Health care services on the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas are at risk, due to inadequate government oversight. Bremerton’s Harrison Medical Center, which serves four counties, is planning to merge with Franciscan Health System. This would likely result in religiously based restrictions on the health care provided to patients. Franciscan is a religious institution governed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (the ERDs). The ERDs prohibit hospitals from providing reproductive care, end-of-life services, and care for LGBT families where such services conflict with the teachings of the Church. If this merger goes through, people would likely have to travel over 200 miles to get some kinds of care previously available in their communities. Recent reports suggest that Harrison has already agreed to restrict health care services based on the religious mission of Franciscan.
By law, the Department of Health is tasked with reviewing hospital mergers that affect access to health care. We need your help to urge the Dept. of Health to review mergers that restrict care based on religious doctrine. DOH should review this and all mergers to ensure patient access to health care services, information, and referrals based on medical best practices. Tell the Department of Health to do its job and fully review the Harrison merger!
Urge the Department of Health to protect health care access.
