Modern Healthcare – August 12, 2019

20 Modern Healthcare | August 12, 2019

E

ARLIER THIS YEAR, CEO Christo-

pher Thomas and the board at Com-

munity Hospital in Grand Junction,

Colo., were deep in merger talks with

Centura Health, a 17-hospital system that’s a

partnership between Catholic Health Initiatives

and Adventist Health System.

But some community residents and board

members of the 60-bed hospital raised objec-

tions to Community coming under the Catho-

By Harris Meyer

Religious rules continue

to roil deals between

religious and secular hospitals

THE TAKEAWAY

Deal architects

are structuring

partnerships to avoid

obstacles erected

for Catholic-affiliated

hospitals merging

with secular or other

religious hospitals.

lic Church’s Ethical and Religious Directives

for Catholic Health Care Services, or ERDs,

forbidding services such as abortion, contra-

ception, tubal ligation and gender transition

surgery, along with physician aid in dying,

which is legal in Colorado. Those rules already

govern the western Colorado town’s domi-

nant hospital, St. Mary’s Medical Center.

That set off a string of events that com-

plicated Community Hospital’s quest to

“There was quite a bit of

concern about how having

a religious affiliation would

dictate healthcare. Our

decision to stay independent

was extremely well received by

the community.”

Christopher Thomas (far left)

CEO

Community Hospital

with Dr. Thomas Tobin, chief medical officer