Trinity Health Launches Military and Veterans Health Program to Support Better Care, Better Health for Military and Military Families
LIVONIA, Mich. (PRWEB) June 05, 2018 -- Trinity Health recently celebrated the official launch of a cultural competency and health care program focused on the unique needs of military veterans, active members of the military, and their families.
While the celebration took place in Germantown, Maryland, Trinity Health's Military and Veterans Health Program officially launched in both Maryland and Pennsylvania. Eventually, the program, which is centered on helping providers develop deep knowledge of military culture, life and challenges, will be implemented across Trinity Health's entire 22-state, 94-hospital system including its continuing care and home health programs.
"By empowering our health care providers with a greater understanding of military culture, we are increasing their opportunities to build strong, trusted relationships with their military patients," said Norvell V. Coots, M.D., president and CEO, Holy Cross Health in Silver Spring, Maryland, and executive sponsor of the national program. "We believe this is critical to helping 'vets' and active or reserve military personnel achieve better health outcomes because the quality of the doctor-patient relationship influences the extent to which patients engage in self-care and comply with their doctor's recommendations."
In April, Dr. Coots — along with Greg Jolissaint, M.D, vice president, Military and Veterans Health Program, Trinity Health; Susan Croushore, president and CEO of Mercy Health System (Southeastern Pennsylvania); and James Woodward, president and CEO of St. Mary Medical Center (Langhorne, Pennsylvania) — implemented Trinity Health's first military cultural competency training and health care services in the program's pilot markets. Focusing on the realities, challenges and health risks of deployment as experienced by both military personnel members and their close family members, the training featured knowledge ready for immediate use in clinical care settings. New triage and registration processes are allowing patients to self-identify as military personnel, veterans, or as family members – and this helps providers know when to activate that knowledge.
"Our goal is to provide military service members, veterans and their families with convenient access to high-quality, culturally sensitive, people-centered health care services that meet their specific needs," said Jolissaint. "To do this, we started closing the gaps some of our health care providers may have had when it comes to their familiarity with – and understanding of – military culture."
Both Drs. Coots and Jolissaint are very familiar with the needs of those who served or who are serving their country as members of the military. Dr. Coots is a retired Brigadier General, former Commanding General and CEO of Regional Health Command Europe, and Command Surgeon, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army. Dr. Jolissaint is a retired U.S. Army Colonel whose career includes 28 years of active military service in the U.S. Army, service as a clinical defense contractor and clinical leadership positions in both the US Army and the Veterans Health Administration.
Trinity Health locations piloting and perfecting the program before its system-wide rollout include:
o Holy Cross Health
- Holy Cross Hospital (Silver Spring, Maryland)
- Holy Cross Germantown Hospital (Germantown, Maryland)
- Holy Cross Health Partners in Kensington (Primary care practice in Kensington, Maryland)
o St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne, Pennsylvania (Bucks County, Pennsylvania)
- St. Mary Medical Center
- St. Mary Franciscan Family Medicine
o Mercy Health System, South Eastern Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania)
- Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Pennsylvania
- Mercy LIFE(Living Independently for Elders)
"Trinity Health has a long and distinguished history of offering compassionate health care to our military service members dating back to the Civil War when our founding congregations helped staff U.S. military hospitals and the first Navy hospital ship," remarked Richard J. Gilfillan, M.D., CEO. "Through this program, meeting the unique health care needs of military service members, veterans and their families will be a core component of our overarching mission and our vision to become a truly people-centered health system."
Learn more about the program at http://www.trinity-health.org/military-and-veterans-health-program.
About Trinity Health
Trinity Health is one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation, serving diverse communities that include more than 30 million people across 22 states. Trinity Health includes 94 hospitals, as well as 109 continuing care locations that include PACE programs, senior living facilities, and home care and hospice services. Based in Livonia, Mich., and with annual operating revenues of $17.6 billion and assets of $24.7 billion, the organization returns $1.1 billion to its communities annually in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. Trinity Health employs about 131,000 colleagues, including 7,500 employed physicians and clinicians, and is proud to have more than 15,000 physicians participating in 23 clinically integrated networks accountable for more than 1.4 million lives. Committed to those who are poor and underserved in its communities, Trinity Health prides itself on its leadership addressing the social determinants of health, delivering innovative and meaningful services to elders, and in helping the industry transform from volume-based to value-based care. For more information, visit http://www.trinity-health.org. You can also follow @TrinityHealthMI on Twitter.
Eve Pidgeon, Trinity Health, http://www.trinity-health.org, +1 734-343-1270, [email protected]
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