Sister Judith Ann--OSF--April 2012
I feel so sorry for the Sisters at OSF who have lost their mission philosophy.
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For OSF’s Sister Judith Ann Duvall, health care is foremost ‘a sacred ministry’
At a time when health care executives are increasingly concerned about cutting costs and finding efficiencies, Sister Judith Ann Duvall sounds like a voice from another era. “It’s not an industry, it’s caring for human life,” she insists, referring to hospitals in general, Catholic hospitals in particular. “It has to be different. And it’s not just garnering a bottom line and market share. Those terms are offensive.” A tiny woman, she seems sweet, almost quaint in the long black habit and white-rimmed headdress of the traditional nun.
At a time when health care executives are increasingly concerned about cutting costs and finding efficiencies, Sister Judith Ann Duvall sounds like a voice from another era.
“It’s not an industry, it’s caring for human life,” she insists, referring to hospitals in general, Catholic hospitals in particular. “It has to be different. And it’s not just garnering a bottom line and market share. Those terms are offensive.”
A tiny woman, she seems sweet, almost quaint in the long black habit and white-rimmed headdress of the traditional nun. But, from the top of OSF Healthcare’s organizational flow chart, she oversees a $5 billion not-for-profit enterprise that includes seven hospitals and medical centers, more than 12,000 employees, and a network of for-profit businesses related to health care.
Ostensibly, Sister Judith Ann’s role puts her among the ranks of health care executives increasingly concerned about cutting costs, finding efficiencies, and Medicare reimbursement rates. Except for her - and the Sisters of the Third Order who own and operate OSF Healthcare - health care is first, and foremost, “a sacred ministry.”
Days before the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic hearings on the Affordable Care Act began, Sister Judith Ann discussed her views on the law better known as health care reform. She touched on other equally tough, often controversial issues confronting hospitals - competition and mergers, including OSF Healthcare’s currently blocked effort to acquire Rockford Health Systems, tax-exempt status and charity care, declining government reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid patients - and the sisters’ influence in a Catholic hospital heavily populated with lay leadership.
Sister Judith Ann speaks with a steely resolve steeped in faith and sweetened by compassion. Her most passionate pronouncements, however, always go back to caring for the sick and the poor.
“Anyone who comes to us, we want to care for them, love and care for them,” she says, “with no distinction about who the person is, their lifestyle, their ethnic background, their economic status.”
Conventional wisdom holds the sisters are merely figureheads, having long ago ceded day-to-day control, and sometimes their values, to corporate lay leaders within the “organization,” another word Sister Judith Ann finds offensive.
“We are so much more than a bunch of jobs strung together,” she says.
The reality is more pragmatic.
With only 28 members, the Sisters of the Third Order are not much larger than the original group that arrived in Peoria more than 130 years ago begging for charity. What started as St. Francis Hospital now includes OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, the largest of Peoria’s three hospitals, and a regional health care system regularly ranked as one of the top 100 integrated health care networks in the country by a health care information firm.
Many more sisters have held key positions in the past, Sister Judith Ann says. But as the system grew, they have had to place more lay people in key positions because of the small number of sisters.
“It’s important for us to recognize that part of the reality is we’re going to need more and more lay leaders in key positions,” she says. “But we also have to prepare and mentor them so they can lead our health care system in the same spirit and foundational principles and maintain our identity as Catholic health care going forward.”
The sisters have worked to embed their values into the culture of OSF Healthcare.
Sister Judith Ann is credited with creating the innovative leadership and ministry development programs that help lay leaders become what she calls a “living extension of our sisters’ heritage.”
The heritage extends to every employee through workshops and other programs.
Though none of the sisters serve as president and chief executive officer of an OSF Healthcare facility, the sisters remain a majority on key boards. Sister Judith Ann, 65, a former nursing supervisor at St. Francis, was elected major superior of the order in 2006.
She is chairperson of the boards of OSF Healthcare, OSF Healthcare Foundation and OSF St. Francis Inc. More importantly, she is one of five, all Sisters of the Third Order, on the governing board that holds reserve power over all OSF Healthcare boards.
Sisters are often referred to as a dying breed. However, the Sisters of the Third Order have received one or two new members each year. Members range in age from 32 to 99. Two of the younger sisters have been appointed to the boards so they will be ready to step up when older sisters are ready to step down. The order, Sister Judith Ann says, is preparing the laity to lead with them and preparing a new generation of sisters to replace them.
“We sisters will always retain our dominance on the boards and our dominance in the overall governance of the health care system,” she says. “That’s why we came to religious life, to serve the sick and the poor and to do it within the auspices of how God would want us to care for human life.”
Sister speak
Below are exerpts of an interview with OSF St. Francis Healthcare System chairperson Sister Judith Ann Duvall conducted by Journal Star reporter Pam Adams:
On reforming the health care system ...
“It needs to be restructured, absolutely. It can’t be sustained as it is. It has to be transformed, and we want to be one of the pieces that’s helping redesign it.
“We’ve got to get the inappropriate costs out of health care, but not at the expense of quality.
“But we can’t get to the bottom line at the expense of the poor we’re here to serve. That’s putting the back end of the donkey in front, and it’s wrong. It’s wrong. ”
on The health care reform law, or Affordable Care Act ...
“There are parts of the act we think are very beneficial and strongly support, like accessibility and increased coverage. Wonderful.
“There are some aspects we are not supportive of, like the mandate that insurance companies cover certain services we find ethically offensive because we find them an attack on human life rather than providing health care services.”
on Issues surrounding providing health care and providing contraceptives ...
“That’s something that we’ve never compromised on and never will. Not that we’re going to tell other providers what they can or cannot do.
“We would wish and desire that the respect for human life at all stages would be recognized and protected. With the pluralistic basis of our nation, we realize these things will go on with other providers. But we will not violate our conscience.”
How OSF Healthcare’s religious principles affect the planned acquisition of Ottawa Hospital ...
“When Ottawa comes into OSF, they will be completely compliant with our OSF directives. This is something the doctors and employees learn about ahead of time.
“Education programs are going on now. It’s sharing with them, not what we won’t do but the good that we want to do. That’s the true view of ethics. It’s not a list of can’t do, won’t do. It’s the good that we must do.”
On the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge to OSF Healthcare’s planned acquisition of Rockford Health Systems ...
“If we could pull those two together, we sincerely and profoundly believe we could substantially enhance quality and access to care in that community. I still believe the community is much better served with two very strong organizations that would incentivize each other, rather than three.
“That’s a fundamentally different perspective than the FTC has. But if we can make that point, it can help us set a precedent for the United States.
“If the case fails, it strengthens the FTC position that going from three to two hospitals is never good. But we think it would be so much better so it’s worth the effort to try.”
NOTE: The merger was temporarily blocked by a federal judge last week. The FTC has said the acquisition is anti-competitive and would potentially raise costs of health care services.
ON charity care ...
“We sisters want to make sure we are giving at least equal to what our tax-exempt status would save us. But we want to do more than that. We want to do all we can do and then it better be more than that. The more, the better.
“We’re (giving) over $100 million a year in absolute straight charity care across the OSF system. And that’s not Medicare or Medicaid shortfall, that’s in addition to.
“And has it harmed us? No. We’ve remained very strong financially. Doing good and doing right will never harm you in the end.”
Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com.
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