Posted on 08/30/2014 5:10:50 PM PDT by narses
Religious directives that some worried could restrict medical care at a new health clinic preparing to open on the Washington State University Spokane campus are being jettisoned.
The announcement Friday by Providence Health & Services comes two days after the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern about the clinic’s bylaws and asked WSU regents to address the matter at their Sept. 11 meeting.
The Spokane Teaching Health Center is a consortium of Providence, WSU Spokane and the Empire Health Foundation. It’s expected to open on the WSU Spokane campus in 2016, and regents will consider selling $15 million in revenue bonds to build a new facility for the clinic.
It will provide a variety of services and will be staffed by medical students, medical residents and other health care professionals.
The ACLU, in a letter to WSU regents, noted that the bylaws of the Spokane Teaching Health Center say the clinic won’t “perform or permit any medical procedure that offends the moral or ethical values or directives of Providence, including but not limited to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.” Those directives forbid or restrict reproductive services including birth control, vasectomies, fertility treatment and abortion.
Elaine Couture, regional chief executive at Providence Health Care, said Friday that the new health center is a secular organization.
“The scope of services provided by the Spokane Teaching Health Center and the secular consortium partners will not be limited” by Catholic health care directives, she said in a news release.
The news release added that the partners would “modify the provisions of the (clinic’s) governing documents to reflect that understanding.”
“We’re extremely pleased to hear it,” said Don Barbieri, who with Sharon Smith established a charitable foundation in Spokane that protested the restrictions on the new clinic. The Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund sent out emails to supporters asking them to contact WSU regents, and Barbieri and Smith said they contacted WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown and WSU President Elson Floyd in recent months to share their concerns.
“We have made sure WSU knew how we felt, but with only two weeks left until the regents’ meeting, we thought it best to go straight to (the public),” Smith said.
Barbieri added that the couple are “big fans” of WSU and the planned clinic, but wanted to make sure the health care offered there is secular.
It remains unclear why the bylaws were put into place for the new clinic, which will be on the campus of a public university and has received $900,000 in federal funds.
Officials with WSU Spokane declined comment on the controversy this week and representatives of the Empire Health Foundation didn’t return calls seeking comment.
The nonprofit clinic, announced with fanfare last year, will create six new medical residencies and possibly dozens more over the next five years, the three partners said in a description of the project in July. Existing residency training programs in Spokane also would move to the new clinic.
The clinic, to be called the University District Health Center, is expected to provide multi-disciplinary health and dental care to primarily low-income patients.
The clinic is part of an expansion of graduate medical education opportunities in Eastern Washington, a longtime goal of city leaders and politicians in both parties.
WSU Spokane has announced its intention to try to establish a second medical school here. Currently, medical education in Spokane is provided under the University of Washington School of Medicine’s multi-state WWAMI program.
Grrrrr...................
Please post comments.
Money, and wanitng to be liked..It’s the undoing of those from catholic healthcare like this, some catholic schools, and the USCCB.
I second your grrrr..
It is shameful. Truly shameful.
GRRRRRRrrrrrrr...............
oh I did already.....lol
Thank you!
Here is a comment from the left wing rag:
yurtsrcool • 8 hours ago
Look at every nation/region of the world where the Catholic Church is the dominant institution and you’ll see rampant poverty, corruption, crime, hunger, destitution and limited social mobility.
They are a stain upon humanity and need to be excised from our world before it’s too late.
The Church goes where it is needed most. It did not cause the poverty and misery but it is there to help relieve it. Jesus ssid the poor eill be eith us always. The leftists need to take a good look at the misery in our inner cities, the direct result of leftist, racist policies.
Elaine Couture, regional chief executive at Providence Health Care, said Friday that the new health center is a secular organization. “The scope of services provided by the Spokane Teaching Health Center and the secular consortium partners will not be limited” by Catholic health care directives, she said in a news release. The news release added that the partners would “modify the provisions of the (clinic’s) governing documents to reflect that understanding.” “We’re extremely pleased to hear it,” said Don Barbieri, who with Sharon Smith established a charitable foundation in Spokane that protested the restrictions on the new clinic. The Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund sent out emails to supporters asking them to contact WSU regents, and Barbieri and Smith said they contacted WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown and WSU President Elson Floyd in recent months to share their concerns.
Maybe Providence needs a new regional director if capitulation on matters of faith is to become policy under this one.
All that stuff is caused by socialism
I suppose that France and Italy fall under this comment. Never noticed much poverty there other than in the ROP sections.
One breaks ranks and all will be expected to capitulate. They have made the battle harder elsewhere.
.
The adoration of our savior is demonstrated by feeding or caring for his sheep (which Teresa did abundantly).
.
The Jesuits caused the poverty in South America, a direct result of their leftist, racist policies.
South America was healthy and wealthy before the Jesuits plundered and enslaved it.
.
THANK YOU for your post about the Catholic Church going where it’s needed and that’s where there already is poverty.
If 900.000 pieces of silver will buy the conscience of the "Catholics" of Spokane, then they did not have much of a conscience to begin with. Apparently, with names like Don Barbieri and Elaine Couture, at least two of these miscreants are likely to have had Christian and even Roman Catholic ancestors.
So Providence Health and Services, an allegedly CATHOLIC health care provider will now be training medical personnel in vasectomies, sterilizations, birth control and abortion. Congratulations to Bishop Cupich for translating his recent hostility to pro-life efforts into outright cooperation with abortion and other manifest evils. Maybe Pope Francis should hear about this---long and loud.
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