Celebrate Cancer Survivors Day with Wellstar

ATLANTA – Mary Chatman, PhD, RN, executive vice president (EVP) of Acute Care Operations for Wellstar Health System, was elected chair of the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) earlier this month. Chatman, who has served on the GHA Board since February 2020, will lead the Board in developing strategies for GHA hospital members, advocating for the highest quality care for patients, and supporting adequate reimbursement for hospitals.

“Mary Chatman’s extensive leadership experience and skills make her well-equipped to lead our Board,” said GHA President and CEO Caylee Noggle. “She is a strong patient advocate, and her experience will serve our members well.”

Serving as a Wellstar EVP, Chatman oversees the operations of Wellstar’s 11 hospitals, post-acute services, and emergency departments. In 2020, she led the opening of Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center’s new emergency department, the largest in the Southeast.

Prior to serving in her current role, Chatman was the chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, where she was responsible for managing the 654-bed hospital and its nursing operations. She also served as interim chief information officer for Memorial and completed the electronic health record conversion to EPIC.

In 2021, Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Chatman to the state’s Healthcare Workforce Commission, where she has helped address challenges in the hiring and retention of health care workers.

Chatman has been recognized locally and nationally as a prominent leader and strong patient advocate in health care. Atlanta Daily World recognized her among the 2018 Women of Excellence. Diversity MBA Magazine named her among the 2018 Top 100 Under 50 Executive & Emerging Leaders and 2020 Top 100 Women of Influence. Profiles in Diversity Journal named her a 2020 Women Worth Watching® in STEM award winner. Chatman was recognized by Atlanta Magazine among the 2021 Women Making A Mark honorees and by Becker’s as one of the 75 Black Healthcare Leaders to Know 2022. She was also named the 2020 West Cobb Citizen of the Year for serving on the frontlines for Cobb County, fighting COVID-19, and collaborating with local leaders.

Chatman is deeply involved in the community, serving as board member for United Community Bank and active in the fight to find a cure for type 1 diabetes. She is a member of the American Nurses Association and the American College of Healthcare Executives. She earned her Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

About GHA Founded in 1929, GHA serves nearly 150 hospitals in Georgia and promotes the health and welfare of the public through the development of better hospital care for all Georgia’s citizens. The mission of GHA is to advance the health of individuals and communities by serving as the leading advocate for all Georgia hospitals and health care systems. GHA represents its members before the General Assembly and Congress, as well as state and federal regulatory agencies, and is an allied member of the American Hospital Association. For more information, please call 770-249-4500 or visit gha.org.

According to the American Hospital Association, “Shortages of health care workers in all roles will persist well beyond the pandemic given today’s highly competitive labor market.” To help meet this need, the Cobb County School District and Wellstar Health System are introducing high school students to healthcare careers through the healthcare pathway at the Cobb Innovation Technology Academy (CITA). CITA is an innovative Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) program inside the Cobb County School District (CCSD).

Wellstar Health System and Wellstar Foundation recently awarded Cobb Schools Foundation a $2 million grant to expand the Cobb Innovation and Technical Academy (CITA) over the next five years. The CITA program is a beacon of opportunity for students seeking hands-on learning experiences and career prospects in healthcare through district, post-secondary and industry partnerships.

"This program seeks to inspire, educate, and nurture the next generation of healthcare professionals,” said David Jones, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Wellstar. “We’re thrilled with the opportunity to help enhance the education of our community’s students and offer them rewarding career pathways."

Cobb students will have direct access to healthcare professionals from Wellstar who will make their classroom experience more practical and prepare them for their real-world jobs. All CCSD students can apply for the opportunity to enroll in CITA, which serves as one of the District’s seven magnet programs. Once enrolled, the Cobb students will be able to:

• Participate in the new Wellstar Healthcare Pathway Program
• Access cutting-edge equipment and technology
• Engage with Wellstar clinical team members and professionals before they graduate from high school
• Apply for two $2,500 college scholarships funded by Wellstar

"The Wellstar Healthcare Pathways Program will offer students exposure to training and potential job opportunities,” said Tiffany Barney, Director, CITA. “The Cobb Schools Foundation appreciates this investment in students who will go on to have careers in healthcare. It will further enhance the quality of education we provide our students in Cobb.

Kathy DeJoseph delights in making and giving away thousands of soft and cheerful hats to Wellstar cancer patients through a nonprofit she founded called Happy Caps. It’s all in the name of bringing a little light and comfort to people during a hard time.

Where did the idea come from? It started with Kathy’s own lung cancer diagnosis.

A commitment to yearly lung cancer screening

A cancer survivor for more than a decade, Kathy said regular lung cancer screenings were the key to her survival. With a long history of smoking and growing up around relatives who smoked, she decided to join an early detection lung cancer study at Wellstar.

Even though she felt fine and had no symptoms, committing to the study meant having an annual low-dose CT scan every year. After several years of clean scans with no signs of lung cancer, Kathy told a nurse that she was going to quit. But the nurse persuaded her to come in for another screening.

“Thank goodness she did,” Kathy said. “I was diagnosed the very next day.”

Quick and efficient treatment at the STAT Clinic

Being a part of the study and getting screened early allowed Kathy to move immediately to Wellstar Lung Cancer STAT Clinic at Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center.

STAT stands for Specialty Teams and Treatment, highlighting the collaboration of multiple cancer experts. Together, they come to a consensus on a treatment plan and meet with the patient on the same day. This puts the patients at the center of their care plan, allowing them and their families to get immediate answers to questions, make decisions and start treatment faster.

“The biggest benefit for me with the way the STAT Clinic works is that I didn’t have to worry about whether the doctors had actually talked to each other,” Kathy said. “They’d come in one after another and tell me what they thought from their expertise.”

Immediate communication and mutual agreement among medical experts mean treatment plans are established and started faster, which is proven to improve long-term survival. On average, it takes 60 to 90 days from the time of diagnosis to treatment in the U.S. With the STAT Clinic at Wellstar, patients go from diagnosis to treatment in 14 to 20 days.

Kathy’s treatment started quickly—she had a lung biopsy the day after her STAT Clinic appointment and started chemotherapy a week later.

“I wasn’t as terrified for as long as most people are because I had answers within a short period of time,” Kathy remembered.

She had surgery once she completed chemotherapy. Throughout the process, she had the support of an entire cancer team, including a medical oncologist, a lung cancer surgeon, a pulmonologist and a nurse navigator.