Nun combines religious life with health-care challenge

Sister Mary Norberta is tough, smart, energetic and efficient. And as president of St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, she is a busy administrator and one of the more visible leaders of Maine’s health-care industry.

Sister Norberta is a member of the Felician Sisters, the order that started St. Joseph Hospital in 1947 and still runs the hospital.

As an elementary student in South Boston, Sister Norberta attended Catholic schools and idolized the nuns. After finishing nursing school, she worked for a while and then decided to enter the convent. It wasn’t a decision that her family thought appropriate.

“I was an only child in a good Catholic family,” she said. “My maternal grandmother had helped pay for my nursing education and she, especially, opposed my decision.”

Has Sister Norberta ever regretted her decision? “I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t doubt it at times,” she said. “It’s a lifetime commitment and challenge. And the religious life today is counter-cultural.”

But the hospital administrator clearly enjoys her life and her job. Since joining the order, she has attended Our Lady of Elms College in Chicopee, Mass., and the Sloan School of Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sister Norberta says that nuns “stand out in a crowd,” and this was especially true at MIT. The master’s program she pursued was for high-powered corporate types on sabbatical from their companies. After graduation, her classmates returned to high-paying jobs. Sister Norberta, in an occupation that often commands six-figure salaries, returned to the order and her $10 monthly allowance.

She has no regrets. She reminds people that she doesn’t have to pay for clothing, rent, utilities, food, or a car. But Sister Norberta says that the stipend could be bigger. “Two trips to McDonald’s and it’s gone,” she said.

Standing out in the crowd can be an advantage in her work, Sister Norberta said. “I think it gives me a certain credibility,” she said. “When I give my opinions, they’re unbiased.” She has no personal financial motive behind any of her business decisions.

Are people surprised by Sister Norberta’s aggressive business style? Her style certainly is normal for business leaders, but doesn’t conform to many people’s stereotypes of nuns.

“I’ve surprised a few people,” she said. “I’m not afraid of voicing my opinion. But I’m also not afraid of backing down if I’m wrong. You have to have strength of character to admit mistakes when you make them.”

Sister Norberta is quick to admit that the health-care industry has some serious problems. As costs escalate, insurance premiums increase. As premiums increase, health insurance becomes more expensive and more people find they can’t afford it. More hospital visits are not paid for by insurance or by the patient, and costs increase again. It’s a vicious cycle. Will it ever be broken?

Long-term, Sister Norberta said, some kind of national program, like national health insurance, seems inevitable. If there’s not some solution along these lines, she said, health care will have to be rationed, and she doesn’t think U.S. residents would accept such a scenario.

Whatever the solution, Sister Norberta hopes that the health-care industry helps design it. She hopes it isn’t imposed by the government.

The Felician Sister thinks that the Maine Hospital Association is on the right track with its program that brings together labor leaders, businessmen, insurance executives and health-care leaders to study problems in the industry.

“It helps to put together a cohesive package if everyone can sit around a table talking with each other,” Sister Norberta said.

At the national level, she would like to see a blue-ribbon commission established to study health care.

The elderly pose a particular challenge to her industry, Sister Norberta said. “As a nation, we’re not prepared to take care of the elderly. Medicare doesn’t pay everything. If we could find a way to provide services to keep them at home, it would help a lot.”

Never one to hide an opinion, Sister Norberta thinks that doctors with certain specialties are overpaid.

But people in need of health care don’t shop around like they do for other goods and services, she said. Everyone wants the best available when a “cheaper model” might do the job. But, she says, who can blame people for wanting the best when it comes to their health?

It’s an understandable consumer choice, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t always result in an efficient use of expensive and scarce medical resources.

Sister Norberta says that the Bangor area has an adequate supply of nurses at the moment. She thinks that the closing of Taylor Hospital helped the situation. But some specialists are hard to find. For example, a new physical therapist for St. Joseph is moving to Bangor from South Africa. That represents some rather far-flung recruiting.

As a chief executive, Sister Norberta spends a lot of time watching the bottom line at St. Joseph Hospital. After all, 32 of Maine’s 42 hospitals are operating in the red. St. Joseph isn’t one of them.

If administrative energy and ambition can make a difference, you can bet that Sister Mary Norberta will keep St. Joseph in the black.