SSM Health Names New CEO
Laura Kaiser, Chief Operating Officer at Intermountain Healthcare, will be the new President and Chief Executive Officer of SSM Health in St. Louis, the HealthLeaders Media reports. Kaiser received this position after President and CEO Bill Thompson announced his retirement in 2016. SSM Health is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system with a 20-hospital health system and 60 outpatient care sites in four states.
Mercy and St. Anthony’s Announce Affiliation Plans
“Mercy and St. Anthony’s Medical Center in St. Louis have entered into a definitive agreement providing for an affiliation between two of the region’s leading health care providers. Leaders, board members and physicians from both organizations are working through the process of finalizing the details, with the goal of completing the agreement this spring,” reports Mercy. Mercy is a health system with 43 acute care and specialty hospitals and more than 700 physician practices and outpatient facilities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. St. Anthony’s Medical Center is the third largest medical center in the St. Louis, Missouri, area, with 767 licensed beds, 3,500 employees and nearly 670 medical staff members.
Ascension Names Cleveland Clinic Exec as New Medical Group President
“Ascension has named Dr. Joseph Cacchione, a former Cleveland Clinic executive, president of its provider organization,” according to Modern Healthcare. The Ascension Medical Group is a network of 6,500 employed providers across 16 states and a part of Ascension, the nation’s largest not-for-profit hospital company. Cacchione most recently served as Chairman of Operations and Strategy at Cleveland Clinic’s Heart and Vascular Institute.
Prayer Huddles: A Partnership Between Nursing and Spiritual Care
“Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo, New York, part of Catholic Health System, is 18 months into its pilot project to integrate relationship-based care into everyday clinical practice, focusing on caring and compassion as essential features,” Catholic Health Association of the United States reports. The project involves a chaplain and a nurse leader conducting spiritual care rounds, which focus on the nursing staff’s foundational relationship with self through spirituality. The hospital believes that this intentional focus on living its mission “to reveal the healing love of Jesus to those in need” will not only strengthen relationship with colleagues and patients, but also have a direct positive affect on patient outcomes.
Planning Commission Approves Adventist Health Headquarters
Adventist Health is a step closer breaking ground on its new headquarters in Roseville, California. According to the Roseville & Granite Bay Press Tribune, “the Roseville City Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve an environmental report and permits for a 275,000-square-foot, five-story headquarters for Adventist Health, which will be located on a 26.7-acre site at North Sunrise Avenue and Eureka Road.” Construction on the $100-million project is slated to begin this spring. Adventist Health is a faith-based, nonprofit integrated health delivery system in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. The system consists of 20 hospitals, more than 260 clinics, 15 home care agencies, seven hospice agencies, and four joint-venture retirement centers.
