Partnerships between Catholic Charities and Catholic Healthcare Organizations
Like other healthcare organizations in the United States, Catholic healthcare 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 (see Profile of a Community Partner: Building Networks with Catholic Charities, Catholic Health Association [CHA], 1996). In addition, the Church's network of almost 20,000 parishes enables healthcare 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.
In its January-February 1997 issue, Health Progress began offering a series of case studies of such partnerships, hoping they might serve as models for those creating integrated systems of care. These partnerships between Catholic Charities agencies and Catholic health organizations were prepared by the Catholic Health Association as part of an initiative called New Covenant: A Health Ministry for the 21st Century. The New Covenant process is designed to strengthen and promote the organized expression of the Catholic health ministry through strategies and actions at the national and regional levels.
Here are two more case studies. Health Progress will present others in future issues.
If your healthcare organization is collaborating with a Catholic Charities agency in your area, we would like to know about it. Please contact Julie Trocchio by phone at 202-296-3993.
SchoolCare
San Francisco
Contact: Ann Lund
Executive Director
St. Mary's Medical Center Foundation
San Francisco
415-750-5790
Organizational Structure
SchoolCare is a collaborative project involving St. Mary's Medical Center, the Department of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Goals of Affiliation
Phase one of SchoolCare began in April 1997. Operating from a mobile medical van, a team of healthcare professionals offers primary physical, mental, and dental care services to 1,200 elementary and secondary students at five inner-city Catholic schools. In later phases of the project, its leaders hope to:
- Extend services to the students' families and to Catholic Charities clients who live in neighborhoods around the five schools
- Conduct a needs assessment and feasibility study for expanding the program into the diocese's other 74 schools
- Make the project financially self-sustaining within three years
- Create a model for the care of students in the schools of the nation's 200 Catholic dioceses
The Project
SchoolCare's healthcare team rotates the medical van among the five schools, spending a day at each location. The van operates as a satellite of the Sr. Mary Philippa Health Center (a clinic run by St. Mary's Medical Center), using the clinic's MediCal provider number and California Health and Disability Program (CHDP) provider number and St. Mary's liability insurance and medical license.
At the five schools families can schedule their children for health assessments; health and developmental histories; physical examinations; nutritional assessments; laboratory testing; identification of dental, vision, and hearing needs; mental health assessments; and testing for learning disabilities.
Students receive their treatment at the school site. Family members who want SchoolCare services for themselves can register to receive it at Sr. Mary Philippa. Prescriptions written at the school sites can be filled at reduced or no cost at Sr. Mary Philippa's pharmacy.
Governance Structure
SchoolCare is governed by an advisory board, which meets quarterly. Board subcommittees that deal with particular issues meet more often.
Staffing and Budget
The project's staff is made up of a medical director, nurse practitioner, case manager, psychologist, secretary, medical residents, and nursing students and psychology graduate students from the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution.
SchoolCare's annual budget is almost $300,000 (excluding the van, which was donated). The project is partly funded by reimbursements from MediCal and the CHDP.
Other funding is provided by grants from various local and national foundations.
Effect on the Community
Although relatively new, SchoolCare has already attracted much positive attention, especially from San Francisco's public school system.
Practical Advice - If we were starting over, we would budget for two case managers, not one.
- Start out small. Don't be overly ambitious.
Holy Family Home
Oklahoma City
Contacts: Mary Jane Webster
Director
Holy Family Home
Oklahoma City
405-521-1003
Laura King
Volunteer Coordinator
Mercy Health Center
Oklahoma City
405-752-3960
Sr. Rose Elizabeth Powers, RSM
Vice President, Mission
Mercy Health Center
Oklahoma City
405-752-3754
Organizational Structure
Holy Family Home is operated by Catholic Charities of the Oklahoma City Diocese with aid from Mercy Health Center (MHC) and other organizations.
Goals of Affiliation
Holy Family Home, the only licensed center of its kind in the state, was begun in 1993 as a place where pregnant, unwed teenagers could find a temporary home, learn parenting and other skills, and thereby escape the cycle of illegitimacy, poverty, violence, and abuse.
The Project
Holy Family Home has, on average, six 15- and 16-year-old teenagers and two babies in residence. The girls stay during their pregnancies and up to three months after their babies are born. They are required to attend high school classes while living in the home.
Along with room and board, Holy Family Home residents receive services such as the following:
- Nutrition classes, in which a volunteer dietitian from MHC teaches the residents how to shop for and prepare nutritious meals
- Childbirth classes, taught by volunteer nurses from MHC
- Breast-feeding classes, taught by a volunteer lactation specialist from MHC
Governance Structure
Holy Family Home is operated by the board of trustees of Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City.
Staffing and Budget
Holy Family Home has four full-time employees, including the director, and four part-time employees.
The home's annual budget is about $170,000, provided by Catholic Charities, United Way of Oklahoma City, and grants and donations from various organizations and individuals. MHC has, for example, given the home $5,000 a year over the past three years. The Caritas Fund operated by the Sisters of Mercy donated $22,500 in 1996-1997.
Holy Family Home is currently located in a rented building, but Catholic Charities plans to construct a new home for it in a suburb of Oklahoma City.
Effect on the Community
Through the program, many teenage mothers have escaped hopelessness and poverty.
Practical Advice - It's important to encourage people to be volunteers in projects like this--and that includes professional people, such as nurses. It's good for both the project and the volunteers themselves.