First lady Michelle Obama unveiled this month what she calls a "very ambitious" program to end childhood obesity. The program is based on four key pillars:

- getting parents more informed about nutrition and exercise
- improving the quality of food in schools
- making healthy - foods more affordable and accessible
- focusing on physical education.

I think we should all invite Mrs. Obama to St. Joseph to experience our 4th Grade Challenge. The 4th Grade Challenge - a partnership with the St. Joseph School District - gets students and parents more involved in nutrition and exercise. Our physicians visit students across the city and demonstrate the importance of good health; our dietitians provide understandable lessons on reading food labels and selecting healthy foods; our wellness staff gets kids up and moving; and our Youth Health Partnership coordinator works with the school district to improve student lunches. Additionally, the Heartland Foundation recently received a letter from Mrs. Obama urging it to keep up the good work. So ... should we invite Mrs. Obama to St. Joseph? Leave me a comment and let me know.

I need your help. The Heartland Health Ethics Committee is celebrating 25 years of service to our community. The purpose of this committee is to serve as a resource regarding ethical questions in health care and provide a forum for airing concerns and recommending solutions to ethical issues. To recognize the good work of this committee we're launching the Caring People recognition project. You can help me by sharing your stories about a Heartland caregiver who made a difference in your life. Heartland caregivers are employees, physicians and volunteers. Your personal story should emphasize care and compassion, demonstrate extraordinary care and illustrate a servant's heart. Selected stories will appear in our weekly internal newsletter This Week at Heartland, on the Heartland Intranet and Web site, in a direct mail piece and in the St. Joseph News - Press. Your story should be no more than 300 words. Please submit stories to: caringpeople@heartland-health.com or send stories to: Heartland Health, Spiritual Services, 5325 Faraon, St. Joseph, Missouri, 64506. Thanks for your help.

Heartland Health recently won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Before coming to Heartland, I didn't know much about this important award. The Baldrige Award gave me the chance to pop the hood and take a really close look at the mechanics of Heartland. What I found, and what Baldrige found, is that Heartland is so much more than a hospital. We are not only committed to providing the best and safest care within the hospital, but we're also committed to improving the health of our community ... one individual at a time. I strongly believe in servant leadership and community partnerships ... never losing sight of doing our best work for this community.

This is your hospital ... and this is only the beginning.

In taking that next step, I want to hear from you. What do you want from your hospital? What can we do together to make this great community even better?

Edited: 01/26/2010 at 11:04 AM by Servant leadership and community partnership Moderator