Coalition fighting sale of two hospitals

Loss of services feared if Catholic charity takes over

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, November 30, 2007

Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Dr. Steve Krebs, an internist who practices at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center, is shown in his Wheat Ridge office. He opposes the sale of Lutheran to a Catholic charity.

Powerful civil liberties groups have joined forces to oppose the proposed sale of two metro hospitals to a Catholic health care organization.

Many doctors at the hospitals - Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge and Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette - also oppose the sale. The civil liberties coalition is considering legal action to stop the sale.

If the $611 million transaction goes through, medical staff at both hospitals must follow Catholic ethical and religious directives. That means doctors could not perform vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions in the hospitals. They also could not give birth control counseling or remove feeding tubes for those in a persistent vegetative state.

"We're just concerned about the loss of services that are going to result particularly to people in Jefferson County," said Roland Halpern, director of community relations for the local office of Compassion & Choices, an organization that supports choice in end-of-life decisions.

"We feel that there has to be a separation of church and state, and intimate medical decisions should be up to the individual and family and should not be dictated by the government or the church," Halpern said.

A spokeswoman for the prospective buyer, the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, said such fears are overblown. The prohibited services will be available nearby, said Christine Woolsey, and Denver will benefit from millions of dollars in hospital improvements.

"We understand there are concerns about the change, but the large investment that is going to come from Sisters of Charity into the Denver area to go directly to patient care and quality improvements outweighs the change in procedures," said Woolsey.

Legal action possible

Opponents of the sale include the Colorado Center on Law & Policy, ACLU, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, NARAL, the National Women's Law Center, the MergerWatch Project and other groups, Halpern said.

Ed Kahn, special counsel at the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, is working on possible legal action to block the sale.

The groups contend patients will be hurt by the restrictions imposed by the Catholic leadership if Lutheran and Good Samaritan come under complete ownership of the Sisters of Charity. The Kansas group already is part-owner, but would gain full control if the Community First Foundation of Arvada sells it its share.

The loss of reproductive procedures would be paticularly problematic for Lutheran patients because there is no other hospital in Jefferson County to provide them, critics say.

"Comprehensive women's health care would not be available, period," said Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood.

Many doctors have said they'll leave the hospitals if they're sold because they don't want to compromise medical care.

The medical staff at Lutheran is scheduled to meet today with Attorney General John Suthers' office to explain their opposition.

Suthers could block the sale because of a 1999 law that allows his office to intervene if a sale of a nonprofit to another nonprofit would cause a material change in services. He has until Dec. 31 to decide.

A group of Kaiser Ob/Gyn doctors who practice at Good Samaritan met with Suthers' office last week to object to the sale, said Scott Barton, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Good Samaritan.

"We're very concerned from a patient care standpoint," Barton said. "If you're doing a C-section and a woman wants her tubes tied and you don't do it, what are the ramifications of that?"

Kaiser officials are working to find a way to provide patients with a way to get the prohibited services if and when the hospitals are sold, said spokeswoman Kim Warth.

"We're trying to find a solution because we have obligations to provide some of those services," Warth said. "Our members are expecting that. And we need to figure out a way to do that."

Sisters of Charity said Thursday that it will delay the closing of the transaction until Jan. 31 to accommodate Kaiser, said spokeswoman Woolsey. The original plan was to complete the sale by the end of December.

'Carve-outs' proposed

In other cities, hospitals have found ways around the reproductive-procedures ban, said Lois Uttley, director of the MergerWatch Project, which has worked on more than 50 mergers of nonsectarian and religious hospitals nationwide.

Other Catholic-owned hospitals have permitted birth control-related services to be provided in a "carve-out" - a section of the building or a mobile unit in the parking lot owned by another entity, she said.

"We have found that compromises are always possible if there is some willingness on the part of Catholic officials to respect the needs of people of other faiths," Uttley said.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput wants Catholic hospitals to follow the ethical and religious directives, said spokeswoman Jeanette DeMelo.

Chaput asked a national Catholic bioethicist to participate in the local negotiations, she said.

The bioethicist, John Haas, expressed a willingness to consider a carve-out proposal, but the idea was scratched because of licensing and safety concerns, said Jeff Selberg, CEO of Exempla, which operates both hospitals.

Uttley said public outcry has stopped or delayed other sales and mergers.

"It's my experience that it's never too late for the public to speak up."

What's next

* Doctors from Lutheran will meet this afternoon with officials at the state Attorney General's office.

* AG John Suthers has until Dec. 31 to decide if he wants to intervene in the sale.

* The local coalition opposing the sale will hold a town hall meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday at the First Universalist Church of Denver, 4101 E. Hampden Ave. (at Colorado Boulevard). Representatives from Kaiser and Exempla will attend.

* The owners have delayed the completion of the sale until Jan. 31. Patients would not be affected until some time after that, officials said.