In Tennessee, a local hospital has teamed up with local congregations to, hopefully, improve the health and access to healthcare of the community they serve.
From the Daily News Journal
The Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation Inter-Church Council invited local clergy — members and leadership — to impact collectively the health of the community by working together.
Anne Davis, director of the Saint Thomas Foundation, said the council was the brain child of herself, Kristin Demos, the Rev. Colin Ambrose and Michael Gatch, Saint Thomas Rutherford’s new director of mission.
Through its first two bi-annual meetings, with the third set for October, the group has discussed a few options.
One is implementing a parish nurse program, which trains registered nurses on how to be a link between their congregations and the medical community.
The other is launching a similar program to one commonly called the “Memphis Model.”
Officially called the Methodist Healthcare’s Congregational Health Network, the Memphis Model is a health and faith collaboration that focuses on improving a community’s overall health by enlisting members of local churches to oversee the health of parishioners by increasing access to health care, Davis explained.
The article includes an extensive interview with the hospital foundation’s director Anne Davis who comes across as passionate and determined to see the gospel made manifest in this venture;
What is the hope of the council?
Davis: We want to help the churches help their own.
We are always trying to improve health care in Rutherford County. This is a natural partnership with our faith-based community. We are both faith-based from the get go.
What does the the hospital have to offer all these other people who are trying to be Jesus’ hands and feet to their parishioners? What do we have that we can offer them?
posted by Jon White