Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West) was 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.
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.
Its headquarters are located in the China Basin Landing building in San Francisco.
History
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.
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).
From the time of its founding until 2012, the company was an official ministry of the Catholic Church. 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.
Adeptus Health partnered with Dignity Health to establish the Dignity Health Arizona General Hospital in Laveen, Arizona.
In 2018, Dignity Health and CHI received approval from the Catholic Church, through the Vatican, to merge. The merger was completed, on February 1, 2019, under a new name, CommonSpirit Health, forming the second-largest nonprofit hospital chain in the United States.<ref>[https://www.chicagobusiness.com/health-care/steep-challenge-facing-chicagos-newest-health-care-giant "The steep challenge facing Chicago's newest health care giant" by Stephanie Goldberg; Chicago Business; May 3, 2019; accessed December 29, 2019.]</ref>
Dignity Health was the official health care provider of the San Francisco Giants.
Governance
The Board of Directors 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:
Dr. Andrew C. Agwunobi | Berkeley Research Group, LLC
Judy Carle, RSM (vice chairperson) | Sisters of Mercy of the Americas West Midwest Community Caretha Coleman (chairperson) | Principal, Coleman Consulting Lloyd H. Dean | President & CEO, Dignity Health Mark DeMichele | Urban Realty Partners Tessie Guillermo (secretary'') | President & CEO, Zero Divide Peter Hanelt | Business Consultant Dr. Rodney F. Hochman | Group President, Providence Health & Services Julie Hyer, OP | Adrian Dominican Sisters
Sponsorship council
Although Dignity Health was 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 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:
Sheila Browne, RSM, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, West Midwest Community, Burbank, CA Lillian Anne Healy, CCVI, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston, TX Maureen McInerney, OP, Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, CA Patricia Rayburn, OSF, Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, Redwood City, CA Corinne Sanders, OP, Adrian Dominican Sisters, Adrian, MI Susan Snyder, OP, Congregation of Sisters of St. Dominic of St. Catherine of Siena, Taos, NM
Controversies
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. In a public statement, Bishop Olmsted said the procedure was in contrast to a direct abortion, which is in direct violation of The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.