St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica and its parent company, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health Systems (SCLHS), have been working with the Mississippi Nursing Board and the Department of Health and Human Services to respond to the need for nurses and other staff, in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.
An initial rapid response team of four nurses from St. John’s (SJHC) traveled this week to Poplarville, Miss., to help with the dire nursing shortage at Pearl River County Hospital. The hospital is 40 miles from the Gulf Coast, and has taken many patients in from other hospitals in the region that were out of commission.
The SJHC team will serve for one week and then be replaced by a similar team from St. Vincent Healthcare (SVH), another affiliate hospital based in Billings, Mont., in turn to be replaced by another SCLHS affiliate team. These rapid response teams will fulfill a one-week commitment to answer the most immediate needs.
In conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, plans are being made to build several larger teams of approximately 25 people per team to answer longer-term needs. These teams would ideally volunteer for two-week assignments with plans for them to rotate. Teams would be comprised of staff across the System from a variety of disciplines, including nursing, physicians, respiratory therapists, and mental health professionals.
St. John’s and SCLHS are also collecting donations and matching employee contributions up to $100,000. SCLHS will direct all money collected to Catholic Charities USA and American Red Cross, to be shared equally. Each affiliate foundation of SCLHS, including St. John’s, has established a Hurricane Katrina disaster relief fund to directly receive employee contributions to this fund. Employees can also donate their paid time off.
“The need now is for continued financial support and caregivers, to help those with chronic illnesses and to replace staff who need relief,” said Mary Ellen Blakley, St. John’s vice president of patient care services. “It is anticipated that this will be a long-term effort for St. John’s and SCLHS. Because we have been thorough in our planning, we have a process in place to provide a sustained level of volunteers.”
Tags: Disasters
