Dignity Health may be aligning its services with Catholic Health Initiatives, and community members across California are worried about what that might mean for women and the LGBTQ community.
The nonprofit health care providers announced plans to merge in December 2017. The move, if approved, would make the aligned organizations the second largest nonprofit hospital system in the nation, with a presence in 28 states and an estimated $28 billion in annual operations.
It’s a move that Sue Andersen, president and CEO of Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, a Dignity Health hospital, said would allow both systems to better achieve their similar goals through expansion.
“It will help us make clinical expertise and technology from both organizations available to all of our of our communities,” Andersen said at a merger-related hearing Sept. 21 at the Santa Maria Veterans’ Memorial Community Center. “It will help us advance our social justice work and advocate for policies that extend health care to more people.”
The hearing, which was hosted by California Deputy Attorney General Wendi Horwitz, was an opportunity for community members to share their thoughts on the proposed merge with the Attorney General’s Office, the entity tasked with approving or denying the consolidation. Similar hearings have been held in Dignity service areas around the state, from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.
Anderson was just one of more than 20 Dignity Health executives, local politicians, and representatives of partnering community organizations who spoke in favor of the merge on Sept. 21.
But while many of those attendees focused on Dignity Health’s current work in providing quality health care to low-income and underserved populations, others voiced concerns about the future of those services–and others–if the alignment is approved.
Joe Domingos, a nurse who works at Marian Regional Medical Center, said that along with Catholic Health’s shaky financial history and reputation for mass lay-offs, many Dignity Health employees fear the affiliation with a Catholic entity could adversely impact health care services for women, the LGBTQ community, terminally ill patients, and low-income individuals.
The religious and ethical directives laid out by the Catholic Church govern how Catholic hospitals serve patients and place restrictions or outright bans on a number of medical services, including birth control, sterilization, miscarriage management, and abortion. LGBTQ advocates say the directives could also allow hospitals to deny gender affirming and transitional services to transgender individuals, and increase the likelihood that members of the LGBTQ community will face discrimination when seeking medical attention or at work.
While many of Dignity Health’s hospitals already operate under Catholic directives, some on the Central Coast do not. Domingos said he worried that the freedoms of those hospitals might eventually be taken away.
“As a member of the LGBTQ community, that is definitely a big concern for me, and my family, and my partner,” Domingos said at the hearing. “There need to be clear mandates from the state that all of these services be protected despite directives from the U.S. Council of Bishops.”
Domingos isn’t the only person with those concerns.
In a letter to the attorney general dated Sept. 19, representatives of several Central Coast LGBTQ advocacy organizations, including Santa Maria’s House of Pride and Equality, requested that the merger be prevented entirely to “preserve the human rights and dignity which every person deserves when seeking medical treatment.”
Colette Schabram, executive director of the Pacific Pride Foundation, wrote in an email to the Sun that “folks are worried about the outcomes” of Dignity’s effort to merge with a Catholic hospital system, specifically when it comes to HIV and AIDS prevention work.
Still, Dignity Health officials have maintained that little will change during and after the merge.
The hospitals that already adhere to religious directives will continue to do so, according to a ministerial agreement between Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, and those that do not will remain free of the stringent operational guidelines.
And according to an impact report commissioned by the Attorney General’s Office, Marian Regional Medical Center, which already operates under religious and ethical directives, would see “no reductions in the availability and accessibility of reproductive health services” as a result of the merge.
Megan Maloney, Dignity’s director of marketing and communications, said that although she didn’t know “anything about Catholic Health Initiatives’ financial health,” the organizations share a common mission to serve and advocate for the disenfranchised. While she said nothing will change for employees or patients here on the Central Coast, the consolidation will give Dignity Health a larger national voice and presence.
“If we combine, we can serve a huge population of the country–not just in the state but in the country,” Maloney told the Sun. “So countrywide, nationwide, they can better serve and advocate for the poor and underserved.”
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash can be reached at kbubnash@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 4, 2018.
