A journal of community. Catholic healthcare providers' presence is necessary to sustain a values-based system

Catholic healthcare leaders must use all their will and creative imagination to find a way to maintain a significant Catholic presence in healthcare. Catholic healthcare leaders across the nation are acquiring, consolidating, and merging hospitals; forming alliances and networks of integrated services; and bringing together Catholic healthcare systems on a regional and local basis. The next few years are critical for Catholic sponsors of healthcare services. The unique challenge is to pursue the development of a Catholic network that would include a wide range of health, mental health, home care, long-term care, social, and housing services. The key ingredient to making networks happen will be leadership, and I think CHA and sponsors rightly emphasize the need for continuing leadership formation and development of trustees and executives in Catholic healthcare. A united effort by Catholic healthcare providers could have a penetrating influence on the overall development of healthcare in this nation. Now is the time to exercise imaginative leadership; to reach out to the existing Catholic and community-based providers of health and human services; and to create networks that can provide a continuum of accessible, high-quality, values-based, and cost-efficient services.