ARTICLES
January 1998 ARTICLESLETTERS
Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
The Big Business of Catholic Healthcare
HOSPITAL MERGER RAISES NEW FEARS
By Hippocrates Wächter
The San Francisco based Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), the largest not-for-profit health care corporation on the West Coast, continues to grow in size and influence in the health care industry. In April, the company announced the completion of merger agreements with St. Francis Medical Center in Santa Barbara and Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, joining with St. John' Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo to create CHW Central Coast, a regional division which replaces and expands the former Mercy Healthcare Ventura County.
The three religious sponsors for the Central Coast region are the Sisters of Mercy, Burlingame, the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Frankfort, Illinois and the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity of Redwood City. The formation of the Central Coast region now brings the firm's total provider network in California, Nevada and Arizona to nine religious congregations, 37 hospitals. On the occasion of the merger, Daniel Herlinger, CEO for the Central Coast region, a non-Catholic, stated that, "This new affiliation is a sacred time for us as a health care organization; a time to create new stories together as we work toward a common vision."
Despite Herlinger's upbeat pronouncement, many Catholics familiar with Catholic Healthcare West's and Mercy Healthcare Ventura County's history state that the organization's definition of what is sacred and what is a common vision will continue to produce new stories of questionable appointments and practices. In particular, two recent promotions within the region, publicly announced by Herlinger and approved by the sponsoring sisters, are disturbing to many Catholics.
Charles Padilla was promoted to become the regional vice president of mission and cultural integration and will be responsible for integrating the four hospitals' mission services, human resources, community services and foundations. As reported in a September l996 Mission interview with Ventura Couty lesbian activist Claire Connelly, Padilla used his previous role as Mercy Healthcare Ventura County vice president and Saint John's Pleasant Valley Hospital acting administrator to strengthen local gay organizations that promote homosexual activity. According to Connelly, as an employee of Mercy Healthcare Ventura County, Padilla managed the federal government's Ryan White Care Act funds for Ventura County and annually distributed close to a million dollars to pro-gay organizations in Ventura County's HIV Consortium. Connelly reported that these organizations, such as AIDS Care Inc., direct most of the HIV money they receive towards employees' salaries and towards programs that defend their sexual lifestyle and have little impact on actually helping prevent HIV infections or AIDS victims. As a result of Padilla's dual role as a Mercy Healthcare employee and financial manager of the HIV funds, Mercy Healthcare was annually awarded 10 percent of the $1 million distributed to use as it pleased. Regional employees aware of Padilla's role expect the new Central Coast region to continue its support for pro-gay organizations in Ventura County and work to do the same in Santa Barbara County under his expanded authority.
Herlinger also named, in May, former Sister of Mercy, Christine Picchi as director of Mission Services for both Saint John's Regional Medical Center and Saint John's Pleasant Valley, replacing Corita Burnham who left to take a leadership position with the Sisters of Mercy. Picchi will continue to be director of chaplain services, ethics and clinical pastoral education at the two facilities and will continue to work closely with Padilla, as she has for several years in her role as director of mission services.
As reported in the August 1995 Mission, Picchi and clinical and pastoral education manager Elizabeth Cook, also a former Sister of Mercy, have controlled the chaplains, ethics and pastoral education programs over the past 12 years. Several employees familiar with the work of Picchi, Cook and Padilla state that they promote a new age, pantheistic approach to the hospitals' stated Catholic mission and chaplaincy programs by emphasizing and sponsoring presentations on non-Catholic meditation practices, new age labyrinth walks on hospital grounds at Saint John's Regional Medical Center, a priestless chaplaincy staff at the medical center and at Saint John's Pleasant Valley Hospital, pantheistic prayers, Buddhist prayer in the chapel at the medical center, and active promotion of the "safe sex"-oriented World AIDS Day observance in the hospitals every December.
The company's approach to its Catholic mission was recently displayed at the recent Regional Relocation Reception held at Saint John's Regional Medical Center on September 27, l997. In this public send off for Daniel Herlinger, CEO, Charles Padilla, vice president and Arnie Simoni, CFO, new regional administrators now headquartered in Santa Barbara, Picchi offered an invocation/blessing invoking the "Great Spirit" of the four directions east, west, north and south. Picchi also prayed to "Grandfather Fire", "Grandmother Ocean," "Grandfather Sky" and "Grandmother Earth" that their "powers may flow through" the leaders of CHW Central Coast.