SAN DIEGO — On the closing day of the Catholic Health Assembly, CHA President and Chief Executive Officer Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, called for continuing member advocacy to protect the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. She applauded the superior showing by ministry facilities in 2017 hospital quality star ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She also reported on the heartening progress made by the three priests appointed by the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to oversee St. Francis de Sales Hospital. Contributions from the U.S. Catholic health ministry financed the construction of the hospital and clinic.
Sr. Carol said CHA has agreed to partner with the Catholic bishops of California as well as that state's Catholic hospitals and parishes in sharing resources and efforts to improve palliative and hospice care for patients and their families across the U.S. Catholic moral teaching on the sanctity of life and the splendor of eternal life underlie this initiative, she said. The Pontifical Academy for Life at the Vatican has asked to partner with CHA in an effort to spread quality palliative care to Catholic hospitals nationwide.
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