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Benedictine Health System pursues long-term elder care vision |
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By Pat Norby
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Wednesday, 17 June 2009 |
 Benedictine Health System launched a care-at-home design team June 11 as part of its future vision and mission to care for Catholic elders, said Dale Thompson, chief executive officer for the Minnesota-based organization that will mark its 25th anniversary in 2010.
Thompson said BHS, which owns or manages about 40 long-term care
facilities in seven states, is trying to rethink elder care by
providing private rooms in its long-term care facilities, new
independent-style living spaces and more home health care.
“We will have arrived when we are taking care of four people out in the
community at home for every one we have on our campus,” Thompson said.
Reaching out to elders
That vision, which he expects to have in place in 2010, requires
community networks and collaboration with groups that can help
identify elders who need care.
That is why Thompson said he is excited about the call that’s gone out
for a parish model in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
through Catholic Senior Services, which seeks to coordinate and enhance
Catholic, parish-based housing and services for older adults.
“We’ve been working with Dan Gannon [CSS director],” he said. “The
question is: ‘How are we going to come together and meet the needs of
a growing number of Catholic elders with all we say we stand for in
Catholic health care, especially with care of people at the end of
life’?”
CSS has identified some parishes that are interested in working with a
parish model that may include home health care or a senior living or
care facility built on church property, Thompson said.
He added that BHS would like to explore a collaboration in this regard
with St. Gertrude’s in Shakopee, which is connected to St. Francis
Regional Medical Center, and also with its Cerenity facilities in St.
Paul.
Innovative home care
Benedictine Health System - At a glance
Established: 1985
Original group: St. Mary’s Medical Center, Duluth; St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Brainerd; Benedictine Health Center, Duluth
Sponsor: Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery, Duluth
Numbers: About 6,000 elders, 60 facilities, 40
communities, seven states (Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas)
Mission: Caring for others as Christ
Web site: www.bhshealth.org
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The care-at-home design team will offer home care for seniors that
creates continuing-care retirement communities without needing a big
campus, he said.
“Sometimes it’s about building a long-term care campus on the site of a
Catholic parish church and attaching the two,” he said. “But, it’s more
about harnessing the energy and compassion and interest and concern of
the members of the parish.”
Parishioners can help identify the elders who need help and then put innovative block nurse programs together.
“You set up a situation where you commit to people — for the remainder
of their life — a certain base level of services in the home that
radiates off a campus approach,” Thompson explained. A life-care
manager on campus would oversee the home care.
“We have been doing this everywhere else,” said Thompson of some 40
facilities in seven states that make up Benedictine Health System.
One of the greatest challenges with Catholic long-term care nationwide
is that the communities of women religious that sponsor the facilities
are shrinking, he said. About 400 of the 800 Catholic long-term care
facilities in the United States are free-standing — not connected to a
hospital, he noted.
Medicare reimbursements are stagnant or shrinking, health care costs
are rising, and buildings need to be updated, Thompson said.
“We are reaching a tipping point,” he said. “If we looked at the last
15 years of what happened with Catholic hospitals coming together and
consolidating their sponsorship, the same thing needs to happen with
Catholic long-term care or there isn’t going to be any Catholic
long-term care going forward.”
He said the BHS vision statement is about creating Benedictine living
communities “where health, independence and choice come to life.”
Townhome-style option
Another new effort that BHS plans to have in place in 2010 is a
townhome-style building that would provide private living
accommodations for up to 10 people. Each person would have his or her
own bedroom, bath and suite, with some common areas that would not be
readily accessible to the public.
“Soon, we’ll be able to offer an array of other services, where people
will be able to stay at home as long as they can, as long it doesn’t
result in isolation, poor quality-of-life or poor care,” he said.
Sister Lois Eckes, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of St.
Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, said that since BHS was created in
1985, it has “beautifully” carried on the Benedictine values of
hospitality, stewardship, respect and justice.
Its mission continues to bring the healing love and compassion of
Christ to everyone, especially those who are underserved, she added.
Sister Grace Marie Braun, who was instrumental in helping create BHS
when she was serving as prioress in the 1980s, said, “The rule of St.
Benedict speaks of the care of the sick and St. Benedict tells us that
care must rank above all.”
And, she added, the sisters continue to be closely involved, serving on
the BHS board and member institution boards, providing new employee
orientation at the monastery and daily prayer for all involved in
ministry to the sick and elderly.
Personal experience
Gary Robinson, a member of Guardian Angels in Oakdale, said his family
has been on the receiving end of that care and prayer at the Marian
Center, a BHS facility in St. Paul. His father, Edgar Robinson, lived
at the home for about two and a half months before his death in May
2007. He was 94.
“One of the nice things is they have Mass six days a week at the Marian
Center,” Robinson said. And the day that Edgar died, the priest who
celebrated Mass went up to his room and gave him the sacrament of
anointing.
“That’s a very comforting thought, and that’s one of the things I like
about being Catholic, with the Marian Center, that you always have that
available,” he said.
About the same time, Robinson and his brother, Charles, also helped his
mother, Clementine, now 98, move into an assisted-living apartment at
Marian Center. After a fall last year, she needed more care and moved
into the facility.
“My brother and me, we are there almost every day,” said Robinson, who
said they each will get Clementine from her room and take her to
daily Mass.
“It’s important to me and it’s important to my mother,” he said. “The
fact that it has that Catholic environment is very nice.”
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