Like other health care organizations in the United States, Catholic health
care facilities are developing new relationships with a wide array of partners
to extend their ministry and to improve efficiency, coordination, and quality
of care.
In forming these partnerships, Catholic-sponsored organizations may have an
advantage over others. Through Catholic Charities and other social service programs,
the Catholic Church in the United States is the largest provider of human services.
In addition, the church's network of almost 20,000 parishes enables health care
organizations to reach into communities where little infrastructure exists.
The current movement toward integration of community-based health and social
services creates opportunities for church-sponsored organizations to work together
as never before.
Health Progress publishes an ongoing series of case studies of such
partnerships, hoping they might serve as models for those creating integrated
systems of care. These case studies of partnerships between Catholic health
care organizations, Catholic Charities agencies, and other groups were prepared
by the Catholic Health Association as part of New Covenant, an initiative designed
to promote collaborative efforts of the Catholic health ministry at the national
and regional levels.
Here is another case study. Health Progress will present others in
future issues.
If your health care organization is involved in a similar
collaboration, we would like to know about it. Please contact
Julie Trocchio by phone
at 202-296-3993.
St. Paul's Caritas Health Ministry
Flushing, NY
Organizational Structure
The program is sponsored by a church committee composed of local health care
professionals and others. The committee's chairperson is also a member of the
board of Catholic Charities of Brooklyn, NY.
Goals of Affiliation
The program was established to provide holistic health care—care that is spiritual
as well as physical and mental—to people, especially poor Korean immigrants,
who otherwise might not have access to it.
The Project
St. Paul's, which today has a congregation of some 7,000, was created nearly
30 years ago in the borough of Queens by a half-dozen immigrant families from
South Korea. Its pastors have always encouraged parishioners to take a broad,
holistic view of ministry. For instance, a church-sponsored credit union helps
new immigrants start small businesses. Since its early days, the church has
held health screenings; these eventually took formal shape as the Caritas Health
Ministry, a committee of the church.
The ministry, chaired by a church member who is a retired physician, holds
a screening clinic on church property on the first and third Sundays of each
month. The clinic is open to people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. On
average, 10 to 15 people attend these sessions.
The clinic's staff takes medical histories, blood pressure readings, and blood
and urine samples. Patients then return two weeks later to discuss the laboratory
results with the staff. (Staff members seek out those who fail to return.) Patients
with insurance are referred to their treating physicians; the uninsured and
indigent are referred to Health Reach New York, a volunteer organization based
in Queens, and other medical facilities.
The ministry's eventual goal is to turn its screening clinic into a community
health center. "Religion should be more than celebrating Mass and then going
back home," says the ministry's chairman, who notes that from 200 to 300 adults
(along with many children) are baptized at St. Paul's each year. "Caritas Health
Ministry is part of the small Catholic Korea we have created in Queens."
Governance Structure
The committee, composed of church members, includes physicians, nurses, and
nonmedical volunteers.
Staff
The ministry is currently staffed by 15 physicians, 20 nurses, and 10 young
parishioners who perform clerical duties.
Budget
Labor is all voluntary. Funding for the clinic's other needs, primarily medical
supplies, is provided by the church.
Effect on Community
The program is vital to Queens' large Korean immigrant population, especially
to the young women who work in local chemical and metallurgical plants.
Contact:
Simon Young Cho, MD
Chairperson, Caritas Health Ministry
St. Paul's Korean Catholic Chapel
and Center
Flushing, NY
718-846-6161
Practical Advice
Health ministry is not the same as holding health fairs. Health ministry
requires conscientious follow-up, without which people tend to fall through
the cracks.
Copyright © 2002 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
For reprint permission, contact Betty Crosby or call (314) 253-3477.