Formerly | Catholic Healthcare West (1986–2012) |
---|---|
Company type | Nonprofit organization |
Industry | Healthcare |
Founded | 1986 |
Headquarters | China Basin Landing, , |
Number of locations | 39 acute care hospitals 250 ancillary care sites |
Area served | Arizona, California, and Nevada |
Key people | Lloyd H. Dean, President/CEO Daniel J. Morissette, CFO |
Services | Hospital management |
Revenue | $10,522,568,000 USD (2012) |
$59,112,000 USD (2012) | |
$132,549,000 USD (2012) | |
Owner | CommonSpirit Health |
Number of employees | 55,000 |
Website | dignityhealth |
Footnotes /references 2012 Audited Financial Statement About Dignity Health |
Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West) is a California-based not-for-profit public-benefit corporation that operated hospitals and ancillary care facilities in three states. Dignity Health was the fifth-largest hospital system in the nation and the largest not-for-profit hospital provider in California. [1]
Formerly a Catholic institution, the organization went independent in 2012 and adopted its new name. In February 2019, Dignity Health merged with Catholic Health Initiatives, becoming CommonSpirit Health. [2]
Its headquarters are located in the China Basin Landing building in San Francisco. [3]
Catholic Healthcare West was founded in 1986, when the Sisters of Mercy Burlingame Regional Community and the Sisters of Mercy Auburn Regional Community merged their health care ministries into one organization. [4] [5]
In 2010, Dignity Health, Blue Shield of California, and Hill Physicians Medical Group formed an Accountable Care Organization that covers 41,000 individuals in the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). [6]
From the time of its founding until 2012, the company was an official ministry of the Catholic Church. [7] [8] In 2012, the company's corporate governance structure changed, moving it out of the Catholic Church's purview and resulting in a name change to Dignity Health. [7] [8] [9]
Adeptus Health partnered with Dignity Health to establish the Dignity Health Arizona General Hospital in Laveen, Arizona. [10]
In 2018, Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives received approval from the Catholic Church, through the Vatican, to merge. [11] The merger was completed, on February 1, 2019, under a new name, CommonSpirit Health, [12] forming the second-largest nonprofit hospital chain in the United States. [13]
Dignity Health was the official health care provider of the San Francisco Giants. [14]
The Board of Directors [15] was responsible for approving major decisions affecting Dignity Health’s health care business, such as long-range strategic plans, the allocation of capital, joint ventures, and major acquisitions and sales. Dignity Health's Board of Directors are:
Although Dignity Health is not a Catholic institution, the organization owned and operated 24 Catholic hospitals. While overall fiscal responsibility for these hospitals rests with the Board of Directors, certain reserve rights are still held by the religious orders that founded them. The Sponsorship Council [16] comprised sisters from each of the six Catholic religious communities that first opened each of the Catholic hospitals owned by Dignity Health. Each community selected one woman to act as one of the six members of the Sponsorship Council. The six Catholic religious communities were represented by:[ citation needed ]
On December 21, 2010, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix declared that a Catholic Healthcare West hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, could no longer call itself a Catholic institution after a procedure was performed in 2009 to end a pregnancy to save a woman’s life. [17] In a public statement, Bishop Olmsted said the procedure was in contrast to a direct abortion, [18] which is in direct violation of The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. [19]
In a statement, St. Joseph’s President Linda Hunt said the hospital would comply with Olmsted’s decision, but she defended the actions of the hospital staff, stating, "If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case. Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save." [20] The story made national headlines. [21]
Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, defended St. Joseph’s decision to terminate the pregnancy. "They had been confronted with a heartbreaking situation," she said in a formal statement. "They carefully evaluated the patient’s situation and correctly applied the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services to it, saving the only life that was possible to save." [22]
In 2012, trustees of Ashland Community Hospital in Ashland, Oregon, invited Dignity Health to acquire it for debt. Community members raised concerns about the possible takeover, pointing to restrictions in Dignity's Statement of Common Values [23] that might mean that the hospital would no longer offer abortion services, or euthanasia services under Oregon's 1997 Death With Dignity Act. [24] Asked by Ashland mayor John Stromberg if the Statement of Common Values could be modified, Dignity Vice-President for Ethics and Justice Education Carol Bayley told community members, "As far as loosening it, don't hold out hope. We have our feet in Catholic mud, there is no denying it." [24] Facing increasing community opposition, Dignity Health ceased negotiations without explanation on October 30, 2012. [25]
Dignity Health was included by California Attorney General Kamala Harris on the antitrust investigation, launched in September 2012, into whether growing consolidation in the state's hospitals and physician groups was driving up the health care costs. [26]
As of summer 2018, Dignity Health did not provide many services considered routine by non-religious providers, including some emergency procedures. Dignity Health has cited the "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services" as its guideline in approving or refusing medical procedures. [27] [28] That document is prepared by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is not a medical organization. A particular controversy results from Dignity Health's non-Catholic marketing style, and unclear representations of which facilities are and are not considered Catholic. [29]
In August 2024, Dignity Health and Mercy San Juan Medical Center were sued for "malicious and outrageous" conduct by the family of Jessie Peterson. They had been told in April 2023 that Peterson had checked out of the hospital, when in fact she had died in the care of Mercy San Juan. The hospital had then shipped Peterson's body to a storage facility, and did not inform her family. The family did not learn of Peterson's death until April 2024. When Peterson's body was recovered, it was too decayed to determine if her death was the result of medical malpractice. [30]
Dignity Health operates 40 hospitals—24 Catholic and 15 non-Catholic: [31]
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC), it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States and the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) St. Alexius Health Bismarck is a regional, acute care medical center offering inpatient and outpatient medical services, including primary and specialty physician clinics, home health and hospice services, medical equipment services, and a fitness and human performance center. It is a level II trauma center. With a tertiary hospital in Bismarck, the system also consists of critical access hospitals (CAHs) in Carrington, ND, Dickinson, ND, Devils Lake, ND, Garrison, ND, Turtle Lake, ND, Washburn, ND and Williston, ND, and numerous clinics and outpatient services. CHI St. Alexius Health manages four CAHs in North Dakota - Elgin, ND, Linton, ND and Wishek, ND, as well as Mobridge Regional Medical Center in Mobridge, South Dakota.
Mercy Medical Center is a Catholic hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The smaller of two metro hospitals, Mercy frequently ranks as either the best in Iowa or one of the top three. Mercy is a non-profit, acute-care medical center with a level III trauma center. Mercy Cedar Rapids is independent and not directly associated with other Mercy hospitals across the state and country. In addition to the non-profit hospital and clinics, Mercy operates outpatient and urgent-care clinics in a for-profit partnership with MercyCare Community Physicians.
St. John's Regional Medical Center is a hospital located in Oxnard, California in the United States, and is operated by Dignity Health, along with its sister hospital, St. John's Hospital Camarillo in Camarillo. The hospital was founded in 1912.
UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital is a hospital in San Francisco, California, US. It is currently operated by University of California, San Francisco.
Mercy Health, formerly Catholic Health Partners, is a Catholic health care system with locations in Ohio and Kentucky. Cincinnati-based Mercy Health operates more than 250 healthcare organizations in Ohio and Kentucky. Mercy Health is the second largest health system in Ohio and the state's fourth-largest employer.
Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) was a national Catholic healthcare system, with headquarters in Englewood, Colorado. CHI was a nonprofit, faith-based health system formed, in 1996, through the consolidation of three Catholic health systems. It was one of the United States' largest healthcare systems. In February 2019, CHI merged with Dignity Health, forming CommonSpirit Health.
Asante Ashland Community Hospital is a hospital in Ashland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1907, it is part of the Asante Health System. In 2012, it explored an affiliation with Dignity Health, with the latter stopping negotiations in October 2012 over some resistance to the plan. On November 15, 2012, Ashland Community Hospital chose to partner with Asante, the owner of Three Rivers Medical Center and Rogue Regional Medical Center, to build a stronger financial base for the hospital. Ashland's city council approved the transfer to Asante in June 2013.
CHI Health is a regional healthcare network headquartered in Omaha. The combined organization consists of 28 hospitals, two stand-alone behavioral health facilities, and more than 150 employed physician practices in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota. CHI Health is part of CommonSpirit Health and is legally designated a non-profit organization.
Trinity Health is an American not-for-profit Catholic health system operating 92 hospitals in 22 states, including 120 continuing care locations encompassing home care, hospice, PACE and senior living facilities. Based in Livonia, Michigan, Trinity Health employs more than 120,000 people including 5,300 physicians.
The official teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 oppose all forms of abortion procedures whose direct purpose is to destroy a zygote, blastocyst, embryo or fetus, since it holds that "human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life". However, the Church does recognize as morally legitimate certain acts which indirectly result in the death of the fetus, as when the direct purpose is removal of a cancerous womb. Canon 1397 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law imposes automatic excommunication on Latin Catholics who actually procure an abortion, if they fulfill the conditions for being subject to such a sanction. Eastern Catholics are not subject to automatic excommunication, but by canon 1450 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches they are to be excommunicated by decree if found guilty of the same action, and they may be absolved of the sin only by the eparchial bishop. In addition to teaching that abortion is immoral, the Catholic Church also generally makes public statements and takes actions in opposition to its legality.
The excommunication of Margaret McBride occurred with the sanctioning by the American religious sister Margaret McBride in November 2009 of an abortion at a Roman Catholic hospital, the St. Joseph's Hospital, in Phoenix. It was lifted in December 2011. Her decision and her subsequent excommunication aroused controversy in the areas of medical ethics and Catholic theology.
Mercy Medical Center is located in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded by the Sisters of Providence Health System, Mercy Hospital is a faith-based, non-profit organization serving patients regardless of background or beliefs. Mercy Medical Center is known for its tradition of holistic health care.
Agnes Mary Mansour was an American former Catholic nun, as well as a politician and public official. She is known for having been given a choice from the Vatican in 1983 to end her religious vows or to resign from her position as the director of the Michigan Department of Social Services, which required her to support and allocate public funding for abortions. The controversy involved her belief that abortion was tragic but should be legal, despite her vows as a religious and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
POLST is an approach to improving end-of-life care in the United States, encouraging providers to speak with the severely ill and create specific medical orders to be honored by health care workers during a medical crisis. POLST began in Oregon in 1991 and currently exists in 46 states, British Columbia, and South Korea. The POLST document is a standardized, portable, brightly colored single page medical order that documents a conversation between a provider and an individual with a serious illness or frailty towards the end of life. A POLST form allows emergency medical services to provide treatment that the individual prefers before possibly transporting to an emergency facility.
The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world. It has around 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, and 5,500 hospitals, with 65 percent of them located in developing countries. In 2010, the Church's Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers said that the Church manages 26% of the world's health care facilities. The Church's involvement in health care has ancient origins.
The National Maternity Hospital, popularly known as Holles Street Hospital, is a large maternity hospital in Ireland. It is at the eastern corner of Merrion Square, at its junction with Holles Street and Lower Mount Street in Dublin. It is managed by Ireland East Hospital Group.
CommonSpirit Health is a health system based in the United States, the country's largest Catholic hospital chain and its second-largest nonprofit hospital chain. It operates more than 700 care sites and 142 hospitals in 21 states.
Ascension is a large private healthcare system in the United States. Ascension had 142,000 employees, 142 hospitals, and 40 senior living facilities operating in 19 states and the District of Columbia as of the end of 2021. Ascension is the largest nonprofit and largest Catholic health system in the United States. It also operates a conglomerate of for-profit firms, including subsidiaries involved in private equity, venture capital, insurance, medical software, and pharmacy delivery. From 2014 to 2017 it co-owned a facility in the Cayman Islands.
Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs) is a publication that sets policy in Catholic hospitals and health systems. The document is written and published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The document derives medical and healthcare policy from Catholic theology and church teaching.