The 20th anniversary of the St. Louis American Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Healthcare was both a milestone and a moment of innovation. Traditionally a sold-out awards luncheon that also serves as an opportunity for fellowship, the program shifted to a virtual online experience due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“The first virtual Salute highlighted and celebrated some of our outstanding health care workers and it was a triumph,” said Donald M. Suggs, president of the St. Louis American Foundation. “We were able to reach a wider audience with this online tribute to these dedicated professionals who serve us so well.”
Instead of a banquet hall, honorees, supporters and sponsors sat in front of computer screens, mobile devices and smart TVs to celebrate heroes within the field. Likes, shares, comments and watch parties replaced the rousing applause that typically comes from tables of ten. Thursday evening’s program came at a time when a global pandemic has further emphasized the critical role of those who commit themselves to community wellness and healing.
The digital platform was unchartered territory for St. Louis American Foundation’s 30-plus years of Salute programming.
“We are grateful for their essential service and are gratified by the broad acceptance of this format,” Suggs said. “However, we look forward to a return to our in-person community gathering when it is safe to do so.”
The platform for presentation was new, but the heartfelt messages from those fighting for equity and social justice in health care were true to form.
“The challenges these professionals have faced in recent months in light of the pandemic make their achievements even more inspirational as they work to save lives in our hardest-hit communities,” Keith Williamson, president of Centene Charitable Foundation, the lead sponsor for the Salute to Excellence in Health Care, said during the program’s opening remarks.
Rosetta Keeton, director of Patient Access at St. Louis Regional Health Commission (RHC), was honored as the 2020 Lifetime Achiever in Excellence in Health Care. Keeton, who grew up in St. Louis, spent more than 35 years as a patient advocate for the uninsured, underinsured and an ombudsman in the medical community at St. Louis Regional Hospital, St. Louis ConnectCare and RHC. She is also the founder and facilitator of the breast cancer support group, Sistah Connection.
“I’ve never left the people that I’ve always known, the people who are uninsured and underinsured, my community of people,” Keeton said. “I don’t even think about what I do as work, because I am living an extension of who I’ve always been.”
As she prepares to retire at the end of the year, Keeton said she passes that mission onto her daughter, Rhonda Keeton, colleagues and friends.
The 2020 Stellar Performer in Health Care was L. J. Punch, M.D., a trauma surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and former associate professor at Washington University now moving outside hospital confines to focus on community health issues – bullets, COVID-19, homelessness and opioid addiction – at the T, Power4STL. Using the Stop the Bleed national campaign, Punch and their team have taught 8,000 community members how to render aid to victims of gun violence and passed out trauma first aid kits and protective masks.
“If pain and trauma are the lived and breathed norm, it can seem as if the only choice you have is to succumb to it,” Punch said. “We say, ‘No, no, no.’ With the right training, with the right equipment, you have the power to change that outcome.”
Punch is also developing the BRIC, the Bullet Related Injury Clinic, for patients whose wellbeing is disrupted by bullet injuries. “I believe it’s the untreated trauma from decades ago that’s expressing itself now in all the folks that we see involved in violence,” Punch said.
The 2020 Health Advocacy Organization of the Year was the Deaconess Foundation, which strives for the improved well-being and health of the people of St. Louis with special emphasis on serving children and most vulnerable communities through community investment and policy advocacy in healthcare, economic mobility, justice and racial equity, and early childhood education.
Just months before the pandemic, Deaconess was a primary funder that wiped out $12.9 million in medical debt for low-income individuals and families. It has awarded $2.2 million in grants to more than 50 Black-led organizations for COVID-19 relief in St. Louis. Just last month, Deaconess announced a cohort of six, Black-led organizations identified as critical to recovery from COVID-19 and will invest another $350,000 in those organizations to help sustain them.
“When you invest $1 in community-engaged strategies and organizing and advocacy, you have the capacity to return $115 in government supports, because the power of the people as organized and mobilized can change how the government allocates dollars,” said Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of the Deaconess Foundation.
The Dr. John M. Anderson Excellence in Mental Health Award by the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund was presented to Kanika Turner, M.D., family medicine physician with a focus on addiction medicine and associate medical director for Family Care Health Center. Turner increased access to Narcan, a nasal spray used for treating an opioid overdose.
“I see how the health care system set this up and, because of that, the Black community is suffering on multiple areas,” Turner said. “Not just opioids, but with diabetes, hypertension – there are so many different avenues, different areas that we need to intervene in our community. It’s time for a change.”
Eight Awardees were honored for Excellence in Health Care: Kimberly Carter, lead clinical documentation specialist at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital; Martin Gitonga, patient care manager at Barnes Jewish Hospital; Kimberly Hurst, RN care manager VA St. Louis Healthcare; Tesh Jewell, vice president of Operations for Adult Primary Care at Mercy Clinic East; Helen V. Lane, BSN, RN a school nurse at St. Louis Public Schools; Leslie McCrary-Etuk, M.D., chief medical officer and family care physician at CareSTL Health; Ntasiah K. Shaw, Emergency Preparedness Program manager, Communicable Disease Control Services Division at St. Louis County Dept. of Public Health; and David Swingler, Youth Service director at People’s Community Action Corporation.
This year’s event was made possible through lead sponsor, Centene Charitable Foundation and its Missouri health plan, Home State Health; gold sponsor, Mercy; silver sponsors, AARP St. Louis and A.T, Still University; bronze sponsors, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis; Excellence in Mental Health Award sponsor, St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund; and gift sponsor, Vincent’s Jewelers, the official jeweler of Salute to Excellence programs.
“We share the St. Louis American’s belief in the importance of recognizing dedicated, African-American healthcare professionals for their exemplary performance and invaluable work,” said Williamson.
The St. Louis American Foundation’s 2020 Salute to Excellence in Health Care is posted in its entirety on stlamerican.com and https://tinyurl.com/STLAmerican-tube.
