Inspirational Thoughts from Dr. Yoder SICHC

An unusual news post – In 2021, MEK was privileged to nominate Yolanda Yoder, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for the four-county Southern Indiana Community Health Care organization (SICHC), for the Indiana Rural Health Association’s (IRHA) top award for individual excellence in rural healthcare. While we at MEK are privileged to represent SICHC, the nomination and completion of the extensive application was done pro bono (with the timely help of Katarina Koch at SICHC). The letters of support for Dr. Yoder’s nomination (IU Health, etc.) were generous in worthy praise for Dr. Yoder’s amazing work. The good news? Dr. Yoder won the award! To our astonishment, we were able to keep it a secret from her (no small task). When she was invited to come up and received the award, she was her typical humble, self-effacing self. Caught a little off-guard, she merely accepted the award, not making any remarks (here’s the remarkable video). True to form, she later wished she had thanked and recognized all those who, in her words, made the award possible. So, again true to form, she wrote it out. Here are her words of thanks:

Dear MEK team,

I must say that I was a tad overwhelmed by the event at the Indiana Rural Health award event and in reflecting back over the fun, the embarrassment at the attention and the grief that I didn’t bravely take the podium to say what was on my heart, I wanted you to know that I am deeply grateful that your team has taken us under your wing to help highlight what rural communities can do.  If we can be an example for others, we are invigorated anew in the work that we do.  You have gone above and beyond as our partner in this work.

To put all of this together, I’ve penned some thoughts that I needed to put together……

Upon receiving the Doc Hollywood award, if I had taken the podium, this is what I would have said.

“This is a humbling achievement, and I can’t stand on this stage and receive it without the awkward feeling that it is misplaced.  The entire broad host of collaborators for our region is really the team that needs to be named.  It is this team that has championed  with formidable determination and creativity it’s love for rural communities and many of you are in this room today:

1. It is the entire team of SICHC that together makes community care possible.
   • The front-line staff who field phone calls and advocate for our patients to get appointments, med refills and to have their worried questions answered.
   • The billing, purchasing and financial staff who keep us solvent while simultaneously reaching out to provide access through our CHAP discount program, or assistance with obtaining expensive medication or to enroll someone in an insurance or the “More Than Money” community volunteer program to work off a bill.
   • It’s our administrative team that works overtime balancing our passion to do new, creative care for the community with the resources that we have.
   • And our board who provide wisdom, balance and insight as we steer our way through the complexity of health care and community engagement, sometimes choosing things that don’t make financial sense but need to be done because it’s the right thing to do.
   • It’s our staff who every day welcomes our patients, sets them at ease and finds ways to support and help solve their health care challenges.
   • It’s our medical providers who know the press of hard, complex work but do it with great talent and self-sacrifice. They are beyond amazing in their knowledge and care.
   • And our behavioral health team providers who are always a “warm handoff” away from being available to do the intense work of helping our patients cope with crisis, despair and grief.
   • And the Chronic Care nurse and “Remote Blood Pressure Care” staff who walk along site complex patients struggling with managing their health.
   • And the quality team who seeks out opportunities for patients to be engaged in coming back for the missed wellness visits and immunizations.
   • And the staff that cleans the buildings. An especially daunting task during Covid
   • And our IT and medical records support staff who manage the computer hardware and software and flood of incoming records. And they always respond with support when we feel like the technology is driving us crazy.
2. And the volunteers who stitched PPE masks and gowns out of gorgeous quilt fabric or made a thousand phone calls to helps sign our patients up for vaccines, so that our county was one of the highest vaccinated rural counties in the state.
3. And to my family who believed in my work enough to keep the home-cooked food and clean laundry coming, during my long work hours. And my husband who juggles the care of a medical office, three nursing homes, and the community garden with diligence.
4. And to IU Health local and top leadership that three years ago chose to reverse their decision to close the Paoli hospital’s maternity ward and instead chose to invest numerous dollars in continuing to staff it for the sake of doing what is imperative for the rural women of our region.
5. And to Dr. Stauffer, Dr. Brewer, other visiting OB physicians, and our own delivering doctors (Dr. Farris, Dr. Sales) who are so committed to rural OB care that they sacrifice their own family time to provide delivery services around the clock every day of the year.
6. And to Dr. [Kris] Box, and the Indiana State Department of Health who advocated for rural health facilities to be equipped with vaccine early on as a health equity issue. And who has believed in our work enough to help fund our obstetric staff to provide outpatient prenatal care in neighboring counties who had no local maternity care.
7. And Lost River Market and Deli Cooperative that blows our mind with how creative they are to help collect and market the local farmer’s goods while also partnering with agencies to do amazingly creative projects, including the food prescription and cooking classes for our patients with diabetes.
8. And the local recovery community folks ( including three of our providers) who have taken these counties in four years’ time from a barren recovery desert to a multilayered web of support for those ready to step into recovery from addiction. Crawford county’s GRACE House, Orange County’s SAFE Haven engagement center, Gateway Ministries and Love Never Fails to name a few.
9. And the THRIVE Orange County who together comprise the schools, law enforcement, medical / mental health care, a mindfulness coach and early childhood education providers  to join in research and creative programming to prevent or decrease the impact of childhood trauma so that every child has an opportunity to thrive.
10. And to the MEK marketing team who has taken us under their wing to tell the story of what SICHC can offer in service to our community and what rural health care advocacy can do.
11. And it’s Indiana University School of Nursing, School of Public Health and School of Social Work who have invested professor and student resources to care for our patients at home or have provided opportunities to impact teen pregnancy rates, tobacco use, healthy living choices, and child advocacy efforts.
12. And it is the incredible work of the Center for Rural Engagement (Lilly funded and Indiana University conceived) that has put all of us in the south central communities on the map of feeling valued, heard, supported and elevated in what we can do.  We can not overstate the impact of what their advocacy has empowered in the small squads of leaders across the region.

So that’s a daunting list to recite and I may have missed a few key players in my telling. But the main thing to communicate is that each member on this list has helped save us from the  despair and the burn out that comes from going it alone. You’ve contributed your crucial part in helping us know that change is possible.  And isn’t that really what our role is within our communities, with our patients, and our families ……to help someone see that they are valued and heard so that they in turn can see themselves with the fresh eyes and renewed hope that moves them forward towards their goals, with us as cheerleaders along the way.

It is an amazing team to be a part of.  And I am forever grateful to be doing a piece of this incredibly meaningful work. In receiving this award, I am but a figure head for the whole community team.    I’m a part of the crowd of believers that can emphatically say that what we do makes a difference, and together we are unstoppable.”

So that’s what I would have said to that room full of wonderful collaborators……many of those listed above were in attendance.  It would have been magical to thank them at the time, but instead I’ll hold my gratitude at an internal spot and hope to honor them in new ways over time.   I just had to put it down in words to move the accolades from Yoder centered to where the reality of this team’s accomplishments are coming from.

Your kindness in nominating me and highlighting us for this award is a tangible sweetness that will linger with us and likely help shape us as we move into the future.  And I absolutely treasure the video you put together that so captures the love the team has for each other.  It makes me smile every time I watch it.

With deep gratitude,

Yolanda