Two days of work. One day off. Then two night shifts, followed by four days off. And repeat.

How you view that kind of work schedule depends on your natural disposition, your approach to life, your domestic situation and other personal circumstances. Some may find it appealing, while others may see it as incompatible with a well-balanced existence.

Either way, that kind of schedule is known as rapidly rotating shift work, and according to Dr. Dave Dedrick, it tends to be hard on human beings’ internal clock.

“Some people would look at that and say, ‘Well, the majority of that time, they’re on days,’” said Dedrick, clinical division director – medical specialties for St. Charles Medical Group. “But those two nights where the work happens outside our normal circadian rhythm puts a tax on the body, because when we’re not in line with our circadian rhythm, our body doesn’t know what to do.”

Dedrick explained the circadian rhythm: “All of these things run like a beautiful orchestra, if you will, and you’re relying on the timing of one part of your body doing something in synchrony with another part,” he said. “The circadian rhythm is the drum major that helps organize all of that, and when it gets out of sync, the wheels come off the cart.”

About three years ago, Dedrick worked with Bend Police to study how the department’s shift schedule affected officers’ sleep patterns and to screen them for sleep apnea. That work was part of a larger effort to improve the health of the unit – an effort that resulted in the introduction of a wellness program that includes yoga practice, mindfulness training and peer support.

Now, he’s doing similar work with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, whose officers work a standard schedule of – you guessed it – two days on, one day off, then two night shifts, followed by four days off. The county reached out to Dedrick last fall as part of its Health of the Force Initiative, which aims to provide tools and resources for deputies to care for their physical, mental and spiritual well-being, said Sheriff L. Shane Nelson.

“The law enforcement profession is stressful on our deputy sheriffs, and their families,” Nelson said. “I work with great teammates. We want to do all we can to improve and take care of them and their families in order to ensure successful careers in providing excellent public safety and customer service.”

Dedrick’s work with the Sheriff’s office will happen through an investigator-initiated clinical trial designed to study how rapidly rotating shift work affects conditions that can lead to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar and cholesterol levels, sleep apnea and excess body fat around the waist.

“We don’t think of police officers as being a marginalized population, but when it comes to health outcomes, they are very marginalized,” Dedrick said. “They really do very poorly. Part of it is the stress, and part of it is the sleep.”

Dedrick’s trial with the Sheriff’s office is unique in that, thanks to the officers’ schedules, each of the 19 people involved can serve as their own control. Here’s how it will work:

• First, St. Charles collected baseline health data on each officer while they were working the rapidly rotating shift schedule.
• In mid-January, about half of those 19 officers started working all days, and the rest started working all nights. They will do that for about two months and then collect the same baseline data.
• After two months, the two groups will trade shifts and collect data again.
• Near the end of the trial, Dedrick and two partners – Dr. Mark Backus of Cascade Internal Medicine Partners and Dr. Richard MacDonnell of MyMD Personal Medicine – will analyze the data and then hand it over to a statistician to “grind the numbers,” Dedrick said.

St. Charles’ Research Department is setting protocol, obtaining regulatory approvals, coordinating with patients and generally overseeing the trial to ensure the data is completely anonymous and to eliminate any possibility of investigator bias by “letting the data speak for itself,” said Noura Sall, research manager for the health system.

“Often for our trials, the recipe is written by someone somewhere else who works in a particular industry and comes to us and says, ‘Here it is, please follow it to the letter,’” she said. “This time, one of our physicians has an idea and we’re the ones helping to write that recipe. It’s fun and it’s exciting.”

Every single person reading this, I’m sure, is ready to be done with this pandemic.

I know I am. There is light at the end of the tunnel, it’s true. At the same time, we are more than a year into a reality altered by COVID-19, and I’m tired of it. I’m sure you are, too.

As always, though, I’m looking for silver linings. And there’s been a silver lining happening at the Deschutes County Fair  & Expo Center over the past month.

That’s where, in collaboration with Deschutes County Health Services and the Oregon National Guard, we’re administering doses of COVID-19 vaccine to as many Central Oregonians as we possibly can, based on available supply and the state’s sequencing plan. We believe we’ve completed vaccinating most of the Oregon Health Authority's Phase 1A and group 1 of Phase 1B, which cover local health care workers, first responders, educators, childcare providers, corrections officers and staff at long-term care facilities, among others. Since Jan. 20, we’ve administered vaccines to more than 30,000 people, including many seniors.

And we haven’t wasted a single dose. If you’ve heard otherwise, you’ve heard a false rumor. We haven’t wasted a dose, and we will not waste a dose. 

Vaccinating thousands of people is a very good thing, of course, but that’s not necessarily the silver lining I’m talking about.

The silver lining I see at the fairgrounds is one powered by communication, coordination and collaboration. I see an organized and efficient operation stood up in days by a number of smart people who are dedicated to working tirelessly for the betterment of Central Oregon. I know it took many hours of thinking and talking and planning by folks who don’t work together regularly, but who came together to bring this vaccination site to life.

Those people built online schedules and sent out invitations to sign up. They printed and hung signs and stuck tape on the floor to ensure smooth flow. They set up a registration process and a respite room. They created a temporary pharmacy out of thin air. They recruited experienced vaccinators to administer the vaccines.

We have doctors and nurses and pharmacists and patient access pros out at the fairgrounds because they know how important this is and they want to help. We have executives volunteering to spend weekend days there, just to do whatever is needed at any given moment. We have hundreds of people from across our communities showing up to volunteer, simply because they believe it is the right thing to do.

We are not the only organization involved in this effort, of course — not by a long shot. Many local entities have played a part in this process, and if I tried to thank them all, I would inevitably miss one. So, for now, I’ll just offer up an enthusiastic “thanks!” to Deschutes County for its partnership in making the fairgrounds vaccination site a success and to the Oregon National Guard for sending troops to help out. We are fortunate to have partners who are as committed to getting this vaccine into arms and ending this pandemic as we are here at St. Charles.

All of this makes me smile. And I’m not the only one. Over and over again, as educators and others flocked to the fairgrounds in recent weeks, we heard positive feedback about the operation: Easy. Fast. Professional. Safe. “It didn’t even hurt!” Even when some folks had to wait in line out in the cold, never did we hear anyone complain. The place has been buzzing with positivity.

That’s a testament to the teams that made it happen and the time they’ve put into it. Again, I want to express my sincere gratitude to each and every one of them.

Stay safe out there.

Sincerely,
Joe

St. Charles Health System is now accepting applications for four grants administered by its Community Benefit program. Here are more details on each of the four:

Alcohol misuse prevention
For organizations, programs and services that work to address the issue of alcohol misuse in Central Oregon through education, prevention, intervention, treatment and/or recovery. St. Charles has identified alcohol misuse prevention as its priority for Community Benefit through 2022. Awarded quarterly. Learn more.

Basic needs
For organizations, programs and services seeking support for providing shelter, food and/or safety, with a focus on unmet needs in underserved and vulnerable populations. Awarded quarterly. Learn more.

Sponsorship
For applicants seeking support for a community event or community fundraiser. Because St. Charles receives hundreds of requests for sponsorship, grant awards will be focused on opportunities that best align with our vision, mission and values. Awarded quarterly. Learn more.

Small grants
For applicants seeking $500 or less. Awarded monthly. Learn more.

Applications may be submitted at any time. Deadlines and notification dates are below. Requests will be reviewed quarterly in February, May, August and November.

Deadline for submission:
Feb. 1 - for notification on Feb. 28
May 1 - for notification on May 31
Aug. 1 - for notification on Aug. 30
Nov. 1 - for notification on Nov. 29

Over the past year, St. Charles’ popular Doc Talks series has covered a number of health-related issues at top of mind for people across Central Oregon, from the danger of a sugary diet and the importance of end-of-life decisions to the prevalence of pelvic floor dysfunction and the facts (and unknowns) of vaping.

Next Monday, Jan. 11 at noon, Doc Talks will tackle a topic that almost everyone is interested in: the COVID-19 vaccines. The virtual presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, and the public is encouraged to ask questions. Links to stream Doc Talks are here.

Every Doc Talk needs a doc, of course, and Monday’s event will be led by the health system’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Cynthia Maree. As St. Charles’ medical director of infection prevention services and antibiotic stewardship, Dr. Maree is deeply involved in the organization’s response to the pandemic and rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.

During her presentation, Dr. Maree will talk about how vaccines are developed and tested and why mRNA vaccines (such as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines) cannot give you COVID-19. She’ll also discuss the ingredients in each vaccine, common side effects, who should get them, whether children should be vaccinated against COVID-19, and the new variant of the virus that was recently discovered.

Dr. Maree will also address a number of common myths about the COVID-19 vaccines, and she’ll answer your questions about them.

Again, the live stream of Dr. Maree’s Doc Talk is scheduled at noon on Monday, Jan. 11. More information, including links to stream, can be found here.

When people think about St. Charles Health System, most think about hospitals, clinics, doctors and nurses. And with good reason! Taking care of Central Oregonians is what we do here, every single day.

But there are many ways to take care of Central Oregonians that don’t involve a visit to one of our facilities.

For example, did you know St. Charles has a Community Benefit program that funds services and organizations working to improve the health of the local population, with a special focus on the disadvantaged and the medically underserved?

Every three years, St. Charles — through the Community Benefit department — conducts a Community Health Needs Assessment for each of the four regions served by our hospitals. The resulting report helps guide the selection of a three-year priority for the program.

From 2017 to 2019, Community Benefit’s priority was suicide prevention. In that same timespan, we provided 143 suicide prevention trainings (including 11 in Spanish) to more than 2,500 people and implemented the reliable and valid Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale in our clinics.

We can’t tackle suicide prevention alone, of course, which is why we also awarded more than $240,000 in funding to regional organizations that are doing this important work.

That work will continue to be important, and you can be sure St. Charles will remain engaged in regional suicide prevention efforts. At the same time, we have selected a new strategic priority to guide our Community Benefit program through 2022: alcohol misuse prevention.

In a region where the production and consumption of alcohol is a prominent part of our social lives and our economy, prioritizing the prevention of its misuse may seem like a tough row to hoe. But that’s exactly why our health system’s leadership believes this is a major health need in Central Oregon. Our chief physician executive, Dr. Jeff Absalon, explains:

“Alcohol misuse is a root cause of many chronic health and societal problems — liver disease, fetal alcohol syndrome, child abuse, domestic violence and the cause of many auto accidents that damage lives. If we can reduce binge drinking, increase identification and interventions for alcoholism, and ensure that the norm for community gatherings that include alcohol is to drink responsibly, then Central Oregon will be healthier and safer.”

So, for this three-year period, St. Charles will work to develop innovative ways to improve access to alcohol-related care, increase educational opportunities and awareness, and reduce the negative impacts associated with alcohol misuse to the health of our communities. We’ll also provide grant funding to local organizations working on this issue, just as we did with suicide prevention.

Alcohol misuse prevention grants will be awarded quarterly, and applications are now being accepted. You can learn more here.

We have three other Community Benefit grants available, too: one for those providing basic needs such as shelter, food or safety; sponsorships for community events and/or fundraisers; and small grants for those seeking $500 or less. Again, you can learn more here.

Throughout 2020, we rightfully celebrated the caregivers who are risking their own health on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19. And we should continue to celebrate them.

But as the calendar turns to a new year, I just want to take a moment to highlight our Community Benefit program, too.

It may not wear scrubs, gloves and a mask, but it is an integral component of our goal here at St. Charles to create America’s healthiest community, together.

Sincerely,
Joe

For as long as St. Charles has been paying for people to swim at the Madras Aquatic Center, Dr. Shilo Tippett has seen the benefits of the program firsthand.

There was the man with severe anxiety whose nighttime swims helped quiet his unease. And the decades-long smoker who went to the pool to replace her habit, which helped her re-envision herself as a healthy person engaged in healthy behaviors.

Tippett remembers a handful of kids who felt hopeless because, unlike many of their peers, they weren’t into sports. Trips to the MAC always lifted their mood, she said. And she smiles when she recalls a group of women who, individually, felt self-conscious about going to the pool on their own.

“We gave them all passes and now they all go together – or at least they were before the pandemic,” said Tippett, a clinical psychologist at St. Charles Family Care Madras. “We have an endless number of stories like that.”

Those stories are the direct result of the St. Charles swim voucher program, which gives providers across Madras the ability to refer patients to the MAC, a popular pool and recreation center on the east side of town. There, the patient can turn in their referral, and St. Charles will pay the fee to swim – currently $7 for two hours – out of its Community Benefit budget.

The program has existed in some form for several years, but St. Charles started tracking usage more closely in July of 2019. Since then, 112 different people have visited the MAC on referral from a health care provider, said Carlos Salcedo, manager of community partnerships for the health system.

“That’s 112 individuals who, through St. Charles, have been encouraged to exercise, to improve their health and to engage with the MAC and with their community,” Salcedo said. “The cost to engage in your own community is a huge hurdle for some people, and this eliminates that and gets them out of the house and into an active and social environment.” (Note: The MAC is currently closed until at least Dec. 18 because of COVID-19. Its reopening plan is available on its website.)

According to Tippett, the swim voucher program started about six years ago, shortly after she shadowed a provider in Redmond who was referring patients to the Cascade Swim Center there. She teamed up with Dr. Jinnell Lewis, a family care physician at the Madras clinic and avid swimmer, and the two approached the MAC with their idea.

“We went in and said, ‘We want to give swim passes to people,’” Tippett said. “The MAC’s director at the time was totally open to it, and the program just took off.”

Referrals to the pool are especially useful for patients who are overweight, who struggle with other forms of exercise, or who deal with chronic pain, depression and/or anxiety, Tippett said. By eliminating the cost of MAC access, the program makes it easier for many people to exercise, to interact with others and even just to leave their home. For residents of Warm Springs, the pool also offers a replacement for the hot springs and soaking pool at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, which closed two years ago, Tippett said.

“It’s just so hopeful,” she said of the program. “I go to the pool, too, and I’m regularly running into people who tell me what a difference it has made in their lives. It’s amazing every time.”

St. Charles also sponsors the MAC through a $5,000 contribution from the St. Charles Foundation, said Marcus Thompson, St. Charles’ community advocate in Madras, and that allows the health system to hang a banner at the pool. But for Tippett, the swim voucher program is “where the rubber meets the road” in the partnership between the two organizations. “This gives us a way to directly help a patient who’s dealing with something that feels insurmountable,” she said. “What we’re actually doing here is improving people’s lives with this program.”

That’s also the goal of the Madras Aquatic Center Recreation District, which owns and operates the pool, said the group’s interim executive director, Courtney Snead.

“The MACRD is focused on holistic health, how we can be a good partner in the community and looking at our health outcomes as a whole – not just trying to get people into our pool and signed up for our programs,” Snead said. “I think this is just the beginning of a more robust conversation about health in our area and lots of opportunities for partnership, which is really exciting.”

That outlook aligns with Salcedo’s hopes for the swim voucher program. He has already expanded it to include non-St. Charles providers at Mosaic Medical and Madras Medical Group, and he is talking with MACRD officials about extending the program beyond the pool, into other rec district programs.

“What we want to do is move it out of the clinics and into the community,” he said. “We want to make this bigger and open it up more and make it even more inclusive, because the more attention it gets, the more people will use it.”

At St. Charles, the oft-repeated organizational vision is “Creating America’s healthiest community, together,” and it’s that final word – together – that is exemplified by the swim voucher program, said David Golda, vice president and administrator of St. Charles Madras.

“I have no doubt that St. Charles and the MAC recreation district have very similar missions as far as improving the health of the Madras-area community,” Golda said. “It’s certainly a natural partnership that’s already paying off, and this program is a great example of how something that seems so simple can have such a huge effect on people’s lives.”

Each year, when the holidays roll around, I like to begin reflecting on the year that will soon come to an end.

This year, that reflection will happen in the massive shadow of COVID-19.

For most of us, it’s been a long, hard year for a lot of reasons. That’s true at St. Charles, too, where planning for and responding to the pandemic has taxed our caregivers, from the front lines of patient care to the administrative and support departments that help keep the health system running as smoothly as possible.

COVID-19 has changed the way we do our work. It has rewritten our policies and procedures and forced many of our people to work from home. It made us plan for the unthinkable in ways we couldn’t have envisioned just a year ago. It took a bite out of us financially.

And it is not done.

But behind the scenes, the silver linings shine brightly. Throughout the first half of the year, I was blown away by our caregivers’ openness to change, even when it came quickly and without warning. Day after day, our teams adapted to rapidly evolving circumstances, often putting in late nights and/or extra hours to do so.

Faced with shortages of masks, gowns and other protective equipment, our caregivers scoured the global supply chain for more, and our community hand-sewed and donated over 10,000 masks to us when we needed them most. Faced with concerns about our ability to care for a surge of COVID-19 patients, our caregivers quickly assessed our facilities and our workforce and built a plan to expand our capacity if needed.

With those issues addressed, we were able to get back to the business of caring for our communities. In 2020 alone:

We improved access to care in Prineville by expanding and upgrading the Family Care clinic and outpatient rehab facility there, and opening a new Immediate Care clinic.

We started offering virtual visits (via video, phone or electronic message) at many of our clinics, allowing patients to see their provider safely and in the comfort of their own home.

We opened the new Short Stay Unit in Bend, a state-of-the-art recovery space that will shorten wait times, increase safety and improve patient flow at the busy hospital.

We earned a spot on the 2020 Healthcare Equality Index as a “Top Performer” in promoting health care equality for our LGBTQ+ community and continued expanding our outreach to the local Spanish-speaking population.

We partnered with Portland’s Oregon Health & Science University to create what is believed to be the first graduate medical education program in Central Oregon, with residents based in Madras.

We continued our commitment to playing an active role in the communities we serve by providing health education, support for those who need it, scholarships for students and events that put the “fun” in fundraising.

We revived our efforts to envision the future of our Redmond hospital campus and to give it a more defined role within our health system so that it can fulfill its tremendous potential.

We identified our next priority focus for St. Charles’ community benefit efforts - prevention of the misuse of alcohol - which will drive some of our partnerships and education work in the coming years.

We were named one of the nation’s “Most Wired” health care organizations for our use of technology to help analyze health data and achieve meaningful clinical outcomes.

And finally, we redoubled our efforts to give back to the community and support local businesses after we received so much support during the early days of our COVID-19 response.

I can assure you, that’s just a portion of the amazing things that happened at St. Charles in 2020, even in the face of a global pandemic. And I hope it gives you an idea of why I am so proud to lead this organization and its 4,500 caregivers - now more than ever.

Around here, “creating America’s healthiest community, together” isn’t just a vision statement. It’s what we do every day.

Thank you for being a part of it.

Sincerely,
Joe

Last fall, St. Charles leaders held in-person Town Hall events in La Pine, Madras, Prineville and Redmond. We served breakfast and encouraged community members to join us as we shared the latest St. Charles news and opened it up for conversation, questions and dialogue.

As always, it was fun and inspiring to get out and meet people – to hear your thoughts about your health care first-hand and to be able to share our story.

This year, of course, things look a little different as in-person gatherings are highly discouraged due to the pandemic.

While COVID-19 continues to impact the way we do things, we still believe in the importance of community conversations and are using the lessons we’ve learned from the pandemic to try something new.

It is our hope that you will join us.

At 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 19, we will hold a virtual town hall. The beginning of the program will include a brief presentation from me, Dr. Jeff Absalon, our chief physician executive, and Jenn Welander, our chief financial officer. We will review the current “state of St. Charles,” along with our COVID-19 response and recovery and some general health system financial information.

Then, we’ll move into several virtual break-out rooms. You will have the chance to register in advance and decide which community you are most interested in learning more about. Sessions in each break-out room will be led by St. Charles caregivers from Bend, Madras, La Pine, Redmond, Prineville and Sisters with time for questions and discussion.

We want to hear how you are doing, what you need from your local health care system and how we can best serve you. We also want you to understand the challenges the health care industry faces and how the pandemic has increased some of those challenges.

Please register for this event today and encourage your friends and family to join us as well.

We are looking forward to a fun, informative and community-building night.

Sincerely,
Joe

St. Charles Foundation’s annual Saints Gala is going virtual this year, and you’re invited to attend!

Please join us for a free live webcast at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13. Register early and then log on to participate in live and silent auctions, plus a “choose your vacation” raffle.

The virtual gala is raising funds for a St. Charles Behavioral Health program called “Stop the Revolving Door” that would provide extra support to patients and potential patients of all ages as they move through the behavioral health care system.

The event theme is “Virtual Tropical Vacation,” and participants can win prizes for taking creative selfies in tropical gear and then posting them with #saintsgala2020. Make an evening of it and order a catered dinner to be delivered to you the day before the event.

For more information and to register for the event, visit the Saints Gala site.

You can also follow the Saints Gala Facebook page.

As veterans’ transition to the end of life, they can be jarred by some of their most traumatic experiences of war.

St. Charles Home Health and Hospice Care Bereavement Coordinator Sue Coyle has watched them struggle. She recalled one patient who was highly distressed and agitated.

The patient’s nurse knew about his military service history, that he had post-traumatic stress disorder, that he was averse to any physical touch. She skillfully coached his other caregivers to approach him quietly, and use soft, gentle language.

“That comes from experience with working with veterans and being educated,” Coyle said. 

And it is why St. Charles Home Health and Hospice Care is a partner of We Honor Veterans, a nationwide program aimed at caring for and honoring those who have served when they reach the end of life. 

A program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs, We Honor Veterans recognizes the unique needs of America’s veterans and their families. The program provides educational tools and resources to organizational partners such as St. Charles, increasing their capacity to serve veterans.

“We recognize there are so many veterans who die in our community and aren’t connected with the VA at time of death,” Coyle said. “So, how do we as a community make sure we care for them in our health system?”

There are five levels of partnership in We Honor Veterans, and for many years St. Charles Home Health and Hospice Care was a Level 1, Coyle said. Recently it achieved a Level 2 designation, which means “the organization is beginning to develop a program directed towards veterans that involves intentionally educating our staff and intentionally educating our volunteers.”

That includes using the We Honor Veterans Military History Checklist at admission to St. Charles Home Health and Hospice Care. The checklist prompts a conversation about veterans’ backgrounds, including the branch of military and war era they served in and whether their service included combat and dangerous or traumatic assignments. It also helps identify whether they’d prefer their caregivers have a military background and the VA benefits they may be eligible to receive.

“It’s a very simple document,” Coyle said, “but it opens the door to better understand our veterans and where they served, and importantly, what VA connections do they have and what VA connections are they able to take advantage of?”

For those veterans who desire it, their service can also be honored with a ceremony in the comfort of their home, Coyle said. Usually presented by a social worker and chaplain, the “beautiful, simple but lovely service” includes a certificate thanking the veteran for his or her service and an American flag pin.

“To the extent the veteran wants recognition, we make sure we fulfill that,” she said. “We’re giving them the respect they’ve earned. Some people don’t want a lot of show, but we make sure they know that we know so we can be most respectful to them. And that respect translates into more compassion for them.”

Wes Moldogo, a St. Charles’ hospice chaplain and inpatient liaison, said a significant number of the patients he sees are veterans from the Korean, Vietnam and Cold War eras. 

Many did not access VA counseling services like some of the younger veterans do and share “unique spiritual themes” related to their time in the service.

Moldogo, who also actively serves as a captain in the U.S. Army and is a chaplain for the 2-162 infantry regiment based in Springfield, Ore., said not only do some of the veterans still suffer from PTSD, but also they feel their service was undervalued once they returned to the United States. 

“Many Vietnam veterans were told they didn’t win and therefore undervalue their service,” he said. “And many Cold War veterans undervalue their service because they weren’t in combat like other campaigns.”

Through its partnership with the We Honor Veterans program, St. Charles Home Health and Hospice Care’s goal is to make veterans feel appreciated, he said.

“It really is valuing [their] service and coming to a sense of closure with that, and our hope is that it’s positive. Sometimes they don’t get that, but the fact they get something meaningful in their lives—that’s what we’re going for here,” Moldogo said.

Laurie Jackson, St. Charles Home Health and Hospice Care administrator, said as St. Charles’ partnership with We Honors Veterans matures, the more broadly the program will be implemented throughout hospitals and clinics and the more tightly linked the health system will be with other community organizations that serve veterans. 

The hope is that expanding the program will further benefit veterans, she said, as studies have shown that on average veterans spend one more day in the hospital than non-veterans due to complicated diagnoses and insurance coverage.

“The more we can work as a system to respect and engage with our veterans and recognize we have a veteran who is a patient, the quicker we can address those issues and move the bar so the veteran is spending fewer days in the hospital than the non-veteran,” she said.

Ultimately, Jackson said, it is St. Charles’ goal to achieve a Level 5 We Honor Veterans designation by 2026, an acknowledgement that the organization has integrated best practices for providing end-of-life care to veterans.