www.SaintElizabethOnline.com

Fiscal year 2013

COmmuNITy

Serving Our Community

OuR COmmITmENT TO

Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center strives to provide quality, compassionate care to patients and family members within the walls of our hospital, but we also extend our healing ministry to the citizens of Lincoln and the surrounding communities.

Community benefit has always been essential to the mission of Saint Elizabeth. It takes many forms in many different settings.

Every year, leaders within Saint Elizabeth talk with civic leaders, social service programs, charitable organizations and community residents to determine what health-related services and programs are most

needed in Lincoln. Then, they identify the greatest needs and develop the best solutions.

A variety of services are provided at no cost, or at a reduced cost, to people who are poor or underserved, to people who have special needs and to the entire community.

In this era of health care reform, Saint Elizabeth is committed to high-quality, faith-based health care delivered in a compassionate and healing environment. We will remain focused—as we always have—on meeting the needs of the community.

compassionate care

A Health Hub advocate visits with a community member at the Health Hub.

Saint Elizabeth Regional medical Center recognized the need to help uninsured patients find community resources and a medical home. So we worked in partnership with Saint Elizabeth Foundation and Catholic Health Initiatives to create the Lincoln Health Hub—an innovative program that connects uninsured, underserved patients with health care resources in the community.

many times people who lack health insurance are subjected to an exhausting and discouraging search through many agencies to find help. At the Health Hub, community members are assigned an “advocate” who can help them find resources that will help meet their health care needs. For example, an advocate may help a community member:

» Find a doctor/medical home

» Access free or discounted medications

» See a medical specialist

» Apply for programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), general Assistance, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), medicare and medicaid

about Health Hub

Terry’s story

Libby Raetz, Chief Nursing Officer at Saint Elizabeth and Jeanette Wojtalewicz, Chief Financial Officer at CHI Nebraska.

Libby Raetz, CNO at Saint Elizabeth and Jeanette Wojtalewicz, CFO at CHI Nebraska, talk about how the Health Hub is helping the uninsured find the right access to the right services in the Lincoln community at www.SaintElizabethOnline.com/healthhub.

Visit www.SaintElizabethOnline.com/healthhub to hear how the Health Hub helped Terry Jenks through his stage four bladder cancer diagnosis when he was in between jobs and uninsured.

heAlth huB CONNECTS THE uNINSuRED

heAlth CAreWITH

Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp is a two-day summer camp where stroke survivors and their caregivers enjoy old-fashioned camping activities, such as arts and crafts, camp songs, bonfires, games, fishing, boating and hiking.

The retreat takes place at the Carol Joy Holling Conference & Retreat Center in Ashland, Nebraska. The most recent camp, held in August 2013, included 20 couples—10 stroke survivors— and their caregivers, as well as 15 volunteers and camp staffers.

The camp pushes stroke survivors and their caregivers to try new things. It gives them the opportunity to talk to others who’ve had a similar experience, and offers them a chance to rejuvenate.

“With more than seven million stroke survivors in the united States, the camp is very much needed,” says Beth malina, stroke program coordinator for the Saint Elizabeth Stroke Center. “It’s a place for stroke survivors to go to feel normal again. To feel that

they can do the things they once did before they suffered from a stroke.”

A Personal ConnectionThe Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp was founded by John and marylee Nunley. After John suffered a stroke in September 2001, marylee decided to start a camp that would help stroke survivors, caregivers and family members enjoy two stress-free days of fun-filled activities. The first camp was held in September 2004 in Peoria, Illinois, and the program has now grown to 20 camps throughout the u.S.

Now in its third year, the Lincoln area camp is sponsored by The Lincoln Stroke Partnership— a collaboration between Saint Elizabeth Regional medical Center, Bryan Health and madonna Rehabilitation Hospital.

This year, the Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp received the Outstanding group Raising Awareness in Stroke Excellence (RAISE) Award from the National Stroke Association.

learn the signs

REWARDS STROKE SuRvIvORS AND CAREgIvERS

It is estimated that only 20 percent of people know the signs and symptoms of a stroke. And with a stroke, every minute counts. To learn more about stroke awareness and prevention, please visit www.SaintElizabethOnline.com/ stroke-center.html.

stroKe CAmpLori and Larry Obrist, stroke survivors

Bill Cox, stroke survivor

In 1998, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Nebraska’s asthma mortality rate ranked second highest in the nation between 1990 and 1995, a community task force was formed to identify how to better manage asthma in our area.

That task force is the Community Asthma Education Initiative of Lincoln, which is funded through Saint Elizabeth Foundation primarily by the Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Initiative’s coordinator, Cindy Rempe RN, AE-C, notes that in the past 16 years the task force has developed a variety of programs to empower families and health care providers dealing with asthma.

Research shows that in-home interventions are the most effective tool in helping families manage everyday asthma care for their children. With that in mind, a program called Outcomes Pathway was launched. Today, it is one of the most successful components of the Community Asthma Education Initiative.

A Pathway to SuccessThe Outcomes Pathway program is a partnership with Lincoln Public Schools and others in the community on the front line of health care, such as ED Connections at Saint Elizabeth and family advocates at the Community Action Partnership. These partnerships identify children and families who would benefit from working with an in-home asthma educator.

The asthma educators work with the families —answering questions, listening to concerns and reinforcing an action plan that is individualized for each family’s needs. They also provide supplies—including a peak flow meter, hypoallergenic mattress and pillow cover and pest identification traps—which helps ease the financial burden for families.

“We know our Outcomes Pathway program is working,” says Rempe. “Families that we are helping are keeping their doctor’s appointments and making the suggested changes to eliminate asthma triggers in their homes. And our evaluations show that self-efficacy is improving, meaning that our participants feel more capable of managing their asthma, consequently decreasing Emergency Room visits.”

OuTCOmES PATHWAy PROgRAm

Improves AsthmA CAre

Members of the Outcomes Pathway program are making a difference in the Lincoln community by keeping kids with asthma healthier. From left: Nan Nathenson, RRT, Dawn Welchoff, RRT, Paulette Kuhlman, BSN, MBA, Cindy Rempe RN, AE-C and Shane Kennett.

Outcomes Pathway member Dawn Welchoff, RRT, right, speaks with the mother of a child with asthma.

COmmuNITy Services Provided

PeopleServed

CommunityBenefit

Community Benefit for People of Low Income

Charity Care 3,906 $5,218,824

unpaid Costs of medicaid and Other Public Programs 14,247 $13,697,758

Total for Low Income 18,153 $18,916,582

Community Benefit for Broader Community

Community Health Improvement 86,184 $783,795

Health Professionals 1408 $248,035

Research - -

Financial and In-Kind Donations 681 $644,192

Other Benefits 4,295 $127,300

Total Other Benefits 92,568 $1,803,322

Unpaid Cost of Medicare 30,831 $14,686,506

Total Community Benefit Including Unpaid Cost of Medicare 141,552 $35,406,410

Once a month, cancer survivors meet to explore artistic expression through free art classes. They become absorbed in a creative process of self-expression and reflection designed to help them meet the challenges of diagnosis, treatment and beyond. The program is made available by donations to the Saint Elizabeth Foundation. Please consider donating. Your gift will contribute to our healing ministry. For more information, call 402-219-7074.

Expressions of art and hope

CommunIty BenefIt by the Numbers 2013