA's Ministry Identity Assessment coordinator. They said leaders of systems using the tool say it's a very effective way to gain a thorough understanding of what is happening at their facilities and how well that work is aligned with the core commitments.
The online tool is sophisticated, allowing analysis of the data and multiple levels of benchmarking. Future plans call for users to be able to easily identify top performers in various categories of the assessment and receive their contact information so they can learn from them.
A significant investment
Gonzales said CHA has made a significant investment over the years into this tool and platform because "everything in a Catholic hospital is connected to their Catholic identity."
Henderson, who supports members who use the platform, said she has been hearing from them that "beyond the quantitative data being assessed, there is also great value in the conversations" that take place throughout the assessment process. "Because a broad range of professionals from across the organization are asked to serve on core commitment committees, a wide range of information is being brought to the committee meetings that not everyone may be aware of," she said.
She added that the assessment process provides opportunities for continuous quality improvement and "a formative experience that celebrates the ministry's good work and commitment to continuing Jesus' healing mission."
Ministry mission leaders say the platform has become a vital tool.
"One of the largest benefits has been the ability to standardize the work throughout the system market by market," Mark Repenshek said in the CHA video on the assessment. He is Ascension vice president of ethics and church relations.
He added that the tool also "has allowed us to … communicate to our sponsor in a way that says we are taking the idea of Catholic identity assessments extremely seriously and giving you the information you need to be able to say we can see that."
Fr. Joseph Cardone, Bon Secours Mercy Health chief mission officer, said in the video that the Ministry Identity Assessment "helped us to quantify what we do" when it comes to mission.
He added that conversations that occurred throughout the assessment process "helped us see that everything we do is related to our mission and is an embodiment of our mission."
This is the sixth article in a series on how CHA's sponsorship and mission services department is reimagining its work.
Additional reading:
» CHA's Ministry Identity Assessment is the focus of a podcast
» CHA offers prayers, prayer resources for just about any need in online library
» CHA's sponsorship and mission services department revitalizes its programming