SDA Chaplains

[Gregory Matthews]

I just returned Sunday from a Conference for SDA Chaplains in the North American Division; There I learned:

1) The SDA Church has 150 military chaplains on active duty and in the Reserves.

2) We have a bit less than 300 hospital chaplains.

Interesting, at least to me.

[nuff sed]

Where was it held? I guess that I missed it. Of course, there was no reason for anybody to notify me of the meeting being that I am not 'formally endorsed' by the denomination...and ,probably, never will be. I have not seen the necessity of ecclesiastical endorsement by the General Conference being that my affiliation with Law Enforcement requires only local affirmation. I do think that there should be a special designation for Law Enforcement Chaplains who are Volunteers. It appears to me that denominational requirements are slanted toward professional, employed, hospital Chaplains mainly. My 40+ years as an ordained minister and a Master's Degree (unfortunately in Education and not Theology) does not seem to be enough. I have been in dialogue with 'the brethren' about this and so far we have 'agreed to disagree'. It was interesting that at the last meeting in Orlando of Community Service people there was a seminar for Chaplains. Only one showed up besides my 'unendorsed' brother and I. Nuff Sed

[Gregory Matthews]

1) This meeting was in Orlando.

2)Adventist Chaplaincy Ministires had a Law Enforcement section, as well as a Prison section and more.

3) ACM has developed standards which are designed to apply to commonly accepted standards in the world in which we live in the U.S.

[Gregory Matthews]

I do not intend for my response to be taken as personal and directed at you. But I would like to respond to the issue of standards in the context of hospital chaplaiancy:

The world at large, in the United States specificly, has decided that the typical clergyperson does NOT have the training required to serve as a hospital chaplain. In fact, the typical U.S. military chaplain does not have the training needed to serve as a hospital chaplain, to include a Departmenet of Veterans' Affairs hospital. IOW, the typical clergypeprson,needs additional training beyond that required to be clergy, in order to serve in a hospital.

ACM agrees with that and in the U.S. is seeking to accredit only those SDA Clergy who have the additional training needed to serve as hospital chaplains.

While the standards exist, currently there is not an appropriate enforcement provision. The so-called Joint Commision does not presently require that accredited hospitals generally meet those standards. [NOTE: It may require it in specific cases.] However, slow as it may be, a movement is taking place to place those standards in effect. It may be another 10-years before they are fully in effect, but that time is comming.

I have spoken specificly to hospital chaplaincy. Much of what I have said could be said about prison chaplaincy, law enforcement chaplaicy, industrail chaplaincy, community chaplaincy and more. Some areas are moving faster than are other areas.

This general movement is towards volunteers as well as paid chaplains. The bottom line is: A volunteer chaplain, working in a hospital can do much damage to the patient and needs to be trained to a minimumn level.

[Gregory Matthews]

The Department of Veterans' Affairs has standards to become a VA chaplain that are a bit lower than the commonly accepted standards in hospital based pastoral care.

It actually has more than one set of standards each of which is based upon what the duties that the chaplain is expected to perform. IOW the standard for a chaplain whose sole duty is to provide a Sunday religious service differ from that of a chaplain who minimally visits patients and a chaplain who participates fully as a member of the clinical treatment team.

Yet, the VA will not allow for any "volunteer chaplains."

The reason is simple. An untrained clergy person can cause damage to the ill patient and cause problems in the provision of clinical care.

ACM and the world at large have standards beyond that of a typical clergy person and that should be the case.

Now, an alterantive position, which I have heard expressed is that clergypersons should have some of the extra training that hospital chaplains should have. There may (?) be some merit in this position.

[OzarkWoman]

The Department of Veterans' Affairs has standards to become a VA chaplain that are a bit lower than the commonly accepted standards in hospital based pastoral care.

It actually has more than one set of standards each of which is based upon what the duties that the chaplain is expected to perform. IOW the standard for a chaplain whose sole duty is to provide a Sunday religious service differ from that of a chaplain who minimally visits patients and a chaplain who participates fully as a member of the clinical treatment team.

Yet, the VA will not allow for any "volunteer chaplains."

The reason is simple. An untrained clergy person can cause damage to the ill patient and cause problems in the provision of clinical care.

ACM and the world at large have standards beyond that of a typical clergy person and that should be the case.

Now, an alterantive position, which I have heard expressed is that clergypersons should have some of the extra training that hospital chaplains should have. There may (?) be some merit in this position.

Yep, the VA hospitals don't want or need more people that might cause problems for the patients. I mean, the VA hospitals do enough damage themselves and actually kill patients.

[Gregory Matthews]

Quote:

Yep, the VA hospitals don't want or need more people that might cause problems for the patients. I mean, the VA hospitals do enough damage themselves and actually kill patients.

There was a time when there was some truth in your statement.

I have a relative who when through the system at that time. He came back from Viet Nam with a spinal cord injury, confined to a wheel chair. There were times when his VA care was imperfect. Yet the government spent a million dollars on giving him care. Today he lives independently, although confined to a wheel chair.

At the present, VA health care has been rated as some of the best in the nation and at the lowest cost to the government. the change from the early 70s has been profound.

I know. I work in a VA hospital. As a retired military person, I can obtain my medical care from hospitals and physicians of my choice. Occasionally, due to a scheduling issue, I do obtain care outside. But, I get it 90% of the time from the VA.

I had surgery twice in 2012, that I could have obtained in a hospital located 1 mile from where I live. I got it in a VA hospital.

In the 1st surgery, an entry hole was made in my eyeball with a 25 guage needle--3 in fact. Electric lights and surgical instruments entered my eye through those needle holes and surgery was done on my retina. No, that was not laser surgery.

VA Medical are has changed.

Your statement reflects a profound ignorance of the current facts. I suggest that in the future before you make such statements that you obtain the facts.

If your statement was factually true, the VA would not be swamped with veterans attempting to get care from us.

NOTE: My comment has not addressed the problems of becoming eligible for VA care.

[Gregory Matthews]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html#byline

Ozark Woman: Try the above website if you want information on the change in VA Quality care.

It should be noted that there is a wealth of information available to anyone who wants the truth/facts.

[Gregory Matthews]

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa021899

Ozark Woman, perhaps you will want to read what the New England Journal of Medicine said in a May 29, 2003 article about VA health care. If so, click on the above website.

To be fair, you will want to read the entire article. But, here is a clip:

Quote:

There were statistically significant improvements in quality from 1994–1995 through 2000 for all nine indicators that were collected in all years. As compared with the Medicare fee-for-service program, the VA performed significantly better on all 11 similar quality indicators for the period from 1997 through 1999. In 2000, the VA outperformed Medicare on 12 of 13 indicators.

Conclusions

The quality of care in the VA health care system substantially improved after the implementation of a systemwide reengineering and, during the period from 1997 through 2000, was significantly better than that in the Medicare fee-for-service program. These data suggest that the quality-improvement initiatives adopted by the VA in the mid-1990s were effective.

By the way, there is more on the web if you are really interested in the truth.

NOTE: You might say that the conclusions stated above are old and not current. Well, The above conclusions continue to the present, with the addition that the VA delivers high quality clinical care at a lower cost than do other government programs.

[Gregory Matthews]

Here it is in brief:

1) To receive clinical care from the VA, the patient must have established eligibility. NOTE There are a very few exceptions, for limited care such as immediate emergent care and a few others.

2) The VA is required by U.S. law to provide care based upon the establishment of eligibility and the 8 levels of care that one can be rated to receive. IOW, establishment of eligibility also establishes a level of care to be provided which in the majority of cases is NOT 100% clinical care.

3) We are able to provide the required level of care at little to no cost to the patient, regardless of the cost to the VA.

NOTE: Some patients may be required to pay a $2.00 fee for a prescription, others may not. We also may provide clinical care to patients that we are not required to provide, for a small, flat fee. If needed for clinical reasons, we can contract care out to other hospitals and we often do.

4) Dental care, under the law, is different from what I have said here and generally my comments here do not apply to dental care.

In summary: Eligibility for VA clinical care is a complex subject which is little understood by the public. We are required to operate under the law. But, the care that we provide is quality care and generally at a lower cost than other government programs.

[Gregory Matthews]

Ozark Woman: Point to consider:

1) The VA hospital where I work is a teaching hospital. IOW, we train physicians and others how to practice their profession.

2) If you use the services of a physician, it just may be that the physician who treats you was trained in a VA hospital.

3) As a teaching hospital, the quality of our training is judged by professional standards and independent authorities who are not government agents.

3) Believe me, our hospitals would lose their government funding if your evaluation of them was accurate. The Joint Commission would drop our accreditation.

[Gregory Matthews]

http://www.patientcare.va.gov/20100518a1.asp

Ozark Woman, it may interest you to know that the VA health-care system is the largest health-care system is the largest in the nation.

It is also the first health-care system in the nation to establish a level of surgical care that each facility is authorized to provide.

You may read about that on the above link and also see the grade level for each facility.

[Gregory Matthews]

http://www.hospitalcompare.va.gov/apps/C...Report=Continue

Ozark woman, you have told us that the VA kills patients. In any hospital system, patients die, although it may be false to say that the hospital killed the patient.

On the above website you can look up individual hospitals and see the mortality (death) rate for individual clinical situations within 30 days of the surgery.

E.G. I looked up the hospital where I work and I discovered that 8% of our patients who have a specified clinical condition die within 30 days of a specific surgery. speaking as a clinician, I will suggest that rate is pretty good for that clinical condition.

In any case, the VA believes in transparency. The information on death rate is freely available.

Your statement is not supported by the objective facts.

[Gregory Matthews]

http://www.herc.research.va.gov/resources/faq_b06.asp

I have said that VA health care is provided at a lower cost than other government programs. That above link documents this in one specific aspect of clinical care. Other documentation is available for other aspects of clinical care.

NOTE: As the largest health care system in the nation, there are many objective studies that demonstrate the quality of VA care. As the VA believes in transparency, it makes these available.

[Gregory Matthews]

http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9100/index1.html

The above study demonstrates that the VA patient is more likely to receive quality care than patients in other systems in factor after factor.

[nuff sed]

I live just outside of Orlando. My son came from Hong Kong to attend what you called 'the conference'. My understanding that this was part of the process of upgrading of certification and was not a denominational meeting though Adventists had a considerable number attending and had their own breakaway session as well as Sabbath Services at Celebration. If there was any announcement of the meeting or invitation in the Chaplaincy Ministry magazine I must have missed it. Regards, Don

[Gregory Matthews]

You are mixing up two (2) different conferences that were held at the same place and on the same dates.

One Conference was that of the Association of Professional Chaplains and the second was a Conference sponsered by Adventist Chaplaiancy Ministries and the Seventh-day Adventist Health-care Chaplains Association.

The APC Conference was not a denominational conference, the ACM Conference was.

The ACM conference had problems with getting the word out in a timely manner and to the people who might have attended. ACM budgeted for 60 attendees. 90 persons pre-registered to attend the ACM conference and 140 persons showed up to attend on the 1st day of the conference. So, even though there were problems,the word did get out. If you did not get the word and feel that you should have, contact ACM and discuss it with them.

NOTE: The ACM conference was organized in a maner that people could attend both the ACM conference and the APC conference.

A number of people did attend both.

It appears to me that your son only attended the APC conference.

[Gregory Matthews]

Have a good day, everyone. If you need clinical care and are eligible for VA care, and live in the Denver Metro area, give our hospital a try. :)

[Stan]

I just returned Sunday from a Conference for SDA Chaplains in the North American Division; There I learned:

1) The SDA Church has 150 military chaplains on active duty and in the Reserves.

2) We have a bit less than 300 hospital chaplains.

Interesting, at least to me.

Often when the North American Division says North American Division they really mean the USA. Wondering if there was any of the Chaplains there from outside the USA?

I just did a cover story on one.

http://www.adventist.ca/3dissue/messenger/82-7/index.html

[nuff sed]

Rick Aldridge was there from Hong Kong where he is Head of Pastoral Services for the two Adventist hospitals there. Nuff Sed