Park, yet they were not going to LMC. Tey were travel- ing all the way into Manhattan’s Chinatown to go to the Chinese clinics there.” So to better meet patients’ needs, while reflecting the
ELCA’s social statement on health care—that wholeness is a blessing that God intends for all people (www.elca. org/socialstatements)—LMC enhanced its mission to become more culturally competent. Also known as inclusivity or diversity, cultural com-
petency redefined LMC’s patient-centered care at its 17 community clinics, an extended care and rehabilitation center, and almost 800 units of senior housing. Today the welcome sign in the hospital’s lobby, along with other signage throughout the campus, greets and directs guests in no fewer than six languages. Tong said becoming more culturally competent
meant translating patient handouts into several lan- guages, hiring a diverse and bilingual staff, appointing patient liaisons, and training doctors and nurses on patients’ cultural and religious needs. Consideration went into even small changes, includ-
ing offering more modest hospital gowns for those uncomfortable with short ones and offering ethnic food menu choices (including Halal and kosher). Asian patients can opt to stay in a dedicated hospital
wing that doesn’t include rooms with numbers many Chinese consider bad luck. LMC also added alternative and Chinese treatments, like acupuncture and cupping (creating a partial vacuum on skin to increase blood flow) that are oſten requested. A Shabbat elevator was installed that automatically
stops on every floor so Orthodox Jews don’t have to operate electrical equipment on the Sabbath, something their faith forbids. A Bikur Cholim room, which means visiting the sick in Hebrew, is stocked with kosher snacks. (Wendy Goldstein, LMC’s president and CEO, is Jewish.) Te medical center also renovated a room into a
mosque where staff and patients can pray, and updated the chapel to include turn-of-the-century stained-glass windows from its early building. “One of our four core values was changed to inclu-
sivity,” said Don Stiger, an ELCA pastor and senior vice president of mission and spiritual care. “We use the word diversity, but it’s beyond diversity. Inclusivity means all are valued and included. We’re committed to providing equitable access—our mission hasn’t changed. We simply respond to the needs of our neighbors. “You can’t imagine all the religions of the patients we have here—Christians, Muslims, Buddists, Hasidic and
Orthodox Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and more. ... We’re only one of six hospitals in the country to have a mosque. It’s hard to imagine a religion we don’t serve here.” Stiger, who oversees a staff of interfaith leaders all
versed in each other’s religious practices, has long embraced cultural diversity. His comprehensive Guide to Patient Care notes principles, symbols, beliefs and practices for each religion. Te Islam section notes that Muslims pray five times a day and say the Janazah Prayer for the deceased. Te Christianity section is further broken down into details about Christian Sci- ence, Eastern Orthodox, Mormon, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist.
It’s in the center’s DNA “Cultural competence is in our DNA,” Stiger said, citing LMC’s founding in 1883 by Sister Elizabeth Fedde as the Deaconess Home and Hospital. “I suspect that today this is not much more chal-
lenging than it was in the later part of the 19th century when we were founded and Sister Elizabeth Fedde, a Norwegian, spoke 11 words of English,” Stiger said. “As is quite apparent, we practice a ‘radical inclusiv- ity’ at LCM, much as I believe Jesus did throughout his ministry. Tat can, at times, raise the eyebrows of some Lutherans and other Christians who maintain a more traditional or parochial orientation. “But we believe we can and do maintain both our
Lutheran, faith-based heritage/identity and that core value of inclusivity [at] the same time. We do that every day here as we serve all God’s people and celebrate the diverse ways all religions and cultures shine a light on what it means to be whole and human.” Last July, LMC was cited in a report by Te Health
Research & Educational Trust on Cultural Compe- tence. Its “Becoming a Culturally Competent Health Care Organization” listed LMC and the center’s practices. “Cultural competence puts this place in a meaningful
and stimulating context to do health-care ministry,” said Stiger, who is oſten called to speak at conferences and confer with health-care and spiritual care organizations. “My hope is that main- line denominations can embrace their health-care institu- tions because we’re at a crossroads.”
Author bio: Healy is a freelance writer and a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, Brewster, N.Y.
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