Methodist-Proctor union completed

Peoria now has two fine hospital companies, and they will be handling area health care needs on three hospital campuses.

Proctor Hospital is now part of UnityPoint Health and will be called UnityPoint Proctor, affiliated with UnityPoint Methodist, after approval for the merger came from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.

The merger of the two, which was first announced just a few months ago, was previously approved by the boards of directors of Methodist Health Services Corp. and Proctor Health Care Inc.

"This is a great day for Proctor, for Methodist and for our community," said Debbie Simon, president and CEO of the new entity known as UnityPoint Health Methodist/Proctor, during a news conference Thursday at Hult Center for Healthy Living on the Proctor Hospital campus, which was attended by 100 or so people.

"Now we will developed a unified health system that will optimize the resources of both organizations. This new vision for health care in our community will provide greater value, coordination, quality and access for Peoria and the region," said Simon, who has been president and CEO of UnityPoint Methodist.

Paul Macek, president and CEO of Proctor, agreed. He said he believes the services will thrive under the new arrangement and will strengthen the region. The unity of the two will "create the best health system in downstate Illinois. Not the biggest, the best," Macek said during the news conference.

Those sentiments were echoed by Dr. Peter Johnsen, chairman of the Methodist board, and Dennis Triggs, chairman of Proctor's board. The latter board had its last official meeting on Oct. 29, which Triggs said was a somber occasion.

Triggs praised the professionalism and ethics of Macek and the Proctor staff for working diligently to make the affiliation happen despite the uncertainty it lends to their own futures. "The integrity and commitment of these people and of Debbie Simon and the folks at Methodist cannot be overstated," Triggs said. "We now need to collectively maximize the opportunity to truly make central Illinois the place people come for quality health care."

The new affiliation was welcomed by Iowa-based UnityPoint, said Bill Leaver, that organization's president and CEO. It also, he added, represents the kind of change that will become necessary in health care delivery in the United States.

"Health care has to change going forward and UnityPoint is focused on bringing resources together and focusing on coordinated care. That will become critical in the future," Leaver said.

A team using people from both Methodist and Proctor has started work on integrating the services and resources, including making a determination on any staff or personnel changes in the future, Simon said. That process will be far lengthier than getting the merger approved, she added; it could take two or three years before it is completed.

UnityPoint Health Methodist/Proctor, also referred to as UnityPoint Health-Peoria, will be governed by a 16-member board of directors, including three brought aboard from the Proctor board.

Under UnityPoint Health-Peoria, there will be 562 licensed hospital bed and 188 affiliation-employed physicans and advanced practice providers.

Between the two over the last year there were 19,194 surgeries performed, 2,360 births, 76,673 emergency visits, 22,209 admissions and 159,591 outpatient visits.

UnityPoint Health-Peoria will encompass not only the two hospitals but also the UnityPoint Clinic Physican Network, Proctor First Care and Proctor Medical Group, UnityPoint at Home-Peoria, the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery at Proctor, the Hult Center for Healthy Living and Methodist College.

West Des Moines-based UnityPoint Health now owns 31 hospital, more than 280 physician clnics and nearly 3,300 licensed beds throughout Illinois and Iowa.

Knight: St. Francis, 'patron of a harrowed tribe'

Years ago, not long after my wife and I were sacramentally married in the Catholic Church after awesome Cursillo weekend experiences, I chose St. Francis de Sales as my Confirmation saint.

A patron saint of journalists, De Sales was an advocate, priest and reporter, and 410 years ago this month he sent a report to the Pope prefaced with the comment that the situation in his diocese in Switzerland was important, so the correspondence was as conscientious and faithful a report about what was happening there as he could write.

De Sales took such pains, he said, because otherwise someone could see "as truth what was false and as false what was true."

Besides writing hundreds of reports and pamphlets and some of the most enduring literature about Christianity, including "Introduction to the Devout Life," De Sales is credited with writing more than 17,000 letters to everyday readers as well as clergy.

His output makes today's journalists meeting daily deadlines – or even the never-ending 21st century nonstop online variety – seem like slothful slackers.

De Sales' energy and output are humbling, but his approach also can be daunting to contemporary practitioners. Nevertheless, his existence can be comforting to "ink-stained wretches" trying to do good work, whether The Peorian or a print publication, a broadcast or a blog.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "Journalists have an obligation to serve the truth," also conceding that "the means of social communication (especially the mass media) can give rise to a certain passivity among users, making them less than vigilant consumers."

It's difficult not to comment about Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and their ilk. It's more difficult – and more rewarding – to be vigilant, fair, and accurate – and tell a good story.

Help is always welcomed, of course.

This summer, Pope Francis helped reassure journalists that the church (well, at least the Holy Father) has an appreciation for – and expectations about – the press. Speaking to a group of Jesuit journalists, the pontiff reminded the reporters that they must "be uncompromising against the hypocrisies which result from the closed, the sick heart," adding, "Your task is to gather and express the expectations, the desires, the joys and the dramas of our time."

Wow.

A previous Pope, Pius XI, in 1923 canonized De Sales (1567-1622), whose writings included lines such as "the body is poisoned through the mouth, even so is the heart through the ear."

(And eyes, it could be argued, ever since photography, movies and television, and the Internet emerged.)

Bottom line: Speak the truth with charity.

Indeed, centuries after De Sales wrote his appeals to Swiss and French residents in his diocese, dominated by Calvinists, and decades after Pius recognized De Sales' sainthood, Pope Francis stressed that journalism goes beyond exposing hypocrisy, saying that the main task of journalists "is not to build walls but bridges" and to establish dialogue with everyone.

If that seems a challenge, if not a burden, consider the experiences of another patron saint of journalists (we need all the help we can get), Maximilian Kolbe. After forming an organization devoted to St. Mary in the last century – the Knight of the Immaculata – the Franciscan friar produced a magazine that reached a circulation of 1 million by 1939. Two years later, the Nazis' Gestapo arrested him. Kolbe eventually was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland, where he was forced into slave labor and tortured. He died when he volunteered to take the place of a condemned prisoner, Francis Gajowniczek, who survived, lived to be 95, and was present when Pope John Paul II canonized Kolbe in 1980.

"No one in the world can change truth," Kolbe wrote. "What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it."

(Interestingly, the first point in the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics is "Seek the truth and report it fully.")

On the other hand – the lighter side – there's this "Prayer to St. Francis de Sales," supposedly discovered by a Shropshire, England, parish priest sympathetic to newspapermen, and published in the Journal of the British Institute of Journalists and also in Editor & Publisher magazine in the United States:

"St. Francis, dear patron of a harrowed tribe, grant us thy protection. Bestow on us, thy servants, a little more of thy critical spirit, and a little less on our readers. Confer on our subscribers the grace of condescension in overlooking our faults and the grace of promptitude in paying our bills.

"Make them less partial to compliments, more callous to rebuke, less critical to misprints," it continues. "Give us brave thoughts, beautiful thoughts, so that we, thy children, may have the courage to write as we think, and our readers the docility to think as we write.

"Then shall we, thy faithful servants, resting on thy protection, fight thy battles with joyful hearts, drive the wolf from the door, the devil from the fold, and meet thee in everlasting peace. Amen."

Symphony to offer 'Allure of Paris'

It will be a decidedly French affair Saturday when the Peoria Symphony Orchestra presents "Allure of Paris" for its November concert at 8 p.m. at Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria.

Guest artists' violist Katherine Lewis and harpist Nichole Luchs will perform with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra during its third concert of the season.

The concert, said the Symphony, "will suggest an evening of music from Paris, the city of love and light featuring two principal musicians from within the symphony's own talented membership."

Repertoire for this concert will include works by well-known composers, including Fauré, Debussy, Mozart, and the Illinois Premiere of a Viola Concerto by Nystroem. Written by the Swedish composer in the 1920's, it is homage to his adopted country France.

"It is a rare find," said PSO music director and conductor George Stelluto, "to discover such a delightful and beautiful work that has escaped popular attention for so long. Audiences will find it compelling, charming, and, well... surprisingly 'French'."

The season was designed to build on the successes of the last two seasons, Stelluto said. "Our programming is exciting and innovative. It is a season that appeals to both the connoisseur and the newcomer. The PSO had over 200 new subscribers last year. With this season we are inviting many more community members to join our family.

"I was looking for world-class guest artists who also have a dedication to young people. From beginning to end, we have soloists who will generously share both their art and their insights with our community. Our PSO musicians Kate Lewis and Nichole Luchs who will serve as soloists on this season are also dedicated, award-winning teachers with their own national reputations as great artist-pedagogues," he said.

Tickets start at $26 for adults and $11 for students. They are available by visiting the PSO box office, 101 State Street in Peoria, calling (309) 671-1096 or online at www.peoriasymphony.org.

'Meet Me In St. Louis' set to open at Peoria Players

For Mary Ellen Ulrich, the musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" takes her back to a simpler time, such as her childhood.

Even though she wasn't yet alive when the play takes place, in fact was decades from being born, it still made her think of her childhood home, on Oak Street in Quincy. So when she designed the set for the show, which opens Friday at Peoria Players Theatre, she let her memory guide her — right down to the stained glass window in the living room and the pictures on the wall.

"That looks like real wall paper, doesn't it," she queried while waiting for a recent dress rehearsal to start. "This looks a lot like our house."

"Meet Me in St. Louis" is a show with nostalgia, a big cast, lots of costumes, music people already know and will be humming when they leave the theatre, and most of all family appeal. That's a Mary Ellen Ulrich type of show and that is why she asked to direct it.

"I just love shows that span generations. Our cast does that. Our youngest performer is 5 and our oldest is 68 or 69. And they all are so special and they all recognize that this is a special show. I've loved it from the first time I ever saw it," Ulrich said

The show centers around the Smith family, which has four daughters all eagerly anticipating the 1904 World's Fair that was in St. Louis. But a promotion for Mr. Smith, an attorney, throws the family into a tailspin because it means moving to New York City right after the year 1904 begins.

This show deals with the kind of transition and sacrifices a lot of families had to make at a time when communications were so different, not to mention transportation issues, Ulrich said.

"This piece goes back to a time when things were kindler and gentler. But also, the times made it that much more difficult to handle transitions of that nature. Still, the message is still on point today because it deals with family. It really brings home the meaning of family," she said.

Several well-known songs came from this musical, which actually was first a 1944 film by the same name that starred Judy Garland. It didn't make it to Broadway until 1989.

Songs include the title song, The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song, Under the Bamboo Tree, A Day in New York and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

The cast of 64 includes many veterans of Peoria-area community theatre as well as newcomers, Ulrich said.

Principal cast members include Molly Smith, last seen on the Peoria Players stage in "The Drowsy Chaperone," as Esther, Mary Rose Williams as Rose, Anna Hsu as Agnes, Faustina Hoerdeman as Tootie and Ryan Fouk as Lon. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are portrayed by Steve Post and Dedra Kaiser, respectively, while Curt Rowden portrays Grandpa and Amy Wyckoff plays the family's very Irish and very saucy maid, Katie.

Deric Kimler portrays John Truitt, Bryan Blanks is Warren Sheffield, Natalie McMillion is Lucille Ballard, Alexandria Sauder is Eve, Fred Schoen is Mr. Braukoff, Jerry Brost is the postman, Jim Babrowski is the motorman, Clay Frankel is Clinton Badget, Colin Evers is Peewee Drummond and Tyler Smith is Sidney Purvis.

Amanda Bach is the music director, leading a nine-piece orchestra, and Jimmy Ulrich choreographed the show. Costumes, which is this show must be period and elaborate, were headed by Carrie McMillion.

"I love shows with big casts and a lot of people bustling around," Ulrich said, with her ever-present laugh. "I'm Irish, so I was raised around a lot of commotion. I also was raised around a lot of family, which is why family is so important to me. That's why I love this show and I think the audience will, too."

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 and 16 and at 2 p.m. on Nov. 10 and 17.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $12 for students 18 and under and they can be purchased at the Peoria Players box office, ordered by calling 688-4473 or online at www.peoriaplayers.org.