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The Catholic Role in Health Care
This month, members of the Catholic Health Association gather in Chicago to reaffirm the Catholic role in health care. But Sister Carol Keehan, D.C., says we all should be involved.
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FORTY-SIX MILLION Americans are without health insurance. Eighty percent of those uninsured are working one or two jobs and still can’t get health insurance. A study four years ago by the Institute of Medicine showed there are 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year because people lack insurance. That’s 49 people a day. And the majority of those uninsured are natural-born American citizens—not immigrants, as many believe. And, unfortunately, the list goes on. Those facts and the people they represent are the everyday reality of Sister Carol Keehan, D.C., president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association. They are why she has devoted 35 years of her life to health-care issues. They are why she is “platinum on three airlines and silver on two others” as she travels across the country, speaking to anyone who will listen about the need for better health care for all Americans. And they are why you will find her testifying before Congress on this issue. They are also why Sister Carol spoke with St. Anthony Messenger by phone late last year from her office in Washington, D.C., about the current state of health care, why it needs to change and why Catholics are playing such a big role. She says statistics like those above—and the people behind them—“drive so much of what we work on every day, trying to keep some kind of safety net intact for these people who are under such stress until we, as a nation, can deal with this problem appropriately.” In a speech last year at the Catholic Media Convocation in Nashville, Sister Carol lamented the fact that those 49 people who die unnecessarily every day do not die from incurable illnesses or mistakes. Instead, she said, “They die because when they have a little blood in the urine they can’t get checked by a urologist or an internist. They push fluids or do some homegrown treatment. These are families who have to wait till they have tried over-the-counter remedies and their children become much sicker before they risk going to the emergency department.” Sister Carol says there are also quite a few other issues that she and the association are addressing, among them, the complexities of insurance and a decline in health-care personnel. “These jobs are vocations. Giving people the conditions in which to do their jobs well is an imperative. And that often means enough money for just salaries and benefits,” she says. An aging population, with people living longer, is also presenting a challenge for the health-care industry, according to Sister Carol. "We’re going to have many more older people. We’re going to have many more technologies that will help them into the future. It is going to be important that, as we talk about the dignity of the elderly, we back that up with services that are worthy of their dignity.” Finally, she says, as Congress examines the tax-exempt status of not-for-profit hospitals, those hospitals “will have to explain our mission and the understanding of our mission to the public.” It’s no wonder, then, why she laughs when asked if she ever has anything resembling a typical day. SPONSORED LINKS
For Sister Carol, the role of Catholics in the health-care industry is an absolute necessity. In fact, she says, it’s a response to the gospel. “The Church has a long history of being with people when they’re needed and some of those key times are around health-care issues,” she says. “It’s one thing to say I believe in the dignity of life and I don’t think you should have an abortion. But if you don’t offer quality maternity care and quality pediatric care, if you don’t get out there and advocate for job training and Medicaid coverage for women, it’s just talk. And so for credibility the Church has to be out there.” She continues, “You can’t just say, ‘I think we should not have euthanasia.’ We have to be out there leading in support programs of care for the dying and having them available for people who need them. “So, quite frankly, it’s critical to the Church’s faithfulness to the gospel that we are in the works of mercy and in them in a competent and compassionate way.” Sister Carol is the ninth president of the Catholic Health Association (CHA). She took on her current role in October 2005 after devoting more than 35 years to working in the health-care field. She joined the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul after earning a nursing degree in 1964 from DePaul Hospital School of Nursing in Norfolk, Virginia. Over the years she has served on numerous hospital boards and held influential roles in the governance of a variety of health-care, insurance and education organizations, and been on a number of committees of the U.S. bishops. Prior to her position with CHA, she was the board chair of Ascension Health’s Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, Florida, after spending 15 years as the president and CEO of Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. The Association began in 1915 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Catholic Hospital Association of the United States and Canada. It was formed as a way for Catholic health ministry leaders to respond to technological advances that were changing health-care delivery in the United States. They wanted to make sure that, in the face of those advances, the ministry was able to maintain its mission and identity. In 1929, the organization moved to St. Louis, where it is still located. It opened an office in Washington, D.C., in 1976. It is run by both religious and lay men and women. CHA’s members comprise the nation’s largest group of not-for-profit health-care sponsors, systems and facilities. The ministry exerts itself through advocacy and by establishing clinics and other resources for those living in poverty. “If you look at the history of Catholic health care, we’ve come into communities for the most part because there’s been a need,” says Sister Carol. “We came because there was no one to care for people and the bishop asked an order of sisters to come in and start a hospital. And so we’ve always looked at what was the need and what appeared to be the best way to fill that need.” And Catholic health care is certainly filling that need. According to CHA’s Web site (www.chausa.org), one in six patients in the United States is cared for in a Catholic hospital each year. There are 615 Catholic hospitals and 62 Catholic health-care systems in the United States. Catholic health-care organizations are present in each of the 50 states. “It is always our goal to be a healing ministry in the name of Jesus, following gospel precepts,” says Sister Carol. “So it is really important that our health care always be ethical and always be respectful of the dignity of life, whether that’s in an unborn person or a severely demented elderly person or anywhere in between.” Of course, the issue of Catholics and health care does not come without its challenges. One of those is mergers between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals. Sister Carol says there are many reasons for such mergers, such as finding a way not to duplicate services or specialties. Often two hospitals cannot sustain themselves as separate entities. But no matter the reason, she says, mergers are not taken lightly. “There’s usually a lot of study and a lot of effort to make certain, first of all, in the Catholic hospitals’ situation, that the ethical and religious directives can be followed. “And secondly, there’s a lot of effort to talk about the culture that they want to have and to try to bring the best of both cultures and show a cooperative spirit as opposed to, ‘It’s our hospital; we’re just going to have our own independence, no matter what.’ “There is a challenge to diluting your identity if these things are not done with great care,” she admits. “On the other hand, when they are done with great care, there is the potential to deepen and expand your identity or share it with more people. But it should always be done after great thought and prayer and a lot of study.”
And then there are the challenges new technology brings to the table. Sister Carol mentions issues such as appropriate care for the dying, including pain management and nutrition and hydration, and larger issues such as stem cells. She says that, while “we want to be part of advancing the quality of health care, of stamping out diseases and genetic conditions and being able to replace or repair damage that’s been done by accidents and things like that,” it must be done “in a manner that is compatible with the dignity of the children of God.” The challenge, she says, is “explaining our position in a way that continues to reflect our care for the patient and our compassion, as well as our desire to be part of medical advances.” It is, Sister Carol says, a balancing act. “We always want to be welcoming of new technology, new inventions, new discoveries that will help us advance the care of the People of God. But on the other hand, we need to be certain that every technology and every discovery is compatible with the dignity of the People of God. “And sometimes that takes thinking out loud, theological reflections, clinical reflections, close collaboration with the bishops of the United States and with the Church in Rome. Sometimes that’s not as straightforward as we would like, but it’s always the right thing to do.” So how do Sister Carol and the CHA keep on top of all of these issues? “You’re making an assumption that we do manage to keep up with it, which is very generous of you,” she says graciously. The answer, she believes, is collaboration. “It’s why we need to pool all our resources. It is a huge, overwhelming problem and it does take our best efforts every day, but it also takes the best efforts of other hospital associations, of the bishops, of the Congress—all are members. Other Catholic organizations have been very helpful. “And so when we look at these problems and break them down, we tend to use a combination of members’ strengths for input. We’re going to have to do a lot of care and feeding of health care if we want to have the kind of system that Americans want.” On a personal level, Sister Carol finds her job and the collaboration that goes with it very rewarding. “I really get a chance to meet some of the finest people in Catholic health care across the nation. I get to get an up-close look at what they’re doing and the creativity they’re showing, at the challenges they have to wrestle with. I get to talk to a lot of people who truly care about what goes on in this nation. And that’s really wonderful.” She considers it a privilege to be able to work with Congress, the White House, Catholic bishops in the United States and, with less frequency, the Vatican, as well as other idea-sharing forums. “I’m quite frankly very, very fortunate to have this position and to advocate for the future of Catholic health care because, if you look at what Catholic health care has contributed to this nation, just looking at the United States, it’s absolutely a breathless contribution to the development of this nation. It would be terrible to lose that,” she says. But Sister Carol knows there is still much work to be done. And she promises that she and the Catholic Health Association will keep doing their part. “Advancing the agenda of health care—affordable, quality health care for all Americans—is critically important to me,” she says. But CHA also cannot do it alone. Finding a solution is a job for all Americans, she says. “They need to be demanding of their politicians. They need to be constantly raising this issue that we need quality, affordable and accessible health care for all Americans and we need it soon. “We are the only First World country, the only industrialized country that doesn’t cover all our citizens. I think we’re as smart as any other nation, as creative, and as compassionate, and I believe that we can and will find a solution to this that is worthy of the dignity of the American people.”
Susan Hines-Brigger is an assistant editor of this publication. With three young kids, she and her husband are very aware of the importance of health insurance. |
