To Serve the Poor

One Book, One Association

2012 National Conference

Regular Features

Healing Tree

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By Susan Oldrid

Saint Anne’s Hospital, a 160-bed community hospital, founded by the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation, has cared for the most vulnerable residents of its community for over 100 years. Today, these residents are largely second- and third-generation Portuguese, with a significant number of first-generation, non-English speakers. The hospital increasingly also serves a growing Thai, Cambodian and Hispanic community. In addition to a busy emergency department, and a full range of inpatient services, the hospital provides outpatient services that include behavioral health, pain management; ambulatory surgery, women’s health services, wound care, and a regionally recognized oncology program with a team of physicians affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

In November 2010, Caritas Christi Health Care, of which Saint Anne’s Hospital was a member, completed its sale to Steward Health Care, a subsidiary of Cerberus Equity. The completed transaction resulted in funding of operations and significant capital projects, including upgrades to Saint Anne’s emergency department and operating suites, as well as construction of a medical office building on its grounds.

Initially, Saint Anne’s transition generated questions about the ability to sustain its mission of serving vulnerable populations. However, Steward’s commitment to maintaining our Catholic identity and to continuing to provide established levels of free care for the uninsured, community benefits and pastoral care, combined with a deep-rooted commitment from Saint Anne’s staff and senior leadership to the founding vision of the Dominican Sisters, has provided the vehicles to continue our ministry to marginalized members of our community.

From the time the Sisters opened the hospital doors in 1906, to their present-day ministry, change has presented challenges to living our Catholic mission: changes in language as new populations emerged, changes because of the aging of the population, changes created by medical advancements and technology, and changes in our ownership. The Sisters’ responses over the last 100 years demonstrate how and why mission remains our hallmark.

In 1911, the Sisters established a free clinic. Initial hospital by-laws stated that physicians could charge private patients for services, but they were to treat those who had difficulty paying for services at no cost. Today, many government and social service programs provide aid to those in need. However, Saint Anne’s continues its commitment to the underserved by supplementing these services through programs focused on seniors, health screenings for cancer, diabetes and substance abuse, and assistance with transportation, prescription medicines, and access to care.

In 1926, the Sisters opened the Saint Anne’s Hospital School of Nursing. Their philosophy was to “graduate wholesome women intellectually, morally, and spiritually equipped to assume their God-given responsibility in a changing world.” The nursing school has shaped and influenced hundreds of nurses in their way of providing compassionate care to patients. Saint Anne’s continues to partner with local colleges to provide training for nurses by focusing on both contemporary nursing practice and the legacy of compassion imparted to us by the Sisters.

In 1991, the challenges of operating as a stand-alone hospital led the Sisters to deliberate on how best to preserve the vibrancy of our mission. Their decision to affiliate with Caritas Christi Health Care in 1991 enabled them to do so.

In 2010, two significant events, the passing of the Affordable Care Act and Saint Anne’s integration into the Steward Health Care System, provided an opportunity to again explore and reassess how to change while sustaining the mission. Resources from the Catholic Health Association (CHA), an evaluation toolkit from the Public Health Institute’s Advancing the State of the Art in Community Benefit (ASACB), guidelines from the Massachusetts Attorney General, and planning tools from the VHA Foundation were helpful in this process.

Recommendations that we believe will support the sustainability of our legacy of care and concern resulted from this assessment. These recommendations will address community benefit planning, implementation, accountability, and review in a manner that strengthens the sustainability of our mission within the for-profit setting.

Other initiatives of the hospital also keep our mission focus alive. Through the Faith Community Nurse and Health Ministry Program the hospital trains registered nurses to specialize in working with faith communities. Following graduation from this nine-month program, nurses work in their faith-based community (almost always in a volunteer capacity) helping to provide connections between faith and health. They may offer health education services, help people understand complicated health issues and emphasize preventative healthcare measures in keeping with the teaching of their particular faith.

With the help of an active Multicultural Health Care Committee, the hospital is able to learn about issues affecting the health and well-being of our multicultural population, and to respond though a range of activities that allow us to provide greater access to quality healthcare for each patient regardless of race, language, or ethnic background.

The mission of the hospital is to continue its healing ministry by adhering to the “Five C’s,” the founding core values of Saint Anne’s Hospital: Charity, Catholicity, Compassion, Community, and Cultural Diversity. The history of Saint Anne’s Hospital shows that since 1906 much has changed, with one exception: the mission of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation has endured through many social and economic changes. Their mission continues to inspire us to be faithful to the vision of serving the marginalized and vulnerable population of Greater Fall River, and to maintain it as the core of all that we do.

In Fall River, MA, Susan Oldrid is vice president of mission and community partnerships at Saint Anne’s Hospital, a Steward Family Hospital.

Comments

Submitted by Kathleen Sweeney on January 5 2012 at 12:55 PM: I completed my CPE training in 2008 in Cumberland, Maryland during the time that Sacred Heart Hospital was sold and became part of The Western Maryland Health System. which in 2009 merged the two existing hospital facilities in Cumberland into one new facility. Over time the Pastoral Care Department decreased from two full time and three part time chaplains at one facility and two full time chaplains and a CPE program at the other, to downsizing the department at the new facility by employing just one full time chaplain and retaining the hospice chaplain who serves the outreach population. My response is a question: Can you report to us how many Catholic Chaplain positions have been lost to the closing of Catholic hospitals and the economic downturn of recent years? To what extent does the lack of ordination among many Catholic Chaplains negatively impact their opportunity for hiring in a very competitive market? Many thanks. Kathleen Sweeney

Submitted by Mark Lima on January 6 2012 at 8:35 AM: What an informative article that susinctly and (for a refreshing change) non-politically simply discusses the merits of a focused mission that can be both current and timeless while authentic and adaptable. Great read!! thanks!