Mapping Spiritual Care in the Population Health and Ambulatory Settings
Antonina Olszewski, Catherine Chang, Tina Guynn, Allison DeLaney, Chantell Poole, Christa Chappelle , R. Greg Stratton,
Charles Valenti-Hein, Jennifer Prior j, and Jennifer Jarvis, Ascension, St. Louis, MO
The purpose of this panel is to explore how including spiritual care in population health and ambulatory settings can positively affect vulnerable patient populations, particularly focusing on marginalized populations and those impacted by social inequity.
Historically, the provision of spiritual care has been largely limited to inpatient and acute settings. As health care has moved increasingly into outpatient and ambulatory settings, chaplains have made some attempts to extend care to these changing contexts. Most notably, this evolution of spiritual care can be seen in hospice and palliative care. Spiritual care has also expanded, though to a lesser extent, in outpatient oncology, cardiac and pulmonary clinics serving patients with illnesses such as cancer, COPD and CHF. In recent years, there has been a growing understanding that a patient’s spiritual needs extend beyond the patient’s inpatient admission and that to truly address the patient’s spiritual distress, chaplaincy needs to move to ambulatory and outpatient settings.
Ascension’s On Demand Spiritual Care team provides spiritual care remotely across the continuum of care. Our goal is to proactively address the spiritual health of patients in population health and ambulatory settings, with a particular focus on high-risk patient populations. This panel presentation will focus on describing how spiritual care can work collaboratively with clinical providers and care team members to positively affect vulnerable patient populations long-term. By providing spiritual care across the continuum of care, our patients receive compassionate interventions that address the needs of the human spirit by facilitating the search for meaning and purpose, empowering them to find healing in light of their current circumstances.
At Ascension we recognize that not only do we need to provide spiritual care in ambulatory and outpatient contexts, but that by taking a population health view of spiritual care, we can positively affect vulnerable, high-risk populations who likely have spiritual distress. Working closely with Ascension’s clinical care management teams who manage insurance populations and outpatient primary care clinics, Ascension has been at the leading edge of these developments.
In this panel, we intend to discuss the challenges and rewards of integrating spiritual care in population health and ambulatory contexts to better meet patients at the margins, including:
We will explore the theological and practical considerations for providing long-term spiritual care in the population health contexts, through case studies that may include:
Historically, the provision of spiritual care has been largely limited to inpatient and acute settings. As health care has moved increasingly into outpatient and ambulatory settings, chaplains have made some attempts to extend care to these changing contexts. Most notably, this evolution of spiritual care can be seen in hospice and palliative care. Spiritual care has also expanded, though to a lesser extent, in outpatient oncology, cardiac and pulmonary clinics serving patients with illnesses such as cancer, COPD and CHF. In recent years, there has been a growing understanding that a patient’s spiritual needs extend beyond the patient’s inpatient admission and that to truly address the patient’s spiritual distress, chaplaincy needs to move to ambulatory and outpatient settings.
Ascension’s On Demand Spiritual Care team provides spiritual care remotely across the continuum of care. Our goal is to proactively address the spiritual health of patients in population health and ambulatory settings, with a particular focus on high-risk patient populations. This panel presentation will focus on describing how spiritual care can work collaboratively with clinical providers and care team members to positively affect vulnerable patient populations long-term. By providing spiritual care across the continuum of care, our patients receive compassionate interventions that address the needs of the human spirit by facilitating the search for meaning and purpose, empowering them to find healing in light of their current circumstances.
At Ascension we recognize that not only do we need to provide spiritual care in ambulatory and outpatient contexts, but that by taking a population health view of spiritual care, we can positively affect vulnerable, high-risk populations who likely have spiritual distress. Working closely with Ascension’s clinical care management teams who manage insurance populations and outpatient primary care clinics, Ascension has been at the leading edge of these developments.
In this panel, we intend to discuss the challenges and rewards of integrating spiritual care in population health and ambulatory contexts to better meet patients at the margins, including:
- Identifying patient populations who likely have spiritual concerns through screening or other means, and addressing the spiritual care needs of those populations.
- The feasibility and acceptability of providing spiritual care in this context.
- The importance of integration of chaplains into the larger care team, including training other team members to identify signs and symptoms of spiritual distress.
We will explore the theological and practical considerations for providing long-term spiritual care in the population health contexts, through case studies that may include:
- Addressing end of life goals with traditional Medicare patients managed by accountable care organizations who likely qualify for palliative care.
- Learning about and addressing barriers for uninsured, underinsured, and Medicaid patients who are high utilizers of EDs for avoidable visits to improve their access to care.
- The spiritual needs of patients with multiple chronic illnesses enrolled with insurance providers such Ascension Complete, a Medicare Advantage program.
- The high correlation of spiritual concerns with other SDOH needs, such as loneliness, and how spiritual care can address them.