There may have been opposition elsewhere, but in Woodland there was more support than not for a proposed merger between Dignity Health and the health-care giant Catholic Health Initiatives.
On Thursday in Woodland at the California Agricultural Museum, Jamie Cantori of the California Department of Justice took comment on whether it should approve the pending merger of San Francisco-based Dignity Health with health-care giant Catholic Health Initiatives, based in Denver.
Locally, Dignity operates Woodland Memorial Hospital as well as Mercy Hospital of Folsom, Mercy San Juan in Carmichael, Mercy General and Methodist Hospital in Sacramento. The company operates 39 acute-care hospitals in three states — 31 of these hospitals are in California. CHI, based in Englewood, Colo., owns around 100 acute-care hospitals in 18 states. The two companies do not have overlapping territory.
The state Attorney General’s Office had independent health-care consultants prepare an impact report on the merger and has been taking public testimony about the merger.
In Sacramento, The Sacramento Bee reported that Dignity executive Laurie Harting told Deputy Attorney General Wendi Horwitz that the company spends “millions of dollars here in Sacramento County each year on free care for the poor, community grants and programs that meet our most pressing health and social needs like homelessness and affordable housing. We are committed to staying here for many years to come and continuing to live up to our mission.”
The Bee reported members of the California Nursing Association said Dignity documents submitted to the Attorney General do not offer enough unqualified and guaranteed commitments.
In Woodland, there were around 45 people who attended the hearing, many of who worked for or were associated in some fashion with Dignity Health or Woodland Memorial Hospital
Kevin Vaziri, president of Woodland Memorial, said the hospital has more than 100 years of history behind it and “plays a critical role in meeting the health needs of Yolo County residents,” including treatment for cancer, stroke and heart ailments and that “all services are provided regardless of race, creed, color of sexual orientation.”
He also noted that Dignity Health cares for more mental health patients “than any other private provider in California and spends millions of dollars each year in Yolo County” through care for the poor, community grants for homelessness and affordable housing.
“We know that health care is changing,” he said. “There are new challenges for health care providers and new expectations from people in our communities. They want care that’s affordable and convenient, care that helps them stay healthy as well as offers smart technology and high standards. And most of all they want to make sure that access to health care in their communities is protected. That’s why Dignity Health is coming together with Catholic Health Initiatives to form a new, not for profit health system. This will allow us to continue caring for communities in California for years to come.”
He said the alignment will make clinical expertise and technology from both organizations available to all of our communities. “It will help us advance our social justice work and advocate the policies that extend health care to more people. It will help us invest in new technology that help us do things,” he said.
Further, he noted that collective bargaining agreements will remain in place and that there will be no consolidation.
“Our two systems do not operate in the same states so we won’t be combining any of our facilities,” he added. “And I want to be crystal clear. There will be no reduction to any service currently provided at any Catholic or other than Catholic hospital as a result of this alignment. That includes women’s health services. No hospitals will change religious affiliation. Both Dignity health and CHI have non-Catholic partners that are part of our system, including here in Yolo County. That absolutely will not change.”
Others speaking reiterated some of Vaziri’s words. Dr. Justin Brown said the agreement will allow Woodland Memorial “to get bigger and stronger. That’s what this alignment is all about.”
“By leveraging a larger footprint,” he said. “We can better serve the patients.”
Chief nurse Gina Bravo said Dignity Health has a “strong commitment to social justice” as well as immigrants and has spent millions of dollars in Yolo County to serve those in need.
“I’m very excited about combing our two systems,” she said. “The alignment will allow us to continue to serve (people) for generations to come.”
Outside Woodland Memorial, the merger also received the endorsement of representatives from the Yolo Crisis Nursery, CommuniCare and the Yolo Community Care Continuum.
“With the support of a Dignity Health Care grant,” said Cam Stoufer of Yolo Crisis Nursery, “we are helping children. Together we are strong at fighting child abuse and (protecting) at-risk children.”
And Melissa Marshall, the chief medical officer of CommuniCare, said that she is looking forward to the alignment because she believes that service agreements with Dignity Health will not change “particularly in regards to reproductive health care.”
Together the two health care agencies would employ roughly 159,000 people at hospitals and clinics in 28 states.
Previously, CHI spokesman Michael Romano said it’s too early to know what effect the combination will have on specific jobs, departments, or services.
“We expect integration to take place over one to two years after the combination is complete, during which time we will operate in some ways as separate organizations,” he said at the time.
But some streamlining will occur at some point, he added.
CHI was formed in 1996 through the consolidation of four Catholic health systems. That same year, CHI teamed with Adventist Health System to jointly operate Centura Health, which has 17 hospitals in Colorado and is based in Centennial.
Dignity Health got its start in 1986 when two congregations of the Sisters of Mercy combined. It has 400 care centers and a network of more than 9,000 doctors across a 22-state region. In addition to California, its 39 hospitals are also in Arizona and Nevada.
Dignity Health generated $12.9 billion in revenues and owns assets valued at $17.4 billion. Both nonprofits provided more than $2 billion each in charity care the past year.
A new name has not yet been chosen for the combined CHI-Dignity health system, but it is expected to be announced in the later part of 2018. That is around the same time merger approval is expected from federal, state and church officials.