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By KEN LEISER

CommonSpirit Health says its 142 hospitals and more than 700 care sites make its services accessible to nearly one in four U.S. residents. The system is establishing a national headquarters in Chicago. With annual revenues of $29.2 billion, CommonSpirit is one of the nation’s largest Catholic health systems.

In coming months, the board of CommonSpirit Health will set out the new system's mission, vision and values. The Catholic nonprofit system was created one month ago through the merger of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. Leaders say the legacy health systems' commitment to principles of social and economic justice will be strengthened through the combination.

Both legacy systems have been at the forefront as health care providers around the country move care beyond hospital walls into the community and work to address social and economic ills that contribute to poor mental and physical health, the advent of chronic disease and other conditions that shorten lives.

CommonSpirit said it will pay special attention to the needs of the vulnerable and the elderly and continue support for affordable housing, programs to address homelessness, prevent violence and combat human trafficking.

Lofton

Kevin Lofton and Lloyd Dean, the two chief executives of CommonSpirit Health, both have shaped corporate cultures that prioritize addressing care disparities and social inequities that impact health and well-being.

Lofton, former chief executive of CHI, said in a statement, "Common-Spirit Health will be a leader in transforming a broken, unsustainable system of health care, changing the way we provide care to our communities. We need big ideas and bold plans for a better future. We combined our two organizations to achieve the breadth, scope and resources that will make a lasting impact on the lives of millions of individuals we serve in communities across this country, with a special emphasis on those who are most vulnerable."

Dean

Dean, the former president and chief executive of Dignity Health, said in a statement, "We want to set a standard that other faith-based health systems want to emulate. Serving the common good is at the core of who we are as CommonSpirit Health. For us, this means helping people get and stay healthy in every part of their lives, whether they need a meal or an affordable home, help with managing a chronic condition like diabetes, or world class specialty care."

Catholicity
Dean and Lofton are members of CommonSpirit Health's Board of Stewardship Trustees. Individuals on that body also hold sponsorship authority. Its 14-person board includes seven members drawn from Dignity Health's and seven from CHI's legacy boards. A 15th trustee will be named to the CommonSpirit board sometime this year.

When the merger closed Jan. 31, it created one of the nation's largest Catholic health systems. With operations in 21 states, CommonSpirit says its care facilities are accessible by nearly one in four Americans.

CHI's corporation became the parent entity and surviving corporation, now known as CommonSpirit. CHI's existing public juridic person, Catholic Health Care Federation, became the canonical sponsor of the new organization.

According to CommonSpirit, Catholic Health Care Federation is expected to provide for the ongoing input and participation of all the congregations of women religious whose hospitals were part of CHI or Dignity Health.

Lay of the land
Dignity Health and CHI announced prior to the deal's close that the newly formed ministry will follow what they termed a "house of brands" strategy by retaining the names of local facilities and services. While consumers may not notice any changes in their local markets in the short term, according to the CommonSpirit website, the system plans to standardize operations to improve quality, reduce cost and improve health care access.

Chief Financial Officer Daniel Morissette said CommonSpirit's transformational strategies include advancing a coordinated, systematic and customizable approach to caring for those with acute, chronic and complex conditions; addressing the varying needs of persons experiencing vulnerabilities; enhancing consumer engagement and operational automation through digitalization and innovation; and inspiring its workforce.

"We know we have a significant task ahead of us to fully realize the potential of CommonSpirit Health," Morissette said during a Feb. 1 investor webcast. "We have entered into this alignment very thoughtfully and with a great deal of preparation."

Church and regulatory approval
More than two years in the making, the merger required approval from U.S. bishops in dioceses where Dignity Health or CHI do business and from the Vatican. State and federal regulators also had to sign off.

As part of its review process, the California Attorney General's office held 17 public meetings around the state last year to get citizen input on the merger proposal. As a foundational document for those meetings, the regulator commissioned an "impact report" from JD Healthcare, a consultancy, and Vizient, a health care performance improvement company.

The idea of merging Dignity Health with another health system can be traced back to 2012. Catholic Healthcare West had reorganized its hospital system that year and changed its name to Dignity Health. At the time, Dignity Health said its goal was to be better positioned for growth and partnerships with both Catholic and non-Catholic partners. Although Catholic Healthcare West was a Catholic organization, Dignity Health was not set up to be an official ministry of the Catholic Church.

In 2016, Dignity Health and CHI laid the foundation for a joint initiative, the Precision Medicine Alliance. In the spring of that year, the companies began discussions about a broader alignment — talks that would ultimately lead to the merger and the opportunity for Dignity Health to once again be an official Catholic ministry (by virtue of being sponsored by CHI's public juridic person).

"One of the important factors inherent in the establishment of CommonSpirit Health was to offer the Catholic hospitals (in the Dignity Health system) sponsored by several communities of women religious to be a part of a Catholic system," said Sr. Barbara Hagedorn, SC, a member of Common-Spirit's board. The merger "offered the sisters' congregations a more expansive reach in order to stay true to their original call to serve the needs of the poor and vulnerable," she said.

Other-than-Catholic hospitals
CommonSpirit said the final structure for the new ministry will "allow the system to maintain partnerships with providers of all faiths and backgrounds." Catholic hospitals will continue to follow the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Sixteen Dignity Health hospitals in California and Arizona that are not Catholic will operate under a newly formed nonprofit corporation, Dignity Community Care, according to documents released by the California attorney general's office.

Those other-than-Catholic hospitals will be a part of CommonSpirit and continue to follow a Statement of Common Values, which prohibits direct abortions, in vitro fertilizations, and provider- or physician-assisted suicide. Dignity Community Care will be governed by its own board of directors, with no overlap with the CommonSpirit board membership.

Charity care, community benefit
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra's office said its approval of the merger was conditioned in part on what it called the largest commitment by a system to serving Medi-Cal beneficiaries and charity care in that state's history. CommonSpirit said the conditions were in keeping with Dignity Health's role as a community health provider in the state.

CommonSpirit agreed its 19 Catholic and 12 other-than-Catholic hospitals in California will offer substantial discounts through a financial assistance policy to patients with incomes up to 250 percent of the federal poverty limit. CommonSpirit also committed those hospitals to maintaining, at a minimum, current levels of charity care and community benefit services for six fiscal years following the merger.

As another condition of the agreement with the California attorney general, CommonSpirit will create a homeless health initiative in the 30 California communities served by Dignity Health hospitals. Under the agreement, CommonSpirit will contribute $20 million toward the initiative over six fiscal years.

With reporting by Julie Minda.

CommonSpirit Health executive team combines talent from Dignity Health, CHI

O'Quinn

Morissette

Francis

Edgett III

Fr. Kopfensteiner

Melfi

Robinson

 

Sanford

Young-Shehata

Zerr

Wiebe

Swartz

Shih

Webb

 

CommonSpirit Health, the Catholic system formed through the merger of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health, has a leadership team comprised of top executives of both those systems.

Lloyd H. Dean of Dignity Health and Kevin E. Lofton of CHI lead CommonSpirit as chief executive officers with independent areas of responsibility. Both will jointly oversee strategy and integration planning of the new ministry.

Dean, who was president and chief executive of Dignity Health, will have authority over operations and all clinical, financial and human resources of CommonSpirit. Lofton, who was CHI chief executive, will be responsible for advocacy, compliance, digital, information technology, international business, legal services, philanthropy, mission, sponsorship and governance, and system partnerships.

Other members of CommonSpirit's executive leadership team include:

Marvin O'Quinn, president and chief operating officer. As senior executive vice president and chief operating officer for Dignity Health, he was responsible for operations in all the system's service areas and integrated process management.

Daniel Morissette, chief financial officer. As senior executive vice president and chief financial officer at Dignity Health, he had oversight of financial affairs and other corporate operations.

Charles P. Francis, chief strategy and transformation officer. As senior executive vice president/chief strategy officer for Dignity Health, he was in charge of that system's strategic direction, market position and public policy initiatives.

Paul W. Edgett III, chief business lines officer. As executive vice president and chief strategy officer for CHI, he was responsible for charting the company's strategic direction through planning, transactions and partnerships.

Fr. Thomas R. Kopfensteiner, STD, chief mission officer. As executive vice president of mission for CHI, he was responsible for incorporating the ministry's community mission, vision and core values into the service, culture and leadership of the organization.

Mitch H. Melfi, chief legal officer. He was executive vice president of corporate affairs and chief legal officer for CHI. Before that, he was president and chief executive of First Initiatives Insurance, CHI's wholly owned insurance company.

Darryl Robinson, chief human resources officer. As executive vice president and chief human resources officer for Dignity Health, he was responsible for the organization's human resources strategy.

Kathleen D. Sanford, chief nursing officer. As senior vice president and chief nursing officer for CHI, she was executive leader for quality and patient safety; nursing, pharmacy and medical-imaging services; and clinical leadership development.

Laura Young-Shehata, senior vice president of information technology services in the office of the chief information officer. She will work in partnership with Denis Zerr until a permanent chief information officer is selected for CommonSpirit. She was senior vice president of enterprise health care IT services for Dignity Health.

Denis Zerr, senior vice president of information technology services in the office of the chief information officer. He was CHI's senior vice president for information technology services.

Dr. Robert Wiebe, chief medical officer. As executive vice president/chief medical officer for Dignity Health, he led systemwide clinical and patient care efforts.

Bruce Swartz, senior vice president, physician enterprise. He was senior vice president, physician integration for Dignity Health.

Elizabeth Shih, chief administrative officer (supporting Dean). She was executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Dignity Health.

Patricia G. Webb, chief administrative officer (supporting Lofton). She was executive vice president and chief administrative officer and chief human resources officer for CHI.