Holoubek, Alice Baker

Holoubek, Joe E.

English

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 31 | Number 1 Article 11February 1964Health Care of Religious and Clergy: Diocese ofAlexandria, La.Alice Baker HoloubekJoe E. HoloubekFollow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationHoloubek, Alice Baker and Holoubek, Joe E. (1964) "Health Care of Religious and Clergy: Diocese of Alexandria, La.," The LinacreQuarterly: Vol. 31 : No. 1 , Article 11.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol31/iss1/11t i • Health Care of Religious and Clergy Diocese of Alexandria, La. ALICE BAKER HOLOUBEK, M.D* JOE E. HOLOuBEK, M.D., K.C.S.G.* The service of our priests, nuns and brothers cannot be evaluated in terms -of money. No matter how much their work is worth financially, the spiritual inspiration which is part and parcel of themselves and their work is of in-finitely greater value. However, their ability to perform their duties depends, to a great extent, on their physical health. Many large business firms recognize this fact and require their executives to have annual physical ex-aminations in order to detect curable or preventable diseases l - 2 This has been shown to increase the function-ing capacity and years of service of the individual. Realizing the great value of such an "Members, Committee on Health Care of Religious and Clergy of the N ational Fed eration of Catholic Physicians ' Guilds. Both are members of the Shreveport Guild. (The Medical Examination Forms may be obtained from The Cathol ic Hos-pital Association, 1438 So. Grand Blvd., St. Louis 4, Missouri. Prices: En-trance Examination Form, 50 for $5.00 ; Annua l Physical Examination Form, 50 for $3.00; Medical Identification Card , 50 for $3.00.) l SCHENTHAL, Joseph E., M .D ., "Mul-tiphasic Screening of the Well Pa· tient," I.A.M.A. Vol. 172, No.1, p . 1, Jan . 2, 1960. "ELSOM, Kendall, A., M.D. , SCHOR, Stan ley, Ph.D., CLARK, Thomas W. , M.D., ELSOM, Katherine 0., M.D. and HUBBARD, John P., M.D. , " Periodic He a I t h Examination ," J.A.M.A ., Vol. 172, No.1, p. 7, J an. 2, 1960. FEBRUARY, 1964 annual physical examination for pre-ventive as well as curative medicine for the priests and religious in his diocese, Bishop Charles P. Greco of the Dio-cese of Alexandria, La. had the fore-sight to sponsor the pilot project for the Health Care of Religious Commit-tee of The National Federation of Catholic Physicians' Gui lds and The Catholic Hospital Association, in 1960. This proj ect was presented to the Con-gregat ion of Religious in Rome and to the IX International Congress of Catholic Physicians in Munich, also in 1960. 3 MATERIAL The Diocese of Alexandria com-prises 24,000 square m iles of the northern half of the State of Louisiana containing about 82 ,000 Catholics. There are approximately 400 nuns in the Diocese in elementary and high schools , six general hospitals, St. Ann's Foundling Home and St. Mary's Home for Retarded Children and other in-stitutions. There are 175 priests and 25 lay brothers. The Daughters of the Cross have their Motherhouse in the Diocese and there are 90 seminarians in Maryhill Minor Seminary in Alex-andria. PROJECT The primary purpose of this pro-gram was to encourage every priest, 3HOLOUBEK, Alice Baker, M.D., " H ea lth Care of Religious and Cler-gy" IX International Congress of Catholic Physicians, Munich, 1960, Otto Muller Verlag, Salsburg. 23 brother and nun in the Diocese to see his or her physician for a complete physical examination and later to have an annual check-up. Two forms were developed by the Health Care Committee of The Na-tional Federation of Catholic Physi-cians' Guilds for this program. HEALTH CARE QUESTIONNAIRE This four page questionnaire in-cludes the past history, fami ly history, inoculation record, system review and present illness in the form of ques-tions. The examinee fills out and an-swers the questions by a check in a "yes" or "no" column. This form is taken to the physician who may elab-orate on the history where necessary, and who does a complete physical ex-amination. A hemoglobin and urinaly-sis and roentgenogram of the chest are routinely taken. Other laboratory tests, if needed, are ordered by the physi-cian . After the examination and laboratory work is completed, the physician discusses the findings with the examinee. He then requests per-mission to report the findings to the immediate religious superior. In this way, definitive medical and surgical procedures, changes in diet or working conditions can be made in order to pre-vent further illness or effect a cure. ANNUAL CHECK-UP A one-page check-up form is used annually for re-examination and is at-tached to the original Health Care Questionnaire by the examining physi-cian. At this annual check-up, any la-boratory work which may be needed is ordered. Again a report is made to the superior, if the examinee permits it. Both of these forms remain in the files of the personal physician and are transferred to the new physician when the examinee is assigned to another area in the Diocese. 24 PHYSICIAN COOPERATION All of the one hundred Catholic physicians in the Diocese cooperated in this project. Almost all of them are members of the three Catholic Physi-cians' Guilds located in Monroe, Shreveport and Alexandria. In addi-tion, an equal number of non-Catholic physicians also volunteered their ser-vICes. INFORMATION TO NUNS AND CLERGY 1. The Diocesan newspaper fea-tured a story on the Health Care Pro-gram which discussed the necessity of a complete examination every year for everyone and outlined the method of filling out the Health Care Question-nalre. 2. Instructions were sent to all members of the Catholic Physicians' Guilds in the Diocese. 3. The Pr9gram was discussed at staff meetings of the Catholic hospi-tals . 4 . Two physicians explained the program to the priests of the Diocese at the Bishop's regular monthly meet-ing with them. Examples were cited from recent medical literature listing the diseases that were found to be as-ymptomatic on routine examinations. The simplicity of the program was ex-plained. The Bishop endorsed the project to the priests and all were en-couraged to take part. 5. The program was also explained to the teaching nuns at the annual Di-ocesan Teachers' Convention. The Pro-gram was again endorsed by the Bish-op and 'all were urged to cooperate. 6. A similar explanation was given to the nursing nuns at the meeting of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Hos-pitals. 7. The use of the Health Care Form as an entrance physical examination to the seminary or notiviate was discussed LIN ACRE QUARTERLY 1 { r with the Rector of the Maryhill Sem-inary and the Mother Superior of the Daughters of the Cross. The Health Care Forms of the seminarians and novices remain in the files of the sem-inary or novitiate house. All records of illnesses are added while they are in their training period. These records are transferred with the student to his or her new assignment when con-tinuing studies elsewhere. Finally, this entire record is sent to the physi-cian who will care for the priest or nun after ordination or final profes-sion of vows. PROCEDURE 1. All priests were sent a Health Care Questionnaire form from the Chancery office with a covering letter urging them to take it to their personal physician and have an examination. 2. All teaching nuns were sent a similar form from the office of the Di-ocesan Superintendent of Education. 3. All nursing nuns were sent the form from the office of the Diocesan Superintendent of Catholic hospitals. 4. Health Care forms were sent to each applicant for the seminary or to the novitiate with instructions to have a private physician complete it and en-close it with their original application. FOLLOW-UP As every new priest or nun is as-signed to the Diocese, a Health Care form is mailed to him or her with a covering letter explaining the program and encouraging participation. HEALTH CARE OF RELIGIOUS COMMITTEE The Bishop appointed a Health Care of Religious and Clergy Committee composed of eight physicians, one den-tist, three priests and two nuns. This committee meets regularly to make such recommendations as are necessary to the Bishop to facilitate the program. At present several sub-committees have been appointed to study special projects. Among these are included: a. Sub-committee on hospitalization insurance for nuns. Most of the clergy carry their insurance in a group plan in the Diocese. However, this has not been arranged at present for nuns. This committee will study the program and make proposals. b. Personality Study committee, to study methods of personality testing for admission to the seminary and no-vitiate. c. Recreation committee. The Bish-op has always recommended that the clergy take one day of rest and relaxa-tion a week, and an adequate vacation. He recommended to the committee that the nuns should have the same periods of rest. A sub-committee was appointed to help facilitate these re-commendations. SUMMARY An effective program of Health Care of Religious and Clergy has been operating in the Diocese of Alexan-dria . The primary purpose is to pro-long the health and functional capa-city of the limited number of priests, nuns and brothers available in the Di-ocese and thereby enable them to per-form their duties to God and the Church more effectively and for a much longer period of time. Dr. James T. Nix, chairman 0/ the National Federation's Health Care of Religious Com-mittee, would like the names and addresses of all physicians who have participated in any local program concerned with health care of religious and priests. Please write to him.: 1407 So. Carrollton Ave., New Orleans 18, Louisiana. FEBR UARY, 1964 25 

Health Care of Religious and Clergy: Diocese of Alexandria, La.

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Health Care of Religious and Clergy: Diocese of Alexandria, La.

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