Leadership Spotlight: Helen Chin Schlichte
Helen Chin Schlichte at New England Deaconess Hospital
Q: How did you come to be involved with BIDMC, and what has made you stay?
A: I first knew the Deaconess Road hill leading up to the New England Deaconess Hospital (NEDH) in the late 1940s when I visited a family member who was a patient there. It was my good fortune to return there in 1979 when I was elected to the NEDH Corporation. When I joined the Board of Trustees in 1980, the hospital was facing some difficult issues, empty beds being significant among them. Additionally, the hospital was grappling with the introduction of a new reimbursement system and the effort to establish a stronger affiliation with Harvard Medical School. Throughout my tenure, there have been continuing challenges in this fast-changing health care environment that have interested and engaged me.
Q. What is your fondest memory from your involvement at the medical center?
A: There have been too many to list but here are some highlights:
- Being a part of the planning for the West campus clinical center building and the capital campaign back in the early 1990s, which was met with incredible support from the governing board, staff, grateful patients, and friends in the community.
- Seeing how the Community Benefits Committee improved the health and quality of life in our communities served.
- The exchange program, which offered the sharing of medical and nursing practices and expertise with colleagues among Xi-an University in China, NEDH, and BIDMC.
- A memorable Board meeting in 1983 when Dr. Roger Jenkins reported on successfully performing the first liver transplant at NEDH.
- The progress achieved through a leadership commitment, both volunteer and professional, to become more diverse and inclusive.
Q: You have been a champion for community-based efforts at BIDMC and throughout the City of Boston. Why is this cause so important to you?
A: In the early 1980s, we strengthened our relationships with community health centers to provide joint programs and to help address medical needs of community residents. Each health center presented a different challenge.
When AIDS was identified, NEDH and BIDMC, led by Dr. Jerome Groopman, transcended the social stigma that prevailed at the time by making major outreach efforts to develop effective treatments, train clinicians, and treat HIV/AIDS patients with compassionate care and clinical expertise.
And it has been amazing to watch the partnership between BIDMC and South Cove Community Health Center evolve over the past 20 years. There are now several thousand referrals monthly, resulting in patients receiving the best care in the most appropriate setting.
Q: What are some of the most memorable milestones you have witnessed and/or participated in over the course of your involvement with the medical center? How have they prepared us for a successful future?
A: In 2007, the Board of Directors set an audacious five-year goal of eliminating preventable patient harm by 2012. The Silverman Institute for Health Care Quality and Safety was established, promoting excellence in patient care by bringing together nationally recognized leaders with BIDMC family to explore ideas and share experiences about quality and patient safety improvements. BIDMC will continue to earn many prestigious honors because of its commitment to providing superior care to our patients.
Helen Chin Schlichte with Fred Wang (left) at the 2010 BIDMC Annual Meeting of the Boards
Q: You have long espoused the importance of philanthropy. Why is it so important?
A: From my earliest years, I watched my parents helping others, from escorting elderly Chinese men from their boarding rooms in Chinatown to the Boston City Hospital to sending modest amounts of money back to their relatives in their home village in Toishan, China. And my late husband George’s philanthropic philosophy was “Don’t wait to give your money in a will. Give it when you can see it working.”
In 1991, when George and I met our Board Chair at NEDH to discuss our capital campaign gift for the new West campus clinical center building, we had gone into the meeting with a number. During lunch George doubled it, saying, “The hospital needs it now.” I share this philosophy; it is what motivates me to give as generously as I can to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. My hope is that my giving will inspire others to follow George’s philosophy and give now.
Q: What advice would you give to a new Board member just starting out at BIDMC?
A: Welcome to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. You are joining an institution that has the highest standards of patient care, education, and research. We are thrilled you will support us with your skills, time, and resources and that you will provide leadership by being passionate about the mission, and assist management by setting policy and assuring financial stability. Meet management; take tours to see patient care in action; join a committee, learn and participate in its deliberations; be familiar with the financial condition; help to diversify the governing boards by recommending overseer candidates; participate in fundraising activities; and be an ambassador for us throughout all communities.
A: In 1918, at age 15, my father emigrated from China and came to Charlestown to work in the laundry with relatives. He attended Boston schools, learned English, and in four years graduated from grade 8. Because of his excellent language skills and cultural adaptation, he was sought after to help relatives and friends negotiate language barriers.
At this time, there were a number of elderly Chinese men who came from China living in boarding rooms in Chinatown. They were here alone because their families were in China, unable to come to America because of the Chinese Exclusion Act which was not repealed until 1943. I helped him escort elderly Chinese men who needed medical attention to what was then the Boston City Hospital. They could not speak English so they could not tell the nurses and doctors where they hurt.
When my Dad died of cancer in 1948 at age 45, my Mom said it was our responsibility to continue his work of helping relatives. Remember, she said this after my Dad passed away, leaving her with nine children. She raised a family, ran a laundry to provide for us, refused to accept welfare, and stressed education and helping others. All nine of us went on to higher education at Boston University, Harvard, Purdue, Tufts, Middlebury, Newton College of the Sacred Heart, among others, and are proud children of immigrant parents who are so very grateful to be living in this wonderful country of ours.
Even while struggling to keep her family together, Mom sent money back to relatives in China several times a year. She had a very strong work ethic, constantly saying to us, “Don’t waste time,” “Save your money,” and “Work a little harder.” Mom was 103 when she passed away four years ago.
I’ve been honored to participate in different organizations in the Chinese community and in the larger community. It has been important for us to become involved outside the community; we want the larger community to see who we are and what we can do.
Q: If you could spend a day with a figure from history, who would it be and why?
A: Eleanor Roosevelt, who inspired me from a young age as a woman activist.
And, my mother-in-law, Dr. Agnes Muldoon Schlichte. She and her twin sister were 1915 graduates of Tufts Medical School. Being good Catholic women, they applied to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for an internship; The Cardinal “politely turned us down because we were two women. He had no housing for two females; we would have to live on the same floor with male interns and this would not be allowed.” They completed their internships at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, now the site of Dimock Community Health Center. After raising her family of six children, Agnes joined the medical staff of the Walter E. Fernald State School in 1945 and retired in 1958. In her notebook detailing 1920, she wrote “Woman Suffrage was active at this time, and I remember parading down Tremont Street with the professional women’s group in cap and gown to add our might to the cause.” I am very proud of her, a very progressive woman.
Q: How did your family celebrate special anniversaries?
A: Our family grew up in Charlestown, Massachusetts. We had the best of both worlds. Going to public school, we celebrated all the major American holidays. At home my parents taught us Chinese history, language, and culture. We are firmly American, but we are also very proud of our Chinese heritage. We celebrate all the Chinese holidays with joyful family reunions and an abundance of food with its assortment of textures, tastes, flavors, and variety prepared with different techniques in a multitude of ways.
Q: If you were to pick an achievement for the BIDMC community to celebrate in the next 100 years, what would it be?
A: That our teams of outstanding researchers would have eradicated all diseases, that we would have cures for cancer, Parkinson’s, progressive supranuclear palsy, that we would live in a world without Alzheimer’s and dementia and all that ails people.