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Alexian Brothers sale stirs controversy
To the dismay of the local bishop and the consternation of the hospital staff, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., the nation's largest for-profit health care chain, has acquired the Alexian Brothers' 204-bed hospital in San Jose, Calif.
"The decision of the Alexian Brothers has occasioned shock and deep concern in the diocese of San Jose," Bishop Pierre DuMaine said in an official statement.
The bishop said neither he nor the Catholic and health care communities of San Jose and Santa Clara had been consulted about the transaction. He said he feared that Columbia would not continue the hospital's commitment to Catholic values and the poor.
DuMaine's concerns typify those voiced in the growing national debate over purchases of Catholic hospitals by for-profit corporations. Controversy over the sale of Jesuit St. Louis University Hospital to Tenet Health Care, the second-largest chain after Columbia, has provoked discussion for the past year about the role of Catholic health care and the conflict between pleasing investors and serving the sick and poor.
Alexian Brothers Hospital is the only hospital serving a large low-income, ethnic area on San Jose's east side. There are no guarantees that it will not be absorbed into other facilities...