St. Luke's Health

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Residents of Deep East Texas encounter significant barriers to care, including a shortage of primary care physicians. In one county, the ratio of patients to physicians is especially dire – 7,200 to one. Over the next decade, this critical shortfall is expected to worsen.

Wanting to address the crisis, The Mary K. and Clifford Grum Foundation stepped forward in spring 2021 with a $2 million pledge to the St. Luke’s Foundation. With this generous support, St. Luke’s Health – Memorial Lufkin Hospital is developing a graduate medical education residency program in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, one of the premier residency programs in the country.

“Each day we see the devastating consequences of limited access to primary care – especially in rural communities. Financial issues, lack of transportation, and an alarming shortage of primary care physicians often force these underserved residents to go without basic treatment of chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure, “ says Dan Martin, Division Vice President of Philanthropy for St. Luke’s Health. “Simply put, when there aren’t enough doctors, the health of a community suffers. Thanks to Mrs. Grum’s generosity, we are now building a program that will change that by establishing an ongoing pipeline of primary care physicians for many years to come. I am deeply thankful to the Grum Foundation for their commitment to the people of East Texas and to our mission to serve the vulnerable.”

Mary Grum is deeply committed to her community and has previously made other transformational gifts to St. Luke’s Health – Memorial Lufkin Hospital through the St. Luke’s Foundation. A 2019 gift of $1 million, inspired by her own family’s experience at another hospital, helped to equip a new neonatal intensive care unit, build out a nursing simulation lab at the hospital and supports an ongoing maternal fetal medicine partnership with Texas Children’s Hospital. In making her gift, Mrs. Grum wanted to ensure that her own East Texas community was similarly able to care for premature babies.

Given her generous community-focused spirit, it was no surprise that upon learning that the new residency program would help break down barriers to care by ensuring a pipeline of well-trained physicians in East Texas, Mrs. Grum was quick to respond.

Residents in the new program will complete their first year of training in Houston and will then spend the remainder of their residency at Memorial Lufkin Hospital in East Texas. The program’s first group of students is expected to start in July 2022.

Many young physicians express hesitation to practice in rural communities. Providing graduate medical education training within these same settings helps alleviate the stigma attached to establishing rural practices by giving physicians the necessary skills and confidence to care for patients in \vulnerable, limited-resource communities.

The program is expected to train and graduate three family practice residents and seven internal medicine residents per year – establishing a vital pipeline of physicians to practice in the area and ultimately improving care in the region.

In communities across CommonSpirit Health’s ministry, local graduate medical education residency programs are being developed to train tomorrow’s physicians and improve critical access to care. Visionary partners, like The Mary K. and Clifford Grum Foundation, are critical to making this possible.

Dan joined St Luke’s Health this past April after many years as the president and CEO of Seattle Pacific University. Dan has generated more than $250 million throughout his career, including a recent $27 million campaign. He has a proven track record in capital campaigns, prospect research, data analytics and reporting, annual giving, as well as donor cultivation and solicitation. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Dan was born and raised in Kansas City. Dan has also served as president and CEO of Mount Vernon Nazarene University, vice president for University Advancement at Point Loma Nazarene University and held multiple roles at MidAmerica Nazarene University. Dan and his wife, Pam, have two grown sons and a Saint Bernard who is adjusting to Houston nicely!

Q. In your previous position as the president of a small, Christian college, you were no stranger to fundraising. Have you found fundraising for health care to be different?

A. Less different than you might think. St. Luke’s Health, like my previous organization, is mission-driven. I find that as part of a faith-based organization, there is a deeper purpose behind the work we do. So while the initiatives we raise money for may be different, ultimately all philanthropy is about connecting donors to projects that are meaningful for them. In health care, especially, philanthropy can be very personal. Sometimes we’ve been part of a significant life event for a donor – giving can be an important part of the healing process or a way to celebrate.

Q. What brought you to Texas and more specifically to St. Luke’s Health?

A. As much as I enjoyed what I was doing as a college president, much of my career has been in philanthropy, and I wanted to shift back to it on a full-time basis. As a college president, I was certainly involved in the philanthropic process, but I wasn’t shaping and leading strategy on a daily basis. Frankly, I missed it. I enjoy developing strategies and operationalizing them in alignment with the objectives of an organization. I wanted to help resource the incredibly important mission of St. Luke’s Health.

On a more personal level, I’ve gone through my own life-changing health care experiences recently. I lost both my dad (to Alzheimer’s) and my sister (to cancer) just last year. I witnessed firsthand how holistic, compassionate, respectful care impacts both a patient and their loved ones. I was raised to believe we have an obligation to contribute to the greater good, to human flourishing, in whatever way we can. And when I started talking to St. Luke’s Health, I saw an opportunity to be part of something meaningful and a belief system that was similar to my own.

Q. St. Luke’s Health has a long legacy here in Texas but it is also now part of CommonSpirit Health, the largest Catholic health system in the country. What does that mean for our patients and the communities we serve?

A. We are still St. Luke’s. That hasn’t changed. But being part of a national health system offers us access to best practices, new ideas and resources that we don’t have to duplicate at the local level. This gives us tremendous efficiency on the administrative and operational side so we can focus even more attention on the care provided at our hospitals. This has been especially true during the pandemic. As a national enterprise we have been able to talk and collaborate with our colleagues across the country, and shift resources from areas that weren’t seeing large numbers of cases to areas that were surging. Being able to share this sort of expertise translates to a better experience for our patients.

Q. Where do you see St. Luke’s Health in five years?

A. Our CEO Doug Lawson has an exciting long-term vision that will stretch us, that will challenge us, and that will elevate our ability to address the needs of the more than 7.7 million Texans we serve. Our goal is to be one of the top 20 health systems in the nation. That’s a fairly audacious and bold goal, but we believe we will reach it. We have some of the greatest minds, compassionate caregivers, cutting-edge technology and access to the latest research. We also have significant partnerships with Baylor College of Medicine, the Texas Heart Institute and Texas A&M University. We’ve got the pieces we need to succeed.

Q. What would you like a potential donor to understand about giving to our health system?

A. Philanthropy demands a high level of trust, and I want our donors to know we are honored by their partnership. Our role is to invite others to join us in reaching that lofty goal. That’s really what philanthropy is. It’s brokering, it’s connecting, and it’s communicating the message and the vision to those who may want to partner with us for the sake of the common good. It’s our privilege and responsibility to provide that opportunity for them. I also want every donor to know that our first priority is ensuring that their gift, regardless of the amount, is stewarded properly. That means their donation is used as they’ve told us they want it used. When a donor gives in their community that gift stays in that community. Always.

Q. What should people know about you and your approach to philanthropy?

A. I am a mission-driven individual, and I’ve always aligned my work to my personal value system. I believe philanthropy is both an art and a science. Making sure we are connecting individuals to personally meaningful opportunities is an art. Ensuring our operational side functions at the highest level is a science. What’s most important to me, though, is making sure that we are providing all types of avenues for our community to be part of our philanthropic family. It could be a transformational gift. Or it might be a small monthly donation. Maybe it’s volunteering at one of our hospitals or providing words of encouragement to our selfless caregivers. My job is to find that outlet for you.

Simple acts of kindness lifted Tonya and Larry Hedleston during one of the lowest points of their lives.

It was 2012 and although Larry had undergone a quadruple bypass in a Beaumont hospital two years earlier, he had never fully recovered. He had been unable to participate in the prescribed cardiac rehabilitation program, and he felt terribly weak. As he lay in the ICU, Tonya knew he needed a higher level of care. She asked that the hospital transfer him to a Houston hospital – any hospital – where she believed the care would be better. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center answered the call.

Larry’s new care team implanted a left ventricular assist device to buy Larry time. But the long-term prognosis was hard to hear – Larry would need a new heart. Soon.

Tonya remembers how the team worked to cheer Larry, starting with a picture she had brought of their beloved dogs.

“We had that picture, and it was like a security blanket for Larry,” Tonya remembers. “So that whenever he would open his eyes he could see that and recognize something familiar. And when he got his heart transplant, I asked the nurse, would you just put this somewhere he can see it? When I went in to see him, they had put it on the ceiling. That is caring.”

One of his nurses also insisted that Larry celebrate his birthday from his hospital bed. “The nurses on that floor were just amazing,” Tonya says. “I was so worried, because he had been so depressed, and I didn’t know how to handle it. I didn’t know. Do we celebrate, do we ignore it?” Tonya decided to pick up some cake and balloons, and when she returned to Larry’s room, one of his night nurses was waiting.

“She was so precious,” Tonya says. “She knew I was a little hesitant, dealing with the whole thing. She got everyone gathered up, went in there and just kind of woke him up to sing to him. And it just ended up being a great night.”

It was later that night Larry received the call that would change his life.

“I always remember because it was my birthday,” Larry says. “That was my birthday, and you don’t get those but once in a lifetime, I don’t think. But I got a pretty good God.”

Larry was on a call with someone else and initially didn’t answer the incoming call. “I was on the phone with a home health nurse when a staff person came in and asked if I was going to answer my phone. I said, ‘I’m on my phone’ and they said, ‘You might want to take this call!’”

After his transplant, Larry made swift progress and was quickly moved out of the intensive care unit. Tonya is certain the compassionate care he received each step of the way played a role in his recovery. Today he and Tonya lead active lives. The two spend plenty of time with family at their vacation home on Crystal Beach, and Larry loves to rebuild custom cars in the garage he had built on his property in Silsbee, Texas.

“Every morning I would come in and he was already clean, shaved, hair washed, breakfast eaten,” Tonya says. “If you’re clean that makes you feel good. That really impressed me a lot. He looked good every morning and he was in a good mood.”

While travel opportunities for the transplant team have been limited due to Covid-19, they anticipate using the Hedleston funds to avail their colleagues of important educational opportunities, such as the April 2022 conference held by the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. Larry’s cardiologist Dr. Reynolds Delgado calls attendance at these types of conferences critical to the team’s continued growth.

“They go to meetings and they learn invaluable information,” Delgado says.

Delgado is deeply appreciative of the Hedlestons’ generosity, noting that the type of care Larry received then and that patients receive today is the result of excellent surgeons, strong hospital leadership, innovative work and a supportive nursing team.

This past year our care community has been tested in ways that again and again demonstrate what makes St. Luke’s Health a world-class exemplar of high-value, high-quality care: the grit, resilience and commitment to patient safety and wellness that each of our employees brings to their work every single day.

One of the biggest challenges our medical community has faced throughout the pandemic is caring for those who are severely ill with COVID-19 while also meeting the clinical needs of patients who are seeking treatment for other serious conditions, like cancer, strokes and heart attacks.

And it’s in large part because of our generous donors that our highly skilled physicians, nurses and health care workers are able to do that work. They are able to provide best-in-class treatments using the most advanced technologies. To respond during this historic pandemic to the health needs of all the communities we serve, especially those that are most vulnerable.

Your support improves access to care, like the new residency program that will train more primary care doctors in East Texas. It provides advanced equipment and training for teams across the division. And it supported a Covid-19 vaccination hub that put more than 100,000 shots in the arms of Houston’s most underserved residents. Donor generosity bolsters our mission-based initiatives as well, like our human trafficking prevention program, which recently partnered with Marriott International’s Houston Business Council to care for victims of human trafficking.

These are but a few examples of the work you support that demonstrate the healing presence of God in our world. I am profoundly inspired and humbled by the selfless, giving spirit of service our donors possess, enabling us to more fully carry out our ministry of healing.

We are thankful and so grateful to you for your trust in and partnership with us.

Philanthropy is deeply personal for Kylene and Brad Beers. Their connection to St. Luke’s and The Woodlands Hospital is rooted in their love for their community and Kylene’s own experiences as a cancer patient.

Brad, an attorney, had recently joined The Woodlands Hospital board he now chairs when Kylene noticed a pain in her breast. Like many women, she ignored the signal her body was sending, thinking perhaps it was too much caffeine in her diet or a pulled muscle. But when nothing helped alleviate the discomfort, she made a last-minute appointment at the hospital’s imaging center. “It was Friday at the beginning of spring break,” Kylene says. “So no one was going in for a mammogram.”

She was shocked to learn she had two different cancers— one in each breast. That was nearly 10 years ago, and she still wonders if a higher power wasn’t at work.

“I always thought that there was an angel on my shoulder because I was the world’s worst procrastinator,” she says.

Her experience as a St. Luke’s patient would change her. She and Brad both recall the compassionate and personalized care she received.

“There was this tremendous sharing of both fear and care, and it was also so incredibly empowering to be surrounded by these nurses and a female radiologist who understood,” she says. “And I’ve always held on to that moment. Because in that worst moment there were people around me that I didn’t know at all, and yet we were this incredible community. And I think it is that community spirit that I felt at my most vulnerable time that has pulled me back to St. Luke’s time and time again.”

That experience has translated to a long, philanthropic relationship with the hospital. In addition to supporting the imaging center, the Beers, who have been married 41 years, have a strong commitment to addressing disparities in health care—a focus St. Luke’s shares. As a board member he was shocked to learn just how many people in his own community live in poverty.

“It’s important to make a difference when you can,” he says. “And one of the reasons we’re so interested in supporting health care is because despite the United States, despite Texas, despite Houston having some of the best health care in the world, there are still tremendous gaps in what’s available to everyone.”

Kylene shares her own surprise at realizing the important role philanthropic support plays for a health system. “I didn’t understand that someone needed to give to a hospital,” she says. “I needed a learning ramp, an on-ramp to understanding that nonprofits require people to say ‘How can I help here?’ Health care is directly affected by the quality of the knowledge of those doctors and nurses who are in the hospitals that serve our most vulnerable populations.

That’s why they played an instrumental role in the creation of the Nightingale Society at The Woodlands Hospital. Gifts to the Nightingale Society, established in 2017, send nurses to conferences, assist with the costs of specialized certifications and support scholarships for advanced nursing education and degrees. As a lifelong educator, Kylene is passionate when it comes to the subject of learning.

“If you want your community to be well, you have to make sure your hospital is as smart as it can be,” she says.

Tracy and Glen Larner knew something was wrong. It was 1999, and the two were living in Aspen when Glen started experiencing strange cardiac symptoms following a hike. His heart would inexplicably race, often up to 220 beats per minute

Tracy, a native Houstonian, was more than familiar with the Texas Medical Center. Her parents, Rochelle and Max Levit, are well-known for their philanthropic activities across the community and within the TMC. They wanted Glen, who was born with mitral valve prolapse, to come to Houston for an assessment. He saw a number of physicians who were unable to make a diagnosis until a family friend suggested he see the late Dr. Ali Massumi at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. Massumi ordered a battery of exams and again, Glen’s heart seemed to perform normally. But Massumi was undeterred. He put Glen on a heart monitor and sent him back to Aspen, where his symptoms returned. Massumi realized that while Glen’s symptoms abated at Houston’s sea level, his symptoms manifested in Aspen’s high altitude. With a diagnosis of a ruptured mitral valve finally in hand, Glen scheduled his surgery for December 1999.

One of his nurses during that stay would make a profound impression on the couple. He had been a recipient of a nursing scholarship from Friends of Nursing, a group of donors who raise funds to support nursing research and costly advanced degrees for Baylor St. Luke’s professionals. In the more than 30 years since it was founded, Friends of Nursing has helped more than 170 employees realize their career dreams.

And when Tracy and Glen decided to move back to Houston, they quickly committed their time and their resources to the hospital that had saved Glen’s life. Tracy became an active member of Friends of Nursing—serving on the group’s advisory committee for more than 15 years, heading its annual fundraising luncheon in 2015 and chairing the organization in 2017. Tracy has also served on the St. Luke’s Foundation board since it was founded nearly a decade ago. Together Tracy and Glen have supported a number of priorities for the organization—including nursing education, employee assistance and stroke initiatives.

In addition to their longtime support for Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Tracy and Glen extend their generosity to the Orange Show for the Visionary Arts, Jazz Aspen in Aspen, and the Fay School in Houston.

Glen explains why the two are so committed to giving back, noting both his success as an entrepreneur and the Levit family tradition of philanthropy, starting with patriarch Joe Levit. For decades the Levits have supported a variety of institutions in the Jewish community as well as institutions in the Texas Medical Center. Today, Tracy is involved in her family’s commercial real estate business, 2ML, and Glen has partnered in a number of successful ventures, including construction, real estate development, Austin-based Good Pops and Oasis Texas Brewing Company.

“The essence of our belief is that if you are in a position to donate your time, your funds and your effort, the pay-off is incredibly fulfilling,” Glen says.

He and Tracy want to be sure that the family heritage of generosity is handed down to their own son, Maddox.

“We are trying to instill in him a sense of philanthropy that is based on the privilege he has been born into,” Glen says.

It’s more than that, adds Tracy. For them, their desire to give back is special. It’s something straight from the heart.

Mission Statement

As CommonSpirit Health, we make the healing presence of God known in our world by improving the health of the people we serve especially those who are vulnerable while we advance social justice for all.

Vision

A healthier future for all—inspired by faith, driven by innovation, and powered by our humanity.

Values

COMPASSION
Care with listening, empathy and love
Accompany and comfort those in need of healing

INCLUSION
Celebrate each person’s gifts and voice
Respect the dignity of all

INTEGRITY
Inspire trust through honesty
Demonstrate courage in the face of inequity

EXCELLENCE
Serve with fullest passion, creativity and stewardship
Exceed expectations of others and ourselves

COLLABORATION
Commit to the power of working together
Build and nurture meaningful relationships

Parts of the family

More than 118 years ago, 14-year-old Tom Tellepsen left his home in Norway as a cabin boy on a sailingship. He faced an uncertain future, but he took with him the faith instilled by his mother and a determination to create a successful new life for himself. He found work in Panama as a carpenter where he helped build the Panama Canal and battled a near-deadly bout with malaria. In 1909 as he considered his next steps, he remembered learning about a new frontier in his 7th grade geography class—Texas.

And so he made his way to Houston, where he took architectural drafting classes at night at the Downtown YMCA and continued to hone his skills as a carpenter. His first solo project, a house in Montrose, still stands today and is home to the University of St. Thomas History Department.

Tom was the first Tellepsen to make his place in Houston, but he was certainly not the last. For four generations, Tellepsen construction has helped shape Houston. A leader in commercial, industrial, and concrete construction, Tellepsen is the name behind some of the city’s most iconic structures— Miller Outdoor Theater, Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, the Museum of Fine Arts, Texas Children’s Hospital and, of course, both the original St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in 1954 and St. Luke’s–The Vintage Hospital, which opened in North Houston in 2011.

Today, Howard Tellepsen stands at the helm of a family known as much for their philanthropic contributions as for the business they have created. As a family-owned business, Tellepsen is in rare company. Only three percent of family-owned-and-operated businesses survive four generations, and Howard Tellepsen is proud of the legacy he and his wife, Carolyn, have sustained and handed down to their four sons—Tadd, who took over day-today operations in 2018; Tellef; Trent; and Trevor.

“In so many ways, our company has been a cornerstone of Houston,” he says. “Our involvement and commitment to this community is multigenerational, and it’s unique.”

Howard Tellepsen is known as a man who is as generous with his time and expertise as he is with his financial success treasure. St. Luke’s has been a beneficiary of that generosity as has the YMCA, the Episcopal Diocese, the Boy Scouts and the Houston Food Bank. Tellepsen has served as the St. Luke’s Foundation Board chair since 2011 and has invested in a number of initiatives across the Texas Division, including projects like Project ECHO, which improves access to chronic disease specialists across the state.

He is especially proud of his $1 million Tellepsen Board Challenge—a matching program he initiated to encourage board support for the organization and which was especially critical after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Tropical Storm Imelda last fall when so many employees across the Texas Division were in need of assistance. Tellepsen rallied his fellow board members in support of the Employee Assistance Fund, which has helped more than 100 team members since its creation in late 2019.

“I always heard my father and grandfather say it’s important that Tellepsen be involved with something larger than ourselves,” he says. “It’s not about us. It’s about others. It’s about giving back to the community.”

That sense of legacy is engrained in everything he does.

“Each one of us is going to leave a legacy whether we realize it or not,” he says. “I believe that your legacy ought to be your life’s work. It should be something you live every day, not just something you pass on when you die.”

A conversation with Howard Tellepsen eventually leads to his philosophy about life. It’s a philosophy informed partly by a life-threatening burn he sustained not long after he and Carolyn married and partly by the story he heard growing up of Tom Tellepsen and his battle with malaria. No matter what life throws at you, he says, it’s important to get back up, get to work and honor your commitments. That philosophy has also kept him deeply connected to St. Luke’s and its mission-based vision for health care.

“We all go through life challenges, and our faith and strength is tested,” he notes. “We need all of our courage, conviction and stamina during these tough times. Tom Tellepsen was not a victim and he never would be. I have lived my life the same way.”

When we rang in 2020, who could have imaged the world we would be facing a few months later? COVID-19 has changed us in so many ways and together we mourn the lives lost to this pandemic. But while we grieve our losses and adjust to our new normal, we also see a renewed energy and a commitment to excellence across our Texas Division.

We are keenly focused on strengthening our culture and ensuring we are serving our community with excellence, integrity and compassion. As part of CommonSpirit Health, we have a tremendous opportunity to leverage the strength of a national organization to benefit our local communities. Over these past few months, we’ve seen just how important that national strength can be as we were able to quickly adapt to care for COVID-19 patients and ensure that our teams had the resources needed. We are national in scope but we will always serve Texas.

Your support this past year has been critical to our accomplishments. Donors like you make mission-focused initiatives a reality. Together we’ve strengthened our human trafficking prevention initiative; helped renovate a birthing center in Lufkin; ensured our nurses across our state have the training they need; and supported all our teams in this time of crisis. I thank you.

I have spent much of my career in faith-based health care, and for me, it is the spiritual dimension of the work that brings me the greatest fulfillment. Philanthropy enables us to more fully carry out our ministry of healing by uniting our communities in a spirit of service. I am overwhelmed with appreciation for your giving spirit, generous gifts and trusted partnership.

My family has had the good fortune to build and lead a company that bears our name. It has been personally gratifying to play a role in developing greater Houston— the very buildings and structures where people live, work, learn, worship and heal.

That good fortune brings with it a responsibility to be a good corporate citizen and to live up to our family name. Tellepsen has made philanthropy and social responsibility a part of our culture. I was taught, and we have taught our children, that we have an opportunity to shape the social fabric of this city beyond its buildings. The organizations that were important to my grandparents when they arrived in Houston—the YMCA, Boy Scouts of America and St. Luke’s Hospital, are still important to us today—along with the many other organizations and priorities that inspire our children and grandchildren.

In these pages you will learn more about the scope of the St. Luke’s Foundation’s work, which grows each year to reach more Texans. The challenges we have faced this past year have impacted all of us, but I am confident that under the steady leadership of Doug Lawson we will emerge stronger than ever. We all can shape our communities through our philanthropic choices; by directing whatever resources we may have, large or small, toward something important to us. Philanthropy can fulfill a sense of purpose, allow us to help solve a problem, or simply give us the chance to say “thank you.” I’m proud to share this annual report with you because it reminds me that my family has always tried to be part of something larger than ourselves—as you all have. As chair of the board, I thank you for that effort and I hope you feel proud of it too.

Wheels Up

More than 275 cyclists gathered in Bryan/College Station for the CHI St. Joseph Health Gran Fondo on March 3. The scenic, bluebonnet-covered ride, which began at the Stella Hotel in Bryan and stretched as far as 100 miles for some bicyclists, celebrated the hospital’s cancer survivors. Proceeds benefited St. Joseph Health’s cancer services.

Community Focused

Thanks to a generous gift from the Episcopal Health Foundation, St. Joseph’s Community Health Resource Center hub in Bryan is up and running, allowing the hospital to improve access to essential needs for underserved residents of the Brazos Valley. From July 2017 through June 30, 2018, the hub coordinated with more than 3,300 agencies in the Brazos Valley to assist more than 500 families with their healthcare and social services needs.

A Critical Partnership

This spring, CHI St. Joseph Health and Texas A&M University Health Science Center announced plans to establish a co-branded primary care network to improve access to healthcare for the Brazos Valley community while also training future clinicians.

The CHI St. Joseph and Texas A&M Health Network is a network of experienced, board-certified primary care physicians and advanced-care providers dedicated to providing exceptional care at locations across the Brazos Valley. The network includes 16 primary care locations, including pediatrics, housing 47 providers within a nine-county service area, offering access to expert specialists and ancillary services. The partnership elevates the quality and delivery of healthcare for the community by partnering clinicians and faculty at Texas A&M Health Science Center with physicians and clinicians at CHI St. Joseph Health.

“Co-branding our primary care clinics to also reflect the Texas A&M brand is a win for both organizations and more importantly, the Brazos Valley,” said Donovan French, vice president of strategy and business development at CHI St. Joseph Health.“We both have a long history of supporting this community. Having both of these brands on our primary care clinics signifies a joint promise we’re now making to the community to work together to impact the future of healthcare.”

Primary care clinics are wholly owned and operated by CHI St. Joseph Health and are identified as clinics for teaching. Texas A&M medical students are being trained in locations throughout CHI St. Joseph Health’s system, offering the opportunity to learn medicine in both rural and urban community settings.

Families are at the forefront of our outreach in Deep East Texas. Whether it’s capital improvements to the hospital or ensuring healthier babies, our donors make a difference.

A Healthier Start

Healthy Beginnings, supported by a generous grant from the Episcopal Health Foundation and in partnership with the Angelina County and Cities Health District, is a new program that focuses on a child’s health and development during the most important period of early brain development—from prenatal to three years of age. Healthy Beginnings is a free service for Medicaid-eligible pregnant women and for children up to 3 years old in Lufkin and Livingston. First-time families can enter the program anytime during pregnancy or until their baby is 2 months old. Healthy Beginnings staff visit participating families in the home on a weekly basis, providing vital information on child development, health, nutrition, and exercise as well as monitoring the baby for normal growth and development. Since kicking off the program in early 2018, 29 families have enrolled.

We’re Expecting!

A multi-phase, multi-year master plan for Memorial Lufkin is taking the facility into the next decade – starting with a renovation that will create a new birthing center. The approximately 20,000-square-foot project includes renovations to the first floor lobby of the hospital and will completely renovate the Henderson Women’s and Children’s Center space on the second floor. The most recent plans include two new surgical rooms for C-section; five labor, delivery, recovery & post-partum (LDRP) rooms; 10 postpartum rooms; and a waiting area. Additionally, the facility will feature eight newborn nursery beds and a Level 3-capable NICU with eight bassinets.

Support for this project from local philanthropic organizations and individuals include a generous lead gift of $5 million from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, a $600,000 challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation and a $10,000 gift from the I.D. & Marguerite Fairchild Foundation.

Gifts to The Woodlands Hospital support leading-edge treatments and services to North Harris and Montgomery County communities.Whether it’s nursing excellence or capital improvements, philanthropy helps patients access the resources of the worldrenowned Texas Medical Center closer to home.

A Personal Commitment to Care

The Caduceus Society at The Woodlands Hospital is an exclusive giving society for physicians who choose to personally support the hospital through philanthropy. Members of this prestigious group donate funds to projects and programs that benefit patients and staff at the hospital. To join the Caduceus Society, members must make a minimum annual charitable gift of $1,000. Members collectively decide how they would like their funds used. This past year, Caduceus Society funds were allocated to nursing excellence.

Meet the President

Jim Parisi was appointed President of CHI St. Luke’s Health–The Woodlands, Lakeside and Springwoods Village Hospitals in January 2018. Jim served as CEO for Memorial Hermann Health System’s Katy Hospital, where he guided $130 million in construction projects. His previous roles at Memorial Hermann included Vice President, COO, and Chief Nursing Officer. Prior to joining Memorial Hermann, Parisi was Vice President – Trauma for the East Texas Regional Healthcare System (ETMC) in Tyler and Director for Trauma Services at Brackenridge Hospital, Austin. Jim holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Texas at Tyler and a BSN from the University of Texas at Arlington.

All in the Family

It seems Nicole Toth always knew she would pursue nursing as her profession. The 21-year-old used to go to work with her mother, who is a nurse, and it didn’t take long for her to feel the calling. Financially, however, earning a nursing degree was a challenge. Especially for someone like Nicole, who was raised in a single-parent household. Generous donors would make the difference for the part-time patient care assistant at The Woodlands Hospital. A St. Luke’s Nursing Scholarship at Sam Houston State University made it possible for Nicole to gain valuable experience at the hospital while earning her nursing degree. “We have such a hard curriculum, it’s tough to work and go to school,” Nicole says. The scholarships, funded through generous gifts from Pam and Gary Whitlock and CenterPoint Energy, helped nine nursing students this past year. Nicole is grateful, knowing that her scholarship is helping get her one step closer to her dream. “I just like taking care of people, hearing their stories and being able to be here for them at their worst time,” Nicole says.

“I’m so grateful for the scholarship and look forward to the day I am a nurse at The Woodlands Hospital.”

Norma Puente, MSN, RN, ANP-C
As a palliative care nurse, Norma Puente cares for patients and families coping with the trauma of terminal and chronic illnesses. In nominating her for the Betty Trotter Award for Excellence, Norma’s manager noted her collaborative nature and her ability to provide patients with the supportive and caring environment they need. Donor support of these and other nursing programs helps us go beyond excellence by ensuring that our nursing team is ready and able to meet the changing demands of this challenging profession.

Norma began her nursing career in oncology, which prepared her for the challenges of palliative care. Before she was a nurse, she was a clerk struggling to make ends meet and eager to pursue a college degree. She yearned for a career that would give her stability, flexibility and the earning power to support herself—something she didn’t see while growing up. Norma was working for another organization and trying to earn her degree, but the less-than-accommodating environment led her to Baylor St. Luke’s, where she found the encouragement she needed. She earned her BSN in May 2001 with the help of a Friends of Nursing Fellowship and then her master’s degree in May 2008.

Norma has been a part of the Baylor St. Luke’s family for nearly 23 years and is committed to her patients and her teammates. Most of all, she is grateful for the doors Friends of Nursing opened when she received her fellowship.

“It was a wonderful opportunity,” she says. “Without that help I just don’t think I would have been able to accomplish all that I’ve done. I am proud of how I have evolved and will continue to remain deeply committed to this institution, to my coworkers, patients, and their families.”

The Betty Trotter Award for Excellence was first given in 2014 in conjunction with the celebration of Friends of Nursing’s 25th anniversary. It is named in honor of one of the organization’s founding members, Betty Trotter. Friends of Nursing was created thanks to Betty’s own personal experiences with healthcare and by a young woman she helped become a nurse. Betty saw firsthand the impact financial assistance could have on both caregivers and patients, and with the help of a dedicated group of community leaders Betty set Friends of Nursing in motion.

Exceptional nursing is critical to the success of any hospital and CHI St. Luke’s Health has a long and impressive nursing history. Baylor St. Luke’s was the first hospital in Texas to receive designation as a Magnet Hospital for Nursing Excellence—a designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center that it has now achieved four consecutive times. Friends of Nursing has supported education and nursing research at Baylor St. Luke’s for 30 years. At The Woodlands Hospital, the Nightingale Society, inspired by Florence Nightingale’s pioneering work, supports caregivers by raising funds for training, education, research and retention. Donor support of these and other nursing programs helps us go beyond excellence by ensuring that our nursing team is ready and able to meet the changing demands of this challenging profession.

Three Decades of Excellence

This spring, Friends of Nursing celebrates 30 years of commitment to nursing at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. For three decades, this committed group of supporters has recognized the vital role nurses play in our work to create healthy communities. Funds raised throughout the year support nursing research and two of the most costly educational tracks available to Baylor St. Luke’s professionals who wish to further their careers in nursing. More than 170 professionals have been able to further their nursing careers with fellowships provided by Friends of Nursing donors. Fellowships up to $30,000 provide financial support for full-time employees of Baylor St. Luke’s who have completed the prerequisites for nursing and are ready to enter nursing school to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). In addition to tuition, fees, and books, funds enable the recipient to work a flexible, reduced schedule and receive full-time salary and benefits. Additionally, fellowships up to $10,000 cover tuition, books, and fees for registered nurses enrolled in a BSN program. This RN to BSN Program is available to current staff nurses at Baylor St. Luke’s who are interested in pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Thirty years ago, a group of visionary women gathered to discuss how they could best support nursing at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. We are grateful to these women who had the foresight to create a group dedicated to supporting nurses and celebrating the important role they play as front-line caregivers. As Friends of Nursing marks its 30th anniversary, we honor the commitment of these original members:

Linda Anderson
Dorothy Baldwin*
Gayle Bentsen

Penny Butler
Debra Christie
Bobby Cohn*

Anne Duncan
Brenda Duncan
Gail Gross

Evelyn Howell
Suzanne C. Levin
Jane Lowery

Margaret Singleton
Betty Trotter*
Angela Wainerdi*

Linda Gail White
*of blessed memory

FY 2018 Friends of Nursing Fellowship Recipients

GIAN CARLO ARCANGELI
Patient Care Assistant
Chamberlain University

DEBRA DEES
Research Nurse
Grand Canyon University

VIKAS KISHORE
Medical Monitor Technician
Cizik School of Nursing, UTHealth

VICTOR OGBENNA
Patient Care Assistant
University of Texas at Arlington

MOSES SAKER-VALDEZ
Patient Care Assistant
Chamberlain University

TONYA WYATT
Patient Care Assistant
Chamberlain University

Philanthropy propels care forward by supporting clinical research; education and training; and capital investments at our flagship hospital in the Texas Medical Center. Donor gifts supported a variety of vital projects this past year, including:

Breathing lung transplant recipient Silvano Trino with some of his Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center caregivers

A national clinical trial for ex vivo lung perfusion, an innovative therapy applied to donor lungs outside of the body before and during transplantation that improves organ quality. Thanks to this unique “breathing lung” technology, lungs that may have otherwise been turned down for transplant are now considered viable. The trial, which is only available in Texas at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, is being led by Gabriel Loor, MD, surgical director of the hospital’s lung transplantation program and co-chief of adult cardiac surgery.
Renovations, funded by the Baylor St. Luke’s Auxiliary, to the cardiovascular care waiting room on the hospital’s second floor. Updated furniture, flooring, paint and artwork help ensure a more comfortable experience as families and friends wait for their loved ones.
$1 million purchase of next-level echocardiogram equipment—four full-size echo machines, four portable echo machines, as well as echo beds and ultrasound equipment for easier IV placement.
The purchase of two FMX Ferromagnetic Surgical System Generators for Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. The FMX system is an intelligent surgical platform that uses magnetic technology to perform surgery with laser-like precision and minimal injury to tissue.
The Patient Care Assistant Externship Program at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, which offers life-changing career training in healthcare to exceptional students in underserved communities. The externship, which just completed its 17th year, is offered to 20 graduates annually and is provided in collaboration with Communities in Schools of Houston. The PCA program is supported entirely through philanthropy and has successfully trained 275 high school students from at-risk communities. All of the participants in this summer’s program are planning to attend college and more than half have been offered positions at the hospital.
Eight Roderick Duncan MacDonald Research awards. The research fund was established in 1953 and each year, the MacDonald committee, composed of physicians, awards a number of seed grants to help researchers develop effective and fundable research projects. This past fiscal year, projects included a study that looks at the early detection of pancreatic cancer and research into drugresistant epilepsy.

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Visionaries $10,000 and above

Abbott
Shirley and Ralph Alexander

Donna Catherine MacDonald Charitable Trust
Ruth Jones MacDonald Charitable Trust

Emeralds $5,000-$9,999

Anonymous
Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Susan Bailey-Newell and James Newell Nancy Battle

Regina Garcia/Events Gifts
The Rita J. Garth Charitable Foundation Hayes Family Partnership

CHI St. Luke’s Health hospitals received national recognition in FY 2018 for the high-quality care they provide. Some
accomplishments include:

award

Baylor St. Luke’s is recognized as a Best Hospital for 2018-19 according to U.S. News & World Report, including second in Houston and fourth in Texas

U.S. News & World Report ranked Baylor St. Luke’s Cardiology and Heart Surgery program number 22 nationwide, the Neurology and Neurosurgery service line number 34 nationwide, and the Gastroenterology and GI Surgery service number 38 nationwide.

award

Baylor St. Luke’s received High Performing Hospital rankings from U.S. News & World Report across ten service lines, procedures, and conditions, including Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair, Cancer, Colon Cancer Surgery, COPD, Geriatrics, Heart Bypass Surgery, Heart Failure, Nephrology, Ophthalmology, and Pulmonology.

Baylor St. Luke’s received an ‘A’ rating for Patient Safety in the Spring 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Guide

award

Baylor St. Luke’s and The Woodlands Hospital received the 2018 American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award

Baylor St. Luke’s is an ANCC Magnet®- designated nursing facility– first in Texas and four consecutive designations. Baylor St. Luke’s Nurse Residency Program is accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

award

Baylor St. Luke’s is recognized by Premier Inc. as a recipient of the 2018 Premier Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN)

The Woodlands Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR ACTION Registry Silver Performance Achievement Award for 2018
CHI St. Luke’s Health–Memorial Lufkin was ranked 2018 America’s Best Hospital for Patient Safety, Heart Care, and Cancer Care by WomenCertified
CHI St. Luke’s Health–Memorial Lufkin was ranked in the top 10 percent of the nation for Heart Attack Treatment by CareChex, a division of Comparion®, an independent quality ratings group, 2018
CHI St. Joseph Health received the 2018 American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus and the 2018 Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award
CHI St. Luke’s Health–Brazosport received The Joint Commission’s 2017 Gold Seal of Approval® and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check mark for Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers

Our Mission
The Mission of Catholic Health Initiatives is to nurture the healing ministry of the Church, supported by education and research. Fidelity to the Gospel urges us to emphasize human dignity and social justice as we create healthier communities.

Our Vision
As a ministry of the Catholic Church, we will lead the transformation of healthcare to achieve optimal health and well-being for the individuals and communities we serve, especially those that are poor and vulnerable.

Our Core Values
Nearly 700 employees, physicians, participating congregation members and board members from throughout Catholic Health Initiatives participated in the process of naming our core values. These values define CHI and serve as our guiding principles. They are the roots from which all of our activities, decisions and behaviors grow.

Reverence – Profound respect and awe for all of creation, the foundation that shapes spirituality, our relationships with others and our journey to God.

Integrity – Moral wholeness, soundness, delity, trust, truthfulness in all we do.

Compassion – Solidarity with one another, capacity to enter into another’s joy and sorrow.

Excellence – Demonstrating preeminent performance, becoming the benchmark, putting forth our personal and professional best.

John L. Hern could see that a lack of financial resources created a tremendous burden for many transplant patients. He himself had spent six months hospitalized and waiting for his heart, but the oil and gas executive still had the means to take care of himself and his family. He was keenly aware that others were not as fortunate. Not long after receiving his heart in December of 1996, he shared with his daughter Paula his desire to do something for those patients. Time was not on his side, however, and by the fall of 1997 he was in full rejection of his donated heart. When he passed, Paula and her husband, Tom Barbour, were determined to establish a way to fulfill her father’s wishes. The establishment of the JLH Foundation in 1998 meant the Texas transplant community would have an important new partner for the next millennium. While the original charter for the foundation was specific to the field of heart transplant, Paula quickly saw the importance of broadening assistance to all solid organ transplant donations.

The JLH Foundation’s mission is clear—to support the financial needs of transplant patients and their families, to promote the need for organ donation and to support transplant programs across Texas, including the program at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. The hospital’s relationship with the foundation began with a gift more than a decade ago, creating a fund for patients with needs such as medication, transportation, and housing. JLH has been a steadfast philanthropic partner over the years, culminating in two generous gifts in 2018 to support the innovative research of Dr. Gabriel Loor, the principal investigator for a national clinical trial of “breathing lung” technology. Research is a relatively new area of funding for the foundation and broadens their commitment to John Hern’s vision.

“The Foundation has always strived to fulfill my father’s wishes to financially help families undergoing a transplant,”
says Paula. “He could not have foreseen the changes in transplantation since his death, including the advances in lung transplant survival rates that Dr. Loor’s research anticipates. I think my father would be in full support of funding research to discover new ways to prolong life following a transplant. Along with helping others afford the process, he would have wanted others to have the best chance possible to survive.”

Ellis Tudzin, one of the Foundation’s board members, shares that it has been a privilege for him to work with Paula and Tom to help achieve John Hern’s vision and carry out the JLH Foundation’s mission. “The foundation has provided support for thousands of transplant patients and their families because of Paula and Tom’s philanthropy.”

5 Minutes with Doug Lawson, PhD

Education: BS, Political Science, Texas A&M University; MS, Healthcare Administration, Trinity University; PhD, Leadership Studies, Dallas Baptist University.

Experience: President, Baylor University Medical Center and North Texas Central Region of Baylor Scott & White Health, Temple, Texas; Senior Vice President & Chief Operations Of cer, Cabell- Huntington Hospital, Huntington, West Virginia; System Vice President, Saint Luke’s Health System, Kansas City, Missouri; Senior Administrator, Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic, Temple, Texas.

Q: Six months ago, you were appointed CEO for the expanding CHI Texas Division. What are your major challenges?
A: We’ve grown rapidly over the past five years, acquiring Memorial Health in Lufkin, the St. Joseph’s system in Bryan and a number of physician practices in Houston. In addition, CHI St. Luke’s Health has been deepening its relationship with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University. The challenges of assimilating and integrating this growth have been signi cant. We’re focused on delivering safe, high-quality care; outstanding patient and employee satisfaction; and strong nancial performance. This requires an enormous amount of change and standardization, and as we all know change can be challenging.

Q: You earned your PhD while you were already leading a large medical center and region. What prompted you to pursue this degree?
A: An early mentor suggested that I become a “student of leadership.” I am quite sure that he never expected me to carry this simple advice to an extreme. However, as an individual responsible for supporting and serving thousands of people, I felt it important that I invest in my personal understanding of leadership and how best to work with talented and passionate individuals to create high-performing teams that will transform the way healthcare is delivered.

Q: How does this skillset in leadership fit in with your goals for the organization?
A: I’m passionate about nurturing leadership at all levels, providing all employees with the learning, tools and support they need not only to do their jobs, but to empower the front-line staff to challenge the status quo and make measured changes. This work cannot occur in silos and will only come as a result of high-performing teams committed to ensuring that each patient is cared for as an individual.

Q: What will the Texas Division look like in the next three to five years?
A: We’ll be a leading academic, faith-based system in the state. Our ministry of healing will advance innovation across a continuum of care through our relationships with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University.

Q: Why have you spent a good portion of your career in faith-based healthcare?
A: I appreciate the ability to more fully address the spiritual dimension of care, and I particularly appreciate our organization’s four Core Values: Reverence, Integrity, Compassion and Excellence. I most particularly appreciate Reverence, which has been defined as “humbling of the self in respectful recognition of something perceived to be greater than the self.” Our ability to put the ministry of healing in the center of the circle is one of the most energizing parts of my job.

Q: After attending college and starting your career in Texas, you left for a few years before returning. Are you a Texas boy at heart?
A: I am very much a classic Texas boy. I grew up in the small farming community of Tahoka, Texas where I learned the importance of faith, family and hard work—with a great deal of emphasis on hard work! I spent my summers in the cotton fields, my winter breaks in the cotton gin and the time in between playing team sports. I am also a proud Aggie right down to my boots and jeans, which I wear to the of office occasionally, much to the chagrin of my Chief Nursing Officer.

As the chair of the St. Luke’s Foundation Board, I want to take a moment to tell you how appreciative I am for your involvement in our work and your continued interest in the mission of our CHI Texas Division.

My family has been invested in this hospital network since the 1950s, when St. Luke’s Hospital was just one building. As a young boy I watched as it was constructed, on a Bertner Street that looked very different from today. It is a privilege for me to uphold the legacy of philanthropy that was instilled in me by my grandparents, who, like most Texans, came here with very little and built a life. It is an honor to thank all of you who make it a priority to give back to an institution that I believe in wholeheartedly. Healthcare is not going away. People will continue to get sick and depend on institutions like ours for their own lives and the lives of those they love. In turn, this institution will continue to need you. Your generosity has supported education and training for physicians and nurses, truly innovative research, life-saving equipment and technological advancements for patients and has ensured care for the most underserved people in our communities, from the Brazos Valley to the Piney Woods, from The Woodlands down to Brazosport. I am proud of this organization and all it has achieved over the past year. This annual report is a story of some of those successes. I hope as you read it, you remember that your contributions are part of every page of this story.

2021 Annual Impact Report

To read more about our work, download the full report.

Mission, vision & core values

A message from our leadership

Our Texas Division

Giving by the numbers

At the heart of gratitude

Your generosity, their sacrifice

Meet the Division Vice President
for Philanthropy –
Dan Martin, EdD, JD, MBA

Training tomorrow's physicians in East Texas

Honoring a servant's heart

2021 Annual Impact Report

To read more about our work, download the full report.

Mission, vision & core values

A message from our leadership

Our Texas Division

Giving by the numbers

At the heart of gratitude

Your generosity, their sacrifice

Meet the Division Vice President for Philanthropy – Dan Martin, EdD, JD, MBA

Training tomorrow's physicians in East Texas

Honoring a servant's heart

Meet the Division Vice President
for Philanthropy –
Dan Martin, EdD, JD, MBA