Accounting for charity care on a systemwide basis

The Daughters of Charity National Health System (DCNHS), St. Louis, has developed a systemwide model which formally sets a policy statement, goals, and procedures that enable the 42 DCNHS health-care ministries to effectively serve the poor in their communities on a daily basis, while addressing the long-term challenges of providing charity care for the sick poor. One of the first steps was forming a task force known as the Working Group on Care of the Poor. Its goal was to set the stage for the expansion and accountability of charity care at every level within the new national system. The group outlined these objectives: To identify and recommend several advocacy models. To recommend test models of healthcare delivery for the poor. To recommend strategies for involving the private sector. To develop a method of documenting charity care. To recommend linkage models to jointly provide charity care with related organizations. To gain a firm knowledge of charity care actually provided by the Daughters of Charity After hours of discussions and research, the task force developed a cohesive, workable set of goals and policies that today is helping individual health-care ministries nationwide meet local needs for care of the sick poor. By identifying specific programs and determining how to report charity care in terms of money and services, individual health-care institutions gain insights into their annual operational planning and reporting for the present and the future. This approach ensures that charity care remains in the forefront at every level of planning.