ACHIEVEMENT CITATION
By LISA EISENHAUER
A simple, stigma-reducing approach to HIV testing at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center is lowering the rate of transmission of HIV and hepatitis C in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
By MARY DELACH LEONARD
When Sr. Doris Gottemoeller, RSM, entered religious life 67 years ago, she was drawn to the Sisters of Mercy by their wide-ranging work in education, health care, social work and foreign missions.
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SISTER CAROL KEEHAN AWARD
By RENEE STOVSKY
One of Dr. Samuel L. Ross' favorite quotations is this: "Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain the same." (St. Augustine of Hippo)
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SISTER CONCILIA MORAN AWARD
By NANCY FRAZIER O'BRIEN
John M. Starcher Jr. was in a high school history class learning about the baby boom generation when he decided that health care would be his chosen career path.
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TOMORROW'S LEADERS
By KATHLEEN NELSON
Sharp intellect, a strong work ethic, emotional intelligence, resourcefulness and enthusiasm are qualities that the 2021 honorees in CHA's Tomorrow's Leaders program have in common. Each has traveled a distinctive path to advance and secure the mission of Catholic health care. This year, the program spotlights 11 dedicated individuals, age 40 or younger at the time of their nomination, who use their exceptional talents to strengthen Catholic health care.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
When data showed that vaccine rates were low in a neighborhood of mostly Black residents compared to the rest of the mostly white St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, the Communities Disparities Council of Mercy zeroed in on those residents.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
Saint Anthony Hospital has taken to the streets to fulfill its mission of getting the community it serves on the west and southwest sides of Chicago vaccinated against COVID-19.
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By JULIE MINDA
Aaron Martin was satisfied with the success he was enjoying, the team he was leading and the career goals he was accomplishing as director of Kindle and Print on Demand for Amazon.
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A top goal is to stem distress related to cultural trauma
By JULIE MINDA
In a podcast posted by the Orange County, California, chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, high school senior Abu Iqbal describes going through dark periods when he felt his life was meaningless.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
In one scene in the documentary "Behind the Mask: Stories of the COVID-19 Pandemic," a nurse at SSM Health DePaul Hospital in suburban St. Louis talks about the toll that caring for patients with the virus has taken on her and her colleagues.
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PeaceHealth Oregon and Eugene's marathon presenter promote racial justice and physical fitness
By JULIE MINDA
When organizers and the lead sponsor had to cancel the annual Eugene, Oregon, marathon last year because of the threat of COVID-19 spread, they found a way to keep people moving.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
Two doctors who are part of a group of medical leaders in Colorado that has been jointly confronting the COVID-19 pandemic are hopeful the collaboration among competitors will continue long after the virus is vanquished.
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Trinity Health of Livonia, Michigan, has acquired a majority stake in the urgent care manager Premier Health of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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CHRISTUS Health has finalized a joint venture with Alexandria, Louisiana-based Central Louisiana Surgical Hospital to take a majority stake in the facility.
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Overseas providers in desperate need of funding, oxygen supplies, PPE
By JULIE MINDA
Mid-spring brought crisis levels of coronavirus infections to several countries around the world that were under-resourced and unprepared to ward off outbreaks and treat the sick.
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Pandemic stressors drive increased depression, anxiety, substance abuse
By JULIE MINDA
During the long pandemic, there has been widespread fear of contagion, death and grief, isolation, economic stress from job loss, emotional pain and outrage over police and vigilante killings of Black Americans and angst over civil unrest and political strife.
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Once seen as a temporary fix, remote work could become permanent option for many workers
By LISA EISENHAUER
For tens of thousands of nonclinical staff members at Catholic health systems, the COVID-19 pandemic may have brought a permanent end to work life as they knew it.
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New rules are in place to keep community helpers safe as the pandemic lingers
By LISA EISENHAUER
While she was sidelined from her volunteer duties at Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown, Kentucky, last summer, Rita Carter experienced the hospital as a patient.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
The grim experiences depicted in the movie
Toxic: A Black Woman's Story hit close to home for Kimberly King Webb, senior vice president and chief human resources officer for CHRISTUS Health.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the last year one like no other for health care workers. The scope of the illness has pushed hospitals' capacities to their limits and tested the endurance of their staffs.
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Chewelah hospital has trained about 1,000 CNAs, many of whom go on to careers in health care
By PATRICIA CORRIGAN
A nursing assistant certification program at Providence St. Joseph's Hospital in Chewelah, Washington, is changing lives, one family at a time, even during the global pandemic.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
When the first doses of vaccine arrived, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City was in the throes of a COVID-19 patient surge. At one point, patients with COVID occupied almost half its 379 beds.
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By MARY DELACH LEONARD
The premiere episode of the Good Day Ascension Newscast in January opened with photos and videos of caregivers from across the health care organization flexing their vaccinated arms in relief and celebration after receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
Jake Henry Jr. is retiring this summer from a career in Catholic health care that spans four decades.
June 30 will be his last day as president and chief executive of Saint Francis Health System, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Pope Francis has appointed Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, to membership in the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. This Vatican office focuses on health care, immigration, charitable works and climate change to promote the well-being and flourishing of the human family worldwide.
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CHA has revamped its online job board in hopes of making the site the go-to location for openings across the Catholic health ministry.
The CHA Career Center allows employers to post descriptions about open positions directly to the site, something that previously had been done only by CHA staff. Any position within a health care system can be posted.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
In her early days as a medical ethicist just over 15 years ago, Leslie Kuhnel remembers getting one or two requests per year for consultations regarding patients who lacked decision-making capacity and had no known surrogate to speak on their behalf about their care.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
At CHI Health hospitals, the Unrepresented Patient Ethics Review Process is activated as soon as a care team member (usually a social worker or care manager) identifies a patient as unrepresented.
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Ministry providers support efforts to reduce COVID's impact on American Indians
By JULIE MINDA
American Indians have suffered far worse health outcomes and experienced much higher mortality rates from COVID than Caucasians.
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By JULIE MINDA
Staff at ministry facilities that serve relatively large populations of Native Americans say that they have been aiming during the pandemic, as in usual times, to accommodate spiritual and cultural practices and preferences of their Native American patients.
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By JULIE MINDA
While most residents of Benedictine Living Community | Garrison, North Dakota, had been troubled by the visitation lockdowns that were necessary to prevent viral spread during the pandemic, a particular resident had an especially difficult time with the isolation.
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Course is increasing gender diversity in management ranks
By JULIE MINDA
About five years ago, executives at the CHRISTUS MUGUERZA system in Mexico saw that women were underrepresented in the leadership ranks of the system and its facilities and that when management opportunities did open up, very few women applied.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
The role of the Catholic bioethicist does not end at sharing theories and reviewing options on ethical conundrums, in the view of Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney.
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CHA has joined a coalition of more than 30 Catholic organizations urging Americans to get vaccinated as an act of charity and solidarity with others that will help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and build immunity against the virus.
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Big data analytics may unlock new approaches to treatments
By LISA EISENHAUER
Had there been a global analysis and mapping network for health data similar to the networks for weather data that can forecast and track major threats such as hurricanes, Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips believes the warning signs about COVID-19 would have been on radar screens much earlier.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
Zaylynn Arias came into the world with the odds stacked against her.
She arrived after just 23 weeks of gestation, 16 weeks shy of her due date and weighing only 22 ounces.
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By RENEE STOVSKY
"Climate change is no longer a distant threat," says Rachelle Reyes Wenger, system vice president, public policy and advocacy engagement for CommonSpirit Health.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
CHA and other housing advocates worry that once a federal eviction moratorium in place for most of the COVID-19 pandemic is lifted, the nation's housing crisis will hit a new peak.
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Program is focused on minority and underserved women at higher risk of poor health outcomes
By LISA EISENHAUER
A pilot program underway at Loyola University Medical Center aims to improve the process for identifying mental health needs in expectant and new mothers and to smooth those mothers' paths to treatment.
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March 11 was the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization's declaration that the COVID-19 outbreak was a global pandemic. Since then, in the U.S. alone, there have been more than 29 million COVID cases and more than half a million deaths.
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By JULIE MINDA
As employers have shut down or scaled back their businesses because of pandemic impacts, job insecurity has increased, with low-wage, hourly workers impacted most.
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By JULIE MINDA
With the onset of the pandemic, many people joined the ranks of the food insecure and social service agencies scrambled to meet the increased demand for food aid.
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By KATHLEEN NELSON
For a hospice patient living alone, the companionship and unconditional love of a pet can add a layer of comfort and emotional support at a trying time.
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By PATRICIA CORRIGAN
It can be difficult to monitor and manage patients with gestational diabetes who live in remote rural areas, but Avera Queen of Peace Hospital in Mitchell, South Dakota, has developed a telemonitoring program so successful that it has expanded it throughout the state.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
When Colorado Gov. Jared Polis asked SCL Health in January to lead a one-day mass vaccination event for some of the residents of the state who were most vulnerable to COVID-19, Lydia Jumonville, the system's president and chief executive, says there was no hesitation.
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Don Brennan died Feb. 12 at age 83. His career in health care and insurance administration spanned 40 years, with half that time in Catholic health care leadership and governance.
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Holy Redeemer Health System is changing its name to Redeemer Health and adopting a new logo.
The health system based in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, serves southeastern Pennsylvania and 12 counties in New Jersey.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
Statistics show a troubling trend for children nationwide: more of them have no health insurance.
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By LISA EISENHAUER
A membership-driven initiative being led by CHA is addressing systemic racism and its effects, both within Catholic health care and throughout the communities that Catholic health ministries serve by taking steps to end health and social disparities.
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