Our People - SSM Health Care

A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION BY SSM HEALTH CARE FOR EMPLOYEES, PHYSICIANS AND FRIENDS • SPRING 2010
ssmhc.com
Our People
Page 4

Our People, Our Earth
Sr. Mary Jean
“Life isn’t
a dress
rehearsal.
This is it.
You have to
make every
day count.”
Why do you come to work
For many people it’s a paycheck. For some people it’s a purpose.
Beginning on page 4, you can read the stories of “Our People.” The first ten
SSM employees and physicians are featured for their exceptional devotion to
their work.
What do these people have in common
It’s not what they do. They clean floors. They perform surgery on babies
in the womb. They work with geriatric patients. They fix complex medical
equipment. They knit blankets for patients. But no matter what they do,
they inspire others to do their best while demanding the best of themselves.
It’s not how they came to their jobs. One of them said she always wanted
to be a nurse. Another said she only became a nurse because she happened
to go with a friend taking a nursing school entrance test.
What then is the common thread They believe their work is a daily
opportunity to make things better. As one of the featured employees said:
“Life isn’t a dress rehearsal. This is it. You have to make every day count.”
What they do may not even be visible to other people. That doesn’t
matter to them. As one of the Clinical Engineering Service employees in
the “Our People” section said: “Our job is like a series of little victories all
day long.” More stories of exceptional SSM people will appear in OptimiSSM
and on our corporate Web site during the next two years.
The greatest resource we have at SSM is our people, but we also feature
a look at SSM’s efforts to preserve our natural resources beginning on
page 14. Again, the solution begins with exceptional people devoted to
a purpose. It’s hard work, it requires planning, but most of all it requires
that each of us take individual responsibility for our actions.
May God bless you and inspire you with the realization that what you
do makes a huge difference, both in the lives of people and in the preservation
of the earth.
SSM HEALTH CARE is sponsored by the
Franciscan Sisters of Mary
OUR MISSION
Through our exceptional health care
services, we reveal the healing presence
of God.
OUR VALUES
Compassion • Respect • Excellence
Stewardship • Community
CORPORATE OFFICE
477 North Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63141
Phone: (314) 994-7800
Fax: (314) 994-7900
DIXIE PLATT
Senior Vice President-
Mission & External Relations
SUZY FARREN
Vice President-
Corporate Communications
ALAN WESLEY
Corporate Publications Manager
ANNICE BARNES
Distribution & Editorial Assistant
HOW TO CONTACT US
Send questions or suggestions to
alan_wesley@ssmhc.com
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Reporters seeking additional information
should contact chris_sutton@ssmhc.com
SSM Health Care provides equal employment
opportunities, without regard to
race, color, religion, sex, age, national
origin, sexual orientation, veteran status,
or disability to all qualified applicants
and executives.
OptimiSSM is printed on recycled paper
that is recyclable.
WHO WE ARE: Missouri: SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center • SSM DePaul Health Center • SSM St. Joseph Health Center • SSM St. Joseph Health Center–Wentzville • SSM St. Clare Health Center • SSM
St. Joseph Hospital West • SSM St. Mary’s Health Center-St. Louis • SSM Home Care • SSM Integrated Health Technologies • SSM Support Services • St. Francis Hospital & Health Services • St. Mary’s Health
Center-Jefferson City • Illinois: St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, Inc.-Mount Vernon and Centralia campuses • Wisconsin: Boscobel Area Health Care • Columbus Community Hospital • St. Clare Hospital and Health Services
St. Clare Meadows Care Center • St. Mary’s Hospital-Madison • St. Mary’s Care Center • Stoughton Hospital • Oklahoma: Bone and Joint Hospital at St. Anthony • St. Anthony Hospital • Unity Health Center (North
& South)
2

OptimiSSM
A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION BY SSM HEALTH CARE FOR EMPLOYEES, PHYSICIANS AND FRIENDS • SPRING 2010
Welcome to OptimiSSM!
For you Sesame Street fans, this edition of
OptimiSSM is brought to you by the letter
“G” – Gifts, Green and Great stories.
We have a page of gift shop items from all
SSM regions, a spread on some of the green
efforts around SSM (with a Kermit the
Frog quote), and a special feature on great
people that we call Our People.
We also have three other letters to choose
from – E-H-R. This is a look at the electronic
health record from people who work with it.
And if it’s one of those days where you
just want to stand still for a
moment and gaze blankly at
something beautiful, check
out the waterfall on
the back page.
Inside this issue:
Our People
The stories and photos of
4exceptional SSM people.
12
Why the Electronic Health
Record is Better
Six different people. Six different
perspectives on how the
EHR is improving the work
and lives of people.
Green is an Important Color at SSM
From “green” roofs to “white” roofs. From recycled cardboard
to recycled snow, take a look at what we’re doing to preserve
14the earth.
On the Cover:
Maurine Free, team leader for
the emergency department at
SSM St. Clare Health Center,
Fenton, Mo. Read Maurine’s
story on page 7.
Super Carol
She swoops in and wields a giant spatula in her cam-
23paign to keep things safe.
Regular Features:
How We’re Doing . . . . . . . 16
Around SSM . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3

Our People
SSM Health Care has exceptional people, and they bring something
special to their work – themselves – their upbringing, experiences,
skills, passion and pride.
They are The Twins who take pride in the miles of tiles they keep
clean. The Nice Guy who knows what it’s like to be poor. The Adrenaline
Junkie in the emergency department. The Young Leader. The
Fixers devoted to making things work. The Safety Champion who
gets up in the morning with one purpose in mind. The Accidental
Nurse who discovered her love for Alzheimer’s patients. The Super
Surgeon. The Knitters weaving with love and compassion. The Giver
who never loses a chance to say a kind word.
At www.ssmpeople.com and in future editions of OptimiSSM, we’re
featuring these people, and many others, in videos and print over the
next several months. We are proud to call them Our People.
4

The Twins
Even before birth, the Long brothers did things together.
Kevin and Kelvin Long are identical twins, right down
to their matching glasses. They work together in environmental
services at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond
Heights, Mo., and SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s
Hospital in St. Louis, and about the only way to tell them
apart is that Kevin wears an earring in each ear and Kelvin
wears only one.
They go home together after their six-hour day shift
at St. Mary’s and sleep for six hours before returning for
a 10-hour night shift at Glennon, then back to St. Mary’s.
That’s 64 hours a week for
each spread over four days,
Mon days through Thursdays.
They spend their days
(and nights) looking down
at miles and miles of tile
floors in the two hospitals,
asking themselves if a floor
can be buffed or does it
need to be stripped and
waxed. Each square of tile
is their collective signature. “We do it right, and if we make a
mistake, we come back and fix it,” Kevin said.
Work that would exhaust most people doesn’t seem to faze
them. In fact, they’re thinking about taking on other cleaning
jobs outside the hospitals.
It’s a work ethic that came from their father, a postal worker
who did not talk much about working hard, but instilled the value
in his sons by example. “I don’t think he ever took a day’s vacation,”
Kevin remembers.
And the quality of their work is recognized by co-workers,
supervisors and patients. Pat Key, environmental
supervisor at St. Mary’s, said: “They pay attention to details, and
they are conscientious. I wish I had 10 of them.”
From left: Kelvin and Kevin Long
The Long brothers learned their job by doing it, whether it’s
deftly using their wrists to control a floor buffer that’s powerful
enough to leap out of their hands if they tried to muscle it with
their arms, or elevating the fan drying a freshly waxed floor so air
bubbles aren’t forced into the wet wax. Each element of their work
has been perfected by repetition and paying attention to finer
points like getting the right mix of floor stripper with water.
There are a few hazards. Both have fallen. “That stripper is just
like ice before you dilute it with water,” Kelvin said, laughing.
They’ve become accustomed to the eye-watering fumes from
their cleaning solutions, though they are aware others aren’t immune
to the odor’s effect and ask patients if they would be
bothered by the smell before they begin their work.
And when their work is finished, it sometimes follows them
home. They dream of working on floors in their sleep.
The Knitters
We care about you. We’re praying for you.
We’ll see you through this. This is what the
staff of the internal medicine department at
SSM St. Joseph Medical Park in St. Charles,
Mo., want their patients to know.
In 2009, the department began a prayer
shawl ministry, combining compassion
and their love of knitting to reach out to
patients having a particularly difficult
time. Two employees create the blanket at
home, offering individual prayers while they knit. Then the
other employees and physicians use their lunchtime and breaks
to affix tassels and offer their own prayers
and blessings. Since beginning their ministry,
the department has created and distributed
27 shawls, with several currently in progress.
While the staff is happy to share their
ministry, they wish only to be identified as
a department, not individually. One knitter
said simply, “Some of our patients only
identify the shawl with the person who
presented it to them. They know that there
are a lot of people behind its creation, but
they don't know who they are. And that's
OK. All they have to know is that someone cared."
Go to www.ssmpeople.com to watch Our People.
5

The Nice Guy
It started with cows.
At age 12, Carl Dodd began spending his
summers living and working on farms near his
hometown of Monticello, Wis. The cash he and
his two brothers earned on the farms paid for
their clothes and school supplies and provided
spending money for the year. So Carl rose at 5
a.m. daily, milked the cows, baled hay, drove a
combine through the oat fields, planted, performed
other chores and finished about 7 p.m.
by milking the cows again.
His education continued behind a bar.
Dodd’s parents owned a bar and restaurant in Carl Dodd
Monticello (population 800) but with eight bars
in the community, competition was fierce and money scarce. “The
hours were 8 a.m. until midnight, seven days a week,” he said. “In
the 20 years my parents owned it, they must have aged 60 years.
We were dirt poor.”
At 16, he began cooking and tending bar in his parents’ business,
listening to the triumphs and troubles of friends and neighbors
sitting on the barstools. “You knew everybody and you heard everything
about them,” Dodd said.
By age 19, Dodd was in Viet Nam (1970-71) patrolling the
Mekong Delta in a boat. Slowly motoring at night through canals
that were barely 20 feet wide and thickly lined with vegetation,
he came under fire 47 times during his tour of duty. He said, with
a hint of humor, “Hopefully, it made me a better person.”
After returning from Viet Nam, he moved to Madison, worked
three years as a private detective, and then became a bill collector.
The Giver
“Never lose a chance to say a
kind word.”
One doesn’t have to spend
much time with Amy Merten
to realize that this phrase inscribed
on her office wall is
more than a decoration. It is
clear that, for the cardiology
supervisor at the Centralia,
Ill., campus of St. Mary’s
Good Samaritan Inc., kindness
is a way of life. Merten’s Amy Merten
colleagues know her as a
happy, easy presence – quick to give a smile or lend a hand.
When she walks through the halls of her department or the
hospital, she cheerfully greets everyone she meets and shares
laughs and hugs with patients who are regular visitors to cardiac
rehabilitation.
“I didn’t look forward to my day,” Dodd said.
“We tried to collect money from people and,
if we couldn’t do that, we sued them.”
Dodd then joined St. Mary’s as a patient account
collector, with the word “collector” later
changed to “advisor” because there was a
marked difference between the way St. Mary’s
handled billing and the way Dodd’s previous
agency did. “We spend more time providing financial
assistance to patients than we do collecting,”
he said.
Dodd listens to patients and determines
their financial status. Many of the patients are
embarrassed, angry, and frightened, holding a
medical bill they cannot pay with the added
strain of their own ailment or the illness of a
loved one. They are a short step away from losing everything and
bracing for more threats, when they hear Dodd say “let’s see what
we can work out.” In most cases, the bill is written off when Dodd
discovers their income level is too low. St. Mary’s wrote off $14
million in bills in 2009 and set up payment plans for other patients.
Relief often dissolves into tears.
“Financial assistance is the best part of my job,” Dodd said.
“We’re doing people a service, and we have so many ways to help
them. I look forward to coming to work.”
Dodd has found himself in a job, where his experiences with
poverty, hard work, listening to people, understanding fear, and
what it’s like to have few options, have come together in the
most important word he associates with his job: “compassion.”
“You have to put yourself in the shoes of other people who
are doing the best they can,” he said.
What’s her secret
“I enjoy what I do,” Merten says. “For as long as I can remember,
I’ve wanted to be a nurse. I’ve always known that I want to help
people. There’s not a day that I get up in the morning that I don’t
want to come to work.”
For 24 years she’s felt this way. Merten began her career at
St. Mary’s Good Samaritan in 1986 on the surgical unit. She
quickly moved to the intensive care unit where she worked for
12 years. The last dozen years have been dedicated to cardiology.
In each of her roles at St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, Merten has
been defined by her desire to help others, both her patients and
her coworkers. She considers her six years of service on the
hospital’s mission team to be some of her most rewarding work,
especially her membership on the subcommittee for the Spirit
Fund. This fund distributes thousands of employee-contributed
dollars each year to colleagues who are facing personal crises.
“I was brought up in a very loving, Christian home. I was
taught to treat people as I want to be treated,” Merten said.
“I’ve been blessed in many ways in my life and I try to extend
the same grace and blessings to others.”
6

The Young Leader
Maurine Free is her own toughest critic. Since last May, she’s
been the team leader for the emergency department at the new
SSM St. Clare Health Center in Fenton, Mo., where she supervises
more than 50 people. Managing is a new challenge for the
31-year-old nurse.
Free didn’t expect to become a nurse at all, let alone manage
an ED. In school, she found math and science hard and figured a
nursing career was out of the question. But people encouraged
her to be a nurse; they saw something in her. And now she realizes:
“There’s so much more to being a nurse than science.” Like compassion.
Like service.
First she worked at a children’s residence and later at a nursing
home, both of which she loved, but she needed something more. So
she moved to the ED in a large trauma center and found her niche.
“The ED changes all the time,” she said. “Every day is different.”
She was a per diem nurse at St. Clare when Martha Rahm,
ED director, approached her about becoming manager.
Free was hesitant at first. But she went through the requisite
interviews and got the job. Rahm described what she wanted: “Your
job,” she told Free, “is to take care of the people who take care of
the people.” Free was up for it. She started as manager in May 2009.
The first six months were really hard. Not only was St. Clare
a brand new hospital, 50 new employees had been hired in the
ED since March 31. People didn’t know one another or where to
find things. Processes were new. It was up to Free to make the department
gel; she found she couldn’t do it overnight.
James Reedy, a friend and director of nursing, Neurosciences
Institute at St. Clare, put things into perspective. “You used to be
an expert,” he told Free. ”You were the best bedside nurse. This
is something new, and you expected to be great at it right away.
Give yourself some time!”
She took his advice, along with that of Rahm, who said running
a department is “like figure skating. It looks easy, but it’s not.”
In early 2010, the department began to gel. Free spends a lot
of time walking around, rounding on patients and her staff, and,
when things get busy, stepping in to support the bedside nurses. She
would never ask anyone to do something she wouldn’t do herself.
One big focus for Free is raising staff awareness that they are
constantly onstage. “Patients listen to everything that’s going on,”
she said. “They’re watching us, and they’re listening to what we
say. The only time we’re offstage is in the break room.”
She demands of herself that she give 100 percent — 100 percent
of the time. “I went into nursing to make a difference,” said Free,
who works hard to meet the needs of her staff.
“I’m an optimist,” she said. “People who enjoy their work take
better care of patients.”
Maurine Free
Go to www.ssmpeople.com to watch Our People.
7

The Adrenaline Junkie
“ER people are adrenaline junkies. What’s
going on now won’t be going on 30 minutes
from now. I thrive on organizing chaos.”
Kris Mims has been an emergency room
nurse for 40 years. And Mims can’t imagine
being anywhere else, although the years may
have tempered her a little.
“You start out thinking you’re going to save the world, and
then you realize that all you can do is the best you can,” she said.
“You can’t change the world, but you can make things better.”
Mims is director of the Emergency Department at
SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles, Mo. She’s also been
at DePaul, St. Mary’s (St. Louis), and a host of other EDs in St.
Louis and elsewhere.
She likens her ED memories to a scrapbook filled with pictures
of people she can see just as clearly as if they were standing in front
of her. She remembers a lot of the sad things. The worst: Child abuse.
But there was the time the trucker drove himself to the ED
with severe chest pain.
He coded, received great care and a month later, showed up in
the ED to say thank you to the staff for saving his life. She tears
up at the memory.
Mims’ mother, who was a nurse, inspired her to become one.
“I grew up listening to her stories,” she recalled. As a young
nurse, Mims wanted to go to Viet Nam. Instead, she met
her husband, and her life took a different course. They
have two children, one of whom is also a nurse.
Mims started as a staff nurse, and early on asked herself
if nursing was a job or a career. When she answered that
question, she went back to school first for her bachelor’s
and later for her master’s. The fact that she’s done it all
serves her well in this role. She is able to juggle volume
and knows to involve her staff in decisions that affect them.
All these years in the ED have given her a certain outlook on
life. “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal,” she said. “This is it. You have to
make every day count. In the ED, you learn that quickly. I’ve seen
people who kissed their loved one good bye and never saw them
again. People take life for granted.”
Her wisdom extends to the smallest things. Take the time a
homeless man arrived in the ED with a cast that had been on for
way too long. Once removed, the cast contained all sorts of “crawly
things.” And the smell was bad. Mims suggested a simple solution:
“Keep a jar of Vicks around and put a dab of it under your nose.”
This year the St. Joe ED is expanding, which is good news,
though juggling the space during the interim will be another
challenge. But Mims is up for it.
“I can’t imagine myself anywhere else.”
Kris Mims
8

The Fixers
Throughout SSM Health Care are 65,000 medical devices
— from relatively simple suction units to sophisticated,
radiation-delivering linear accelerators.
There are MRIs, ECGs and CT scanners; colonoscopes,
bronchoscopes and endoscopes; and infusion
pumps, infant warmers and intravenous poles. Just about
everything a patient does at SSM hospitals from Wisconsin
to Oklahoma is tied to a medical device in some way. So who
keeps all these devices running, purring, humming, beeping,
blinking, clicking, flashing
About 110 employees of SSM’s Clinical Engineering Service
(CES), that’s who. CES, a department of SSM Integrated Health
Technologies, maintains the devices that monitor, diagnose and
treat patients.
Thurmond Waits, BMET II, St. Mary’s Health Center, Richmond Heights, Mo.
Ever wonder what happened to some of those intellectually
curious kids who dissected their families’ VCRs and radios to see
what made them tick, whose hobbies were tinkering with cars
and building robots Some of them work for CES today.
They fix things.
“We like what we do. We love what we do,” said Russ Storck,
who restores old tractors away from his job as CES operations
manager at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond Heights,
Mo. “That’s why I’ve been here for 32 years.”
“Our job is like a series of little victories all day long,” said
Jerry DeGeare, BMET II at St. Mary’s. (BMET stands for biomedical
electronics technician). “Some days the problems are
much larger than other days. But basically that’s what we do.
We solve problems.”
CES employees are on call 24-7. Though upkeep of the more
sophisticated equipment, say the da Vinci surgical system, is covered
by service contracts, the vast majority of devices are serviced
by CES.
“By doing this, we’re saving thousands of dollars,” said Frank
Bodenschatz, BMET III, SSM St. Clare Health Center, Fenton, Mo.
System-wide, the savings add up.
Ron Sanders, CES operations manager,
SSM St. Clare Health Center, Fenton, Mo.
“We can maintain it
cheaper, faster and better
because we’re on-site,”
said Heidi Horn, vice president
- CES, who noted
that the department saved
more than $1.3 million in
contract costs between
2007 and 2009.
"CES' technicians are
very smart and they take a
lot of pride in their work
and the value they provide,” Horn added.
To keep the devices running, CES employees stay abreast of
the latest technology by undertaking regular training, said Ron
Sanders, CES operations manager at St. Clare.
Once upon a time, the technology wasn’t so high tech, added
Sanders who has worked in hospitals for 43 years. There were
on-off, high-low buttons.
“It was simpler. It was easier,” Sanders said. “But the technology
has made things a lot better for the patient.”
Many SSM caregivers are familiar with CES’ handiwork and
know the department’s members by name — their customer satisfaction
ratings are high.
But the department’s deeds aren’t always evident to patients
who may not give much thought to who’s maintaining their
blood pressure cuffs. Often the only signs they’ve been on the
scene are the yellow, initial-bearing labels they affix to devices
they performed routine maintenance on.
Keeping the equipment running for the sake and safety of patients
is always their No. 1 priority, said Joyce Perkins, BMET III
- lead tech at St. Mary’s.
“I want to do quality work and I want to make sure our patients
get the best care they can,” Perkins said.
Jerry DeGeare,BMET II at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center, Richmond Heights, Mo.
Go to www.ssmpeople.com to watch Our People.
9

The Super Surgeon
Dr. Ed Yang says children are angels in disguise, and
when they get better, it’s a joy to watch.
Yang is a pediatric surgeon and co-director of
the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute at SSM Cardinal
Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis. He
came to Glennon in March 2009 from Vanderbilt
Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tenn.
As a pediatric surgeon, Yang uses his expertise to
take care of children who require surgery from birth
to about 18 years old. At times, he even diagnoses
and treats fetal anomalies — while the baby is still
inside the womb.
But some of the most important — and rewarding work —
happens before he even sets foot in an operating room.
“One of the most inspiring things to me is helping families —
especially the mothers — get through the very tough time where
they are getting the news that their baby is going to be sick,” Yang
said. “These parents are incredibly courageous and strong and it is
a privilege to be part of helping them get through this tough time.”
Yang said one of the most remarkable days of his professional
career actually happened only recently. He performed surgery on
a baby in the womb that had a hole it its diaphragm and very small
lungs. The lungs were small because of a condition called Congenital
Diaphragmatic Hernia. Later that same day, he performed the exact
Charlie Taylor and mother Molly Mueller
were the first surgical patients of the
St. Louis Fetal Care Institute. Dr. Yang
removed an amniotic band wrapped
around Charlie's right leg in the womb
at 24 weeks.
same procedure on a baby
that was outside the womb.
It was only at the end of a
very exhausting day that Yang
realized what he had done. “I
performed surgery before birth
for this disease and then after
birth for the same disease,”
he said. “So I thought, ‘Who
gets to do that’ What an
amazing privilege to be able
to help these two children.”
For Yang, it’s all about
helping children.
“I remember one child that
I was treating for chest problems.
He was so sad and just
hurting. It was very heartbreaking
to come into the room
and see him so depressed. But
as he got better, his face just began to light up. It’s that kind of
experience that inspired me to want to work with kids.
“I wouldn’t say this too loud, but I would often do this work
for free,” he said. “Seeing the children happy and smiling…that’s
priceless. It’s a joy to do this work.”
S’ala Davis and her mother Janice Evans talk to Dr. Yang just before surgery on Jan. 22, 2010. S’ala’s baby Ali was the first baby ever born at Cardinal Glennon.
10

The Safety Champion
Growing up, Debbye Luetkemeyer was encouraged by her parents
to take pride in whatever job she took on, to finish what she started
and to do her very best at everything. And they’d ask her, at the
end of the day, a simple question.
“It’s a question I ask my children every day,” said the mother
of four, ages six through 29. “‘Did you do your personal best’
whenever they’re turning something in.”
Luetkemeyer still lives that work ethic. But her best these days
revolves around doing what’s best, safest for patients and employees
of SSM Health Care. When SSMHC – St. Louis reorganized
in 2008, Luetkemeyer’s responsibilities expanded, along with a job
title that could clutter any business card: Corporate Responsibility
Program Contact and Regulatory Coordinator, South Operating
Group, SSM Health Care – St. Louis.
“I am filling in many gaps you might say,” she said, laughing.
Luetkemeyer typically arrives at her desk at 6:30 a.m. with a
singular purpose: making sure patients are safe when they come
to SSM hospitals for care. She works with hospitals to ensure
they are complying with state and federal regulations and Joint
Commission standards for patient safety. But, at SSM, the standard
is even higher, she said:
“Exceptional health care.”
At SSM, safety is one of the
fundamental ways we measure
exceptional patient care. To help
achieve that goal, Luetkemeyer
can be found on some days listening
to patients talk about
how their hospital visits might
have been better. Other days,
she collaborates with caregivers
on how to make sure nothing
happens to patients outside
their normal courses of care.
Doing her best to help keep
patients safe excites Luetkemeyer.
“It’s why I get up every
morning and come to work,”
she said. “I don’t do any of
this by myself. I’m one of
many. We all work together
to make it happen.”
Debbye Luetkemeyer
The “Accidental” Nurse
Nursing has been Debbie Coy’s passion for 14 years. But Coy
didn’t enter the profession like most people.
“I really only became a nurse because I happened to go with my
friend to take the nursing school entrance test,” said Coy, a licensed
practical nurse at St. Anthony South in Oklahoma City. “She
Debbie Coy
didn’t want to go alone, so I went with her, took the test and I
was accepted.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Even before that fateful day, Coy was no stranger to health
care. At age 17, she began working in a hospital as a tech. She
later moved on to work at a nursing home and that’s where she
found her true calling.
“I love geriatrics, especially Alzheimer’s patients,”
Coy said. “People tell me I have the
‘Alzheimer’s aura’, because I can really relate to
those patients — especially the ones that have a little
spunk to them.
“Many of my patients are in their 70s, 80s or
older and may not have much time left, so I want
to make sure their last days are going to be happy
ones,” she said. “Going that extra little step is so
important. Taking care of them while they are here
makes me feel good.”
Coy said it is sometimes sad to see her patients’
conditions worsen due to their Alzheimer’s. She
takes care of each one as if they were a friend. “I
can spend hours with an Alzheimer’s patient, just
talking with them or walking around with them,”
she said.
So what is her secret to working with her patients
Ice cream.
“When my patients get a little irritated or
confused, a bowl of ice cream goes a long way,”
she said.
Go to www.ssmpeople.com to watch Our People.
11

Why the Electronic Health
Admitting
Before EHR, the patient registration and admitting staff at St. Mary’s Hospital
in Madison, Wis., used a printed schedule or made multiple phone calls to find
out why a patient was there and where they needed to go.
With the EHR, that information is already in the system, saving three to
four minutes per patient, according to Marian Bemis, patient registration application
specialist.
EHR allows all SSM
hospitals in Wisconsin as
well as many clinics to instantly
share information.
“Patients appreciate that
they aren’t asked the same
questions each time they
come to the hospital,”
Bemis said.
Marian Bemis, (standing) patient
registration application specialist,
with emergency services nurse
Kelly Murray. Bemis says that
patients are admitted three to
four minutes faster with the EHR.
Physicians
Pharmacists
According to pharmacist Dave Billing, director of
pharmacy, SSM DePaul Health Center, Bridgeton, Mo.,
the EHR helps pharmacists in the following ways:
• Drug orders and physician progress notes are
always legible.
• Computer access to medical charts has cut
down on the walking time of pharmacists hunting
for a paper medical record.
• Access to records at multiple computers also
means more than one person at a time can see
the information.
• The patient’s medical history, allergies and
other prescription medi cations are all listed.
• The pharmacist can spend more time talking
with physicians about the patient’s care and
less time searching for information.
12
For physicians, access is the EHR’s biggest benefit: access by them to patient
records and access for patients so they are partners in their own care.
Physicians can view patient records 24-7 from any secure computer.
And patient records can be
viewed and shared simultaneously
by clinicians.
The MyChart online feature
also allows physicians and patients
to exchange e-mails about care
at their mutual convenience, said
Dr. Jay Moore whose practice
in Wentzville, Mo., was the first
SSM physician office in the
St. Louis area to adopt EHR.
Another feature of the EHR
Quick access for patients and physicians
and the ability to directly communicate with
patients via e-mail are the biggest benefits
of EHR, according to Dr. Jay Moore.
is E-prescribe, which allows
doctors to electronically send
prescriptions to the computer
systems of pharmicies.
And if Moore’s patients are happy, he’s happy.
“The thing that I’m most excited about was the speed and the ease
with which most of our physicians took to the system,” Dr. Moore said.
“I think that speaks to the fact that it’s a good system and everybody
sees the benefits within a few weeks.”
The EHR means legible information and no more long walks to
find a patient’s medical records for pharmacists, according to
Dave Billing, director of pharmacy, SSM DePaul Health Center.

Record Is Better for…
Nurses
Mary Young, a nurse in the intensive care unit at
SSM DePaul Health Center, Bridgeton, Mo. says
the EHR has many benefits for caregivers and patients,
including making orders easier to read,
medication errors less likely and patient records
more quickly accessible.
“The best part is being able to find old records.
As long as the doctor is within SSM, we can see
the last visit from a week ago or three years ago.
Before, when patients came in after multiple appointments,
it was hard to keep track of what had
been done. If we have the record, then we won’t
repeat things because we’ll already know.”
EHR: How Far We’ve Come in Two Years
On March 30, 2008, SSM St. Joseph Hospital West in Lake Saint Louis,
Mo., became the first SSM entity to launch the EHR. Two years
later, seven more SSM hospitals, out of a total of 15, have added
their names to that list plus more than 200 physicians in 48 offices
across St. Louis. SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center
is scheduled to implement the EHR this April. When the EHR project
is finished in 2011, more than $300 million will have been invested,
and the EHR will be available on more than 13,000 computers at
SSM facilities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. SSM
is among the top U.S. hospital systems for EHR adoption.
Discharge
According to nurse Mary Young, being able to quickly learn
about a patient’s medical history is one of the best things about
the EHR.
Patients
Annice Barnes, corporate communications specialist,
can exchange e-mails with her physician via
the MyChart function of the EHR.
According to Cindi Nolan, a
nurse at SSM DePaul Health
Center’s critical care unit, the
EHR has greatly improved the
patient discharge process. “A
discharge that used to take one
to two hours can now be done
in 20 minutes,” she said.
Quick and easy checklists to
ensure patients have everything
they need are generated by the
EHR before they go home —
from proper medication to personal
belongings to education
and instructions.
“I can give patients something concrete that they can take home and reference
any time that they need it,” Nolan said.
Annice Barnes, corporate communications specialist,
who has diabetes, loves the MyChart feature of the EHR.
MyChart, an online health management tool, helps create a
direct link between patients and physicians via e-mail.
According to Barnes, managing her diabetes requires
many adjustments to medications and frequent testing.
She and her endocrinologist, Dr. Jerry Thurman, exchange
e-mails to make these adjustments. MyChart also features
the following:
• medical history and health screenings
• a list of doctor’s appointments — past and future
• a record of all e-mails exchanged
• access to an online medical reference service
Contact your doctor to enroll in MyChart.
Nurse Cindi Nolan says the EHR has made the patient
discharge process faster and more effective for patients
and caregivers.
13

Green
IS AN IMPORTANT COLOR
at
SSM
A famous frog once sang: “It’s not easy
bein’ green.” That’s never stopped SSM Health Care
from establishing a reputation for protecting the environment.
In 1990, Sister Mary Jean Ryan, FSM, Chair
and CEO of SSM, required all our entities to establish
a Preservation of the Earth (POE) Committee which encourages
education and efforts on environmental issues. About the same time,
she banned the use of Styrofoam cups throughout SSM. Since then,
the purchase of plastic bottles within SSM has been ended and millions
of pounds of materials have been recycled (see totals below).
It requires vigilance, hard work and planning
to be green, but as Sister Mary Jean once said:
“We have learned that we cannot apply the
most advanced medical technology to cure
people’s illnesses and then send them home to
heal in an unhealthy environment.”
Read about some of our green efforts.
Black-eyed Susans at SSM
St. Clare Health Center, Fenton,
Mo. The hospital was designed
to bring the outside in, taking
advantage of its beautiful natural
setting and using nature to heal.
SSM Recycling Roundup
From 2001-2009 SSM Health Care has
recycled 33,615,905 lbs. of paper, cardboard,
aluminum/steel, glass and plastic.
That equates to saving the following:
• 1,941,535 trees
• 6,251,722,535 gallons of oil
• 115,163,309,849 gallons of water
14

Green Roofs
St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison,
Wis., and SSM St. Clare Health
Center in Fenton, Mo., both have
green roofs. Green roofs are more
than just attractive alternatives to
traditional roofs. The plants on
green roofs absorb moisture and
heat, resulting in less runoff of
storm water and savings on energy
to heat and cool buildings. A typical
one story building with a grass
roof is estimated to save 25 percent
in summer cooling costs.
Above: Installed in 2009, this 22,000-
square foot green roof is said to be
Madison’s largest green initiative.
The roof has a storm water drainage
system. When it rains, water not
absorbed by the plants runs down
roof drains and is collected for irrigating
gardens on the ground level.
Left: Installation of green roof during
construction of St. Clare in 2009.
❄Going Green With White
Hazardous snow piles. Unsightly silt. Contaminants
in storm drains and lakes. Fleets of dump
trucks to haul snow to another location.
Plant Services at St. Mary’s Hospital in
Madison, Wis., has an answer to all this unpleasantness
and pollution. They melt snow
on-site using a new process. Loaded into a
specialized bin, the snow is sprayed with hot
water to melt. Oil and other non-soluble products
are extracted, and silt particles are filtered out
before the clean, melted snow is diverted to a
storm drain.
Results: Dirty snowmelt doesn’t enter
lakes and the need for all those dump trucks
is eliminated.
❅
Plant services employees Mike Colney
(left) and Greg Hatzinger (right) oversee
the contractor and process to clear snow
from streets around St. Mary’s Hospital.
St. Clare Meadows Care
Center, Baraboo, Wis.
St. Clare Meadows employees, back row, from left, Renda
Copus, Barb Opatik and Nancy Steinhorst. Front row, from
left, Bonnita Small and Aaron Hoskins. These employees are
holding reusable water bottles given to them by residents of
the Care Center. The residents are active participants in the
recycling and green efforts at St. Clare.
15

SSM DePaul Health
Center, Bridgeton, Mo.
A beautiful garden and fountains outside
the DePaul Medical Office Building. In
2009, DePaul recycled some 128.8 tons
of cardboard and 148.8 tons of white,
recyclable paper.
St. Anthony Hospital,
Oklahoma City
Above: At St. Anthony
Hospital, just outside the
5th floor surgery center,
is Margaret’s Garden, a
rooftop oasis with plantings
and a large waterfall.
Right: St. Anthony Hospital
water feature across from
the West entrance to the
hospital in front of the
St. Anthony Center of
Behavioral Medicine.
St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Inc. –
Centralia, Ill. campus
Right: Environmental
services employee Lou
Brink (facing camera).
Recycling is Hard Work
Environmental services
employees Brenda Albright
(left), and David Pulley, ship
out cardboard for recycling.
SSM St. Joseph Hospital West,
Lake Saint Louis, Mo.
Starting in January 2009, the ED staff, along
with admitting and environmental services
staff that worked in the ED, began collecting
used items they could recycle into Christmas
decorations at the hospital. The project was
led by nurses Alice Scarry and Linda Hathaway.
Some of the recycling ideas:
• Wreaths made from shredded IV bags and
other plastic packaging
• Snowflakes made from coffee filters
• Garland made from foam lab tube trays, painted red and green
• Window decorations made from plastic coverings peeled off
EKG electrodes
• Wreaths and other decorations
made from IV parts
• Silver centerpieces made
from empty coffee creamer
containers and flowers
Jason Cullom, trama coordinator, shows
off another decorating idea: Snowmen
made from empty coffee creamer containers
and cotton balls.
Sign of a green Christmas
at SSM St. Joseph Hospital
West.
16

Other Green Efforts Reported Around SSM
SSM Health Care-St. Louis
Garbage to Gas
SSM Health Care-St. Louis has a waste hauling contract
with a local landfill that converts non-recyclable waste
to methane gas for use at a local high school and a
greenhouse. In 2011, the landfill plans to expand its
conversion capacity to meet the power demands of
about 10,000 homes.
SSM DePaul Health Center sent the largest amount of
waste to the landfill of all SSMHC-St. Louis facilities
— 2.1 million pounds in 2009.
Single Stream Recycling
The North Operating Group of SSM Health Care-
St. Louis is planning on using single stream recycling
in the near future. Single stream allows recyclable
material such as boxes, folders, white paper, books,
newspapers, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles, to
be placed together in a single container. Sorting occurs
after the material is hauled away. This program encourages
recycling because it reduces the time and
money spent to sort recyclable material.
Bone and Joint Hospital at St. Anthony – Oklahoma City
• The use of paints made from organic compounds that produce low or
no fumes.
• Reducing temperatures in hot water supplies to conserve energy.
• Long-life lamps installed in parking garage.
• Screensavers with “green” tips for employees
SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center
• New photo sensors in the hospital’s main atrium shut down lights when
sunlight reaches a high enough level.
• More efficient light sources in the parking garage, and photo sensors that
shut down lights along the edge of the garage when the sun is out.
• Light sensors in offices and med rooms that shut off the lights when they
are not in use.
SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles, Mo.
• The hospital has installed some TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) roofs, which
reflect heat and are energy efficient.
• New chillers and Air Conditioning Handling (AHU) units at St. Joseph
make air conditioning more energy efficient.
• St. Joseph, as well as many other SSM facilities, uses environmentally
safe fluorescent tubes that last longer and do not contain mercury or
other toxic materials.
SSM Corporate Office,
St. Louis
The Great Escape
Alongside the SSM Corporate Headquarters, a
landscaping project sponsored by the Preservation
of the Earth Committee was completed in 2004. The
project was certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat
by National Wildlife Federation. Native Missouri
plants and flowers
provide a mini refuge
for people and animals.
Clockwise from top: The
Great Escape in spring;
Native plants also adorn the
front of the building, some
surrounding the statue of
St. Francis; The Great Escape
during a winter sunset.
17

How We’re Doing:
Heart Failure
At SSM Health Care, our Mission is at the heart of everything we do. We say that
“through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God.”
But how can we tell how well we are living our Mission We measure three things:
exceptional patient care, exceptional commitment from our employees and
physicians, and exceptional financial performance and growth. In each issue
of OptimiSSM, we’ll highlight the results from one of these areas to let you know
how we’re doing.
At SSM, we focus on results in four key clinical areas to determine how well
we are accomplishing our Mission of “exceptional patient care.” These are:
heart failure (HF), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pneumonia (PN),
and surgical care improvement project (SCIP). These are also the quality of care
measures that are shown on Hospital Compare, a Web site that was developed by
both the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Hospital Quality
Alliance: Improving Care Through Information (HQA). This online tool shows how
often hospitals give the recommended treatments known to get the best results and
allows patients to compare hospitals. Research has shown that these treatments
provide the best results for most patients with those conditions and are an important
part of the patients' overall care. Collaborative teams at each of our hospitals make sure that
we use this research to continually improve the care we provide to our patients.
For example, in the area of Heart Failure, we know that patients and their families need very specific
discharge instructions about their care before they can go home from the hospital. Our caregivers strive
to make sure that every patient understands his or her dietary restrictions, recommended activity levels,
what prescription medications have been prescribed, and signs and symptoms of worsening heart failure.
Consistent delivery of discharge instructions is just one of many specific care processes for heart failure
patients that collaborative teams throughout SSM Health Care focus on constantly. So why should this
matter to you It means that you can feel confident that we are doing everything we can to make sure
that you receive the best care possible.
18

Heart Failure Scores for 2009
All SSM
St. Clare Hospital and Health Services, Baraboo, Wis.
St. Marys Health Center, Jefferson City, Mo.
St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, Inc.,-Centralia, Ill. Campus
St. Francis Hospital and Health Services, Maryville, Mo.
SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles, Mo.
SSM St. Mary’s Health Center, Richmond Heights, Mo.
St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, Inc., Mount Vernon, Ill. Campus
SSM St. Joseph Hospital West, Lake Saint Louis, Mo.
SSM St. Clare Health Center, Fenton, Mo.
St. Anthony Hospital, Oklahoma City
St. Mary’s Hospital, Madison, Wis.
SSM DePaul Health Center, Bridgeton, Mo.
90 92 94 96 98 100
Percentage
This graph reflects the percentage of times heart failure patients received the recommended treatments and instructions
to ensure the best outcomes..
Point of Optimissm
100%
95%
90%
85%
Heart Failure Scores for 2007-2009
Jan-07
Feb-07
Mar-07
Apr-07
May-07
Jun-07
Jul-07
Aug-07
Sep-07
Oct-07
Nov-07
Dec-07
Jan-08
Feb-08
Mar-08
Apr-08
May-08
Jun-08
Jul-08
Aug-08
Sep-08
Oct-08
Nov-08
Dec-08
Jan-09
Feb-09
Mar-09
Apr-09
May-09
Jun-09
Jul-09
Aug-09
Sep-09
Oct-09
Nov-09
Dec-09
Data source: PIR Current Month for System Acute Care Hospitals
From Jan. 2007 to Dec. 2009, SSM has done better and better at
providing the recommended treatments and instructions for heart
failure patients.
So why should this
matter to you It
means you can feel
confident we are
doing everything
we can to make
sure you receive the
best care possible.
To read more about SSM Health Care’s commitment to quality, visit www.ssmhc.com.
19

Around
SSM
MISSOURI
Two Rare Procedures Make First
Birth at Glennon a Success
ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis mother and her
newborn made history Jan. 22, at SSM
Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center.
Ali Davis became the first baby ever delivered
at Cardinal Glennon.
Ali was born through an EXIT procedure,
which involves partially delivering the infant
through a cesarean incision, then establishing
the baby’s airway before cutting the umbilical
cord. The procedure was performed by a team
from the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute (FCI),
a collaboration among Cardinal Glennon,
SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond
Heights, Mo., and Saint Louis University.
Ali’s mother, S’ala Davis, was originally
referred to the FCI earlier in her pregnancy
when an ultrasound revealed the baby’s lungs
were so small they were almost undetectable.
After a procedure performed at the FCI
called tracheal occlusion, the baby’s lungs
expanded and grew more rapidly.
The FCI is the only program in middle
America to offer the EXIT procedure, and
S’ala Davis and her baby Ali made history at Cardinal Glennon.
one of a handful of programs in the country
that provides tracheal occlusion.
OKLAHOMA
St. Anthony Certified As
A Healthy Business
OKLAHOMA
CITY —
St. Anthony
Hospital and
Saints Medical
Group received
the Excellence
Award as a Certified
Healthy
Business.
The award is
Pam Troup (right), executive
sponsored by the
director of operations at
Oklahoma Academy
for State from Dr. Terry Cline, Oklahoma
St. Anthony, accepts award
Goals, the Oklahoma
Turning Point Council, the State
commissioner of health.
Chamber, and the Oklahoma State Department
of Health.
WISCONSIN
Tailgate Party Celebrates
Great Scores
MADISON, Wis. — On Feb. 2, St. Mary’s
Hospital celebrated some great patient satisfaction
scores with a tailgate party. Actually,
it was three parties to cover all shifts, and
1,200 employees made it to at least one party.
Sponsored by the Patient Satisfaction Task
Force, football-shaped sugar cookies were handed
out with the patient satisfaction percentile
score for each department written in frosting
on the cookies. Non-patient departments
received a 94, the overall score for St. Mary’s.
ILLINOIS
The MEBOX Shows They Care
CENTRALIA, Il – The staff of the Little Egypt
Breast and Cervical Cancer Program wants to
make sure their patients don’t feel abandoned
after they are enrolled in Medicaid.
St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Inc.-Centralia
campus is the lead agency for the Illinois
Breast & Cervical Cancer program, and covers
21 counties in Southern Illinois. Little Egypt
provides testing, screening and diagnostic
services for women who are uninsured or
underinsured and meet specific income
criteria. Women who are diagnosed with
cancer in the program are automatically
eligible for Medicaid which then handles
their care.
“Once they are enrolled in Medicaid, we
have to let them go,” said Connie Jackson,
RN, case manager.
On their own time, the staff organized a
rummage sale that raised $500 to use for
postage to send a MEBOX to their former
clients. After work, staff members donated
30 items — socks, nail polish, lipstick, candy,
etc. — and prepared 30 MEBOXES with
these items.
Whenever a client receives her Medicaid
card, she is mailed a MEBOX with a note
signed by the individual employee who prepared
the box, saying that the women are
praying for her recovery.
20

SSM-WIDE
SSM Comes to the Aid of Haiti
Employees and physicians across SSM Health Care
responded to the needs of the Haitian people after the
Jan. 12 earthquake. Many employees and physicians of
SSM donated their time, money and skills to this massive
effort. These are a few of the people who responded.
Much of the SSM relief effort centered on Hopital Sacre Coeur in Milot, Haiti.
A team led by Dr. William Guyol, a physician at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in
Richmond Heights, Mo. went to Hopital Sacre Coeur the last week in January,
and again in February. A team from SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles,
Mo., also went to Haiti.
Hopital Sacre Coeur, which was the largest intact hospital
in the country following the earthquake, expanded into
adjacent buildings, allowing the 73-bed hospital to house
and treat 300 patients.
Students from O’Keefe Middle School and Lowell Elementary set up a hot
cocoa stand in Madison, Wis., to raise money for Haitian relief. In just two
hours, they collected $1,225, which was matched by St. Mary’s Hospital.
In less than a month, St. Mary’s Hospital, in Madison, Wis., its physician
partner Dean Clinic, and St. Clare Hospital and Health Services, Baraboo,
Wis., which also supports a medical clinic in Thiotte, Haiti, raised approximately
$90,000 in donations and donation matches.
Mission Awareness Teams around SSM, the corporate Preservation of
the Earth Committee, and SSM Integrated Health Technologies donated
money and supplies. SSM Clinical Engineering Service made of a list of
medical equipment that was not being used and shipped it to Haiti. St. Mary’s
Health Center, Jefferson City matched $5,000 in donations, and SSM Health
Care sent $50,000 to UNICEF Haiti Earthquake Relief.
Follow Emilie — wife, mother and cancer survivor -- as she blogs at www.emiliescancer
Emilie’s
journey.com. Emilie was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy in
Cancer
2009. In her weekly blog posts, she invites readers to come along on her personal journey
— life with breast cancer. Her goal: to get in shape to run in the Komen Race for the Cure
Journey
in June. Emilie’s blog is the centerpiece of www.emiliescancerjourney.com, but the Web site
also provides users with links to cancer services throughout SSM, cancer resources and cancer news. Add it to your favorites!
21

The Gifts
Gift shops around SSM Health Care have everything
from cute to classy to bring comfort to patients and
families. Here’s a sampling of a few favorite items
from our gift shops.
of Healing
SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s
Medical Center, St. Louis
Ernie and Zoe, Sesame Street Muppets, await children.
St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Inc.-Centralia
campus, Southern Illinois
St. Mary’s Health Center,
Jefferson City, Mo.
According to Mary Kay Hoelscher, volunteer
coordinator, these Willow Tree products
are hot items with employees,
patients, and families.
St. Clare Hospital and Health
Services, Baraboo Wis.
All the handmade items
in St. Clare’s Unique
Boutique Gift Shop
are created by auxiliary
members, including this sweater with
matching cap, pink dress, floral bag, and quilt.
Toy helicopters lined up for takeoff.
St. Mary’s Hospital, Madison, Wis.
Happy Flowers are giant flowers made of brightly colored tissue paper.
In 2009 St. Mary’s volunteers made more than 600 of them and netted
about $4,000 to support patient needs.Volunteers have been making and
selling the Happy Flowers for five decades at the hospital.
St. Anthony Hospital,
Oklahoma City
Loreal Gatewood, oncall representative-planning
and marketing, models a Brighton trio — necklace,
earrings, and bracelet. Brighton is a top seller in
Odilia’s Gifts at St. Anthony Hospital.
22

THE S.P.A.T.U.L.A. MEETS
NEVER LIFT ALONE
You’re in a hurry. You need assistance lifting a patient or an item and no co-worker is
nearby to help. What do you do
Count Von Shortcut and Bad Habitus want you to (what else) take a shortcut that
is a bad habit. They want you to risk injury to your patient and yourself by making
you believe you can handle it alone. Yes, they want to sell you on going solo, but
SSM’s Super Carol says . . .
“NO SALE!”
23

SSM Health Care
477 N. Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63141
ssmhc.com
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
St. Louis, Missouri
Permit No. 2406
Photo by Dr. Kevin Johnson