CHA offers resources for National Hospice and Palliative Care Month

By KIM VAN OOSTEN

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. CHA and the Supportive Care Coalition have partnered to create several free resources that CHA members and others can use to help raise awareness of the essential role hospice and palliative care play in the delivery of wholistic, compassionate care.
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Product derived from pig cells is scaffolding for regenerative tissue growth

Surgeon practicing at SSM Health academic medical center is developing applications for the technology

By COLLEEN SCHRAPPEN

When Andrew Oberle was brought in to SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in 2012, he had suffered almost unimaginable trauma. While working at a chimpanzee sanctuary in South Africa, Oberle, then 26, was attacked by two male chimps.

He was torn virtually limb from limb, losing most of his fingers, his nose and both of his ears, and large portions of his scalp, feet, arms, legs and buttocks.

His initial treatment was at a small hospital in Mbombela, formerly Nelspruit, South Africa.
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Ascension builds momentum on health equity

Effort addresses social determinants of health for vulnerable populations

By JULIE MINDA

To improve population health and health care outcomes in the communities it serves, St. Louis' Ascension Healthcare is undertaking a systemwide effort to make health care more equitable. The system is addressing social determinants that impact people's health and longevity.
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CHI, Dignity Health create data platform for precision therapies

By BETSY TAYLOR

A little over two years ago, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health launched the Precision Medicine Alliance as a 50-50 joint venture. The systems promised to pool brainpower and capital to build the largest community-based precision medicine program in the country.

The Precision Medicine Alliance does not treat patients directly, nor does it offer second opinions. Instead, the alliance has built and continues to expand an information platform to support community-based providers as they deliver precision medicine cancer treatment — therapies now principally available through academic medical centers.
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St. Dominic Health Services in talks to join FMOLHS

St. Dominic Health Services of Jackson, Miss., has entered into exclusive discussions to join Baton Rouge, La.-based Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. Under the arrangement, the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Ill., would transfer sponsorship of St. Dominic's to the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady congregation.

According to a St. Dominic's press release, the two nonprofit Catholic systems expect to complete the agreement in early 2019.

St. Dominic's traces its Catholic roots to 1946, when the Dominican Sisters of Springfield purchased the secular Jackson Infirmary. Today, St. Dominic Hospital is a 571-bed hospital that anchors the St. Dominic Health Services system. That system also includes a continuing care campus, a network of clinics, physician network, school nurse program, mobile care, foundation and other programming.
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Mobile market, planting programs increase food access

By BETSY TAYLOR

When health needs assessments show that access to affordable, healthy foods is an ongoing challenge in communities, health care systems and their area partners are coming up with targeted approaches to get fresh, nutritious foods to those who need it.

Recent efforts include a mobile food market, gardens for growing and then donating veggies, and a hospital-based farmers' market that has the added benefit of creating jobs for young people and giving neighborhood residents a place to get out of their homes and socialize.
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