Wellness Wise
By Kevin Kipp
New
executive director at Healthy Communities -- St. Charles County
sacrifices to improve community.
St.
Charles Countians don't need to cross any river for cardiac bypass
surgery: SSM St. Joseph Health Center performs some 300 open heart
operations each year at their St. Charles campus. They did 1,500
cardiac catherizations there last year; they're on track to do
2,000 this year.
These
aren't scenes of screaming mayhem on television dramas. Picture
calm, practiced, standard operating procedures.
What's not standard operating procedure is that Barnes Jewish-St.
Peters Hospital, SSM St. Joseph Health Center and SSM St. Joseph
Hospital West in Lake St. Louis have teamed up to reduce the frequency
of these and other expensive quaternary and tertiary care procedures.
The
hospitals, along with the county's Department of Community Health
and Environment, have pooled their resources to hire an executive
director for a private, nonprofit wellness and prevention initiative.
It's called Healthy Communities of St. Charles County.
After
a few fits and starts lining up a staffer, Julie Eckstein -- until
recently,
director of marketing at the personnel and executive recruiting
firm Keystone Partnership -- was persuaded to take the job.
"Healthy
Communities is about collaboration of groups, individuals, organizations,"
she says. "We look at the data, and see the areas where we can
improve health and the quality of life through initiatives and
partnerships."
She
explains that volunteers form a task force, figure out how to
help make a difference in individual lives, which in turn, helps
the overall health status of the community.
Eckstein
reports to the executive committee -- including a hospital administrator,
a semi-retired businessman, a social agency head, and a nun --
that recruited her. But she can't complain much about surprises
on the job. She chaired the executive committee and all of Healthy
Communities until she stepped down to be appointed in February.
(Truth is, she supervised her predecessor!)
Eckstein
has led the coalition as chair or co-chair since shortly after
the initiative was born in late 1993.
That's
when Kevin F. Kast, president/CEO/market executive of the SSM
St. Joseph facilities invited community leaders to a brainstorming
meeting. Executives and leading managers from more than 40 businesses
and organizations discussed and examined a public health concept
born at the World Health Organization. It's called Healthy Communities.
The
idea is straightforward: Use local community resources to improve
local community health.
Like
most residents of the county, the assembled leaders liked its
ring of self-reliance. Voilà, Healthy Communities
of St. Charles County.
"Good
health benefits everybody," Kast says. "It's good for schools;
the kids are more open to learning. It's good for the work force
because they're more productive. A more productive work force
makes the community more interesting for companies to invest here.
Good health creates a positive life cycle in the community."
Kast
also credits his boss, Sister Mary Jean Ryan, FSM, president and
CEO of SSM Health Care, for presenting the Healthy Communities
concept to the system's leadership. "She's made it one of SSM's
missions to enhance the health status of the communities served
by our hospitals."
But
aren't health care systems -- even non-profits like SSM and Barnes
-- supposed to compete hammer and tong in the marketplace?
Karen
Prideaux, vice chairman of the coalition and manager of community
education, public relations and volunteer services at Barnes JewishSt.
Peters Hospital, responds that her administration "agrees with
the mission and methods of Healthy Communities. The collaborative
approach serves the community's health care needs more efficiently.
You get better results when you have more players involved."
Gil
Copley, county director of Community Health & Environment,
says, "It's unusual and refreshing to have two large systems cooperating
this closely in one coalition to promote the community's health.
You just don't see that very often."
"Concern
for healthy newborns, or keeping our kids out of trouble are not
competitive issues," Kast agrees.
On
Eckstein's watch as chair, Healthy Communities grew to a dozen
active task forces. It accomplished projects as ambitious as a
community health survey. It brought home a slew of governor's
awards, community health trophies and public health grants.
Among
the data-driven undertakings Eckstein described were efforts to
curb underage drinking and (its handmaiden in disaster) driving,
suicide prevention, and heart health and fitness.
"Other
task forces formed as a reflection of the community's emphasis
on youth," she says. Head injury prevention, teen pregnancy &
STD prevention and immunization.
Some
task forces have come and gone. The children and violence task
force distributed gun locks to Department of Conservation gun
safety programs participants before suspending operations two
years back.
Other
efforts continue in force. The hand washing task force reached
more than 8,000 kids in third and fourth grades with a message
of the virtues of hand washing: how and when and why.
"Of
course the goal there is to reduce the incidence of communicable
diseases, cold and flu, and sometimes more serious diseases like
Hepatitis A, and worse."
Much
worse. Yechh.
A
hand hygiene message also ran between shows at two Wehrenberg
Theatres in St. Charles County. Drury DDI Media will rotate billboard
messages on Highways 370, 70 and 40. Bob Evans sponsored a hand
washing coloring contest for kids. The task force is even posting
"Wash-'em-well-wash-'em-often" in restrooms.
Copley
says, "Healthy Communities has done an outstanding job of helping
people accept responsibility for their own health. As far as I'm
concerned, the more people promoting health, wellness and responsibility,
the better."
Eckstein
credits the chairs and their volunteers. "St. Charles County benefits
from being a relatively young and prosperous community," she grants,
"but if everyone, everywhere had the same passion as the people
in this coalition, 'everywhere' would be a better place."
Eckstein's
own commitment is homegrown. Sources report the Healthy Communities
salary amounts to substantially less than what Keystone pays for
a Washington University MBA with executive success and experience.
Don't show her the money.
"This
is my community. I'm proud of it, and I want to make it the best
place it can be," she beams.
Furthermore,
she expects to recoup a portion of the sacrifice free-lancing
with Project Professionals LLC, a project management consulting
firm where her sister, Theresa Lynch, is president.
Eckstein
also has her own sideline -- thecountycalendar.com -- a
comprehensive, on-line listing of activities throughout the community:
everything from city and county council meetings and sporting
events to fundraising auctions, dinners, and golf tournaments.
And
Healthy Communities meetings.
Kevin Kipp runs Bubble Communications, a creative services and
community relations firm in St. Charles.
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