Groups oppose sale of hospitals   Loss of services feared if Catholic charity takes over Rocky Mountain News     Saturday, December 1, 2007 Powerful civil liberties groups have joined forces to oppose the proposed sale of two metro hospitals to a Catholic health care organization. Many doctors at the hospitals — Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette and Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge — also oppose the sale. The civil liberties coalition is considering legal action to stop the sale. If the $611 million transaction goes through, medical staff at both hospitals must follow Catholic ethical and religious directives. That means doctors could not perform vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions in the hospitals. They also could not give birth control counseling or remove feeding tubes for those in a persistent vegetative state. "We're just concerned about the loss of services that are going to result particularly to people in Jefferson County," said Roland Halpern, director of community relations for the local office of Compassion & Choices, an organization that supports choice in end-of-life decisions. "We feel that there has to be a separation of church and state, and intimate medical decisions should be up to the individual and family and should not be dictated by the government or the church," Halpern said. A spokeswoman for the prospective buyer, the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, said such fears are overblown. The prohibited services will be available nearby, said Christine Woolsey, and Denver will benefit from millions of dollars in hospital improvements. What's next: Attorney General John Suthers has until Dec. 31 to decide if he wants to intervene in the sale. The local coalition opposing the sale will hold a town hall meeting at 9 a.m. today at the First Universalist Church of Denver, 4101 E. Hampden Ave. Representatives from Kaiser and Exempla will attend. The owners have delayed the completion of the sale until Jan. 31. Patients would not be affected until some time after that, officials said. "We understand there are concerns about the change, but the large investment that is going to come from Sisters of Charity into the Denver area to go directly to patient care and quality improvements outweighs the change in procedures," said Woolsey. Legal action possible: Opponents of the sale include the Colorado Center on Law & Policy, ACLU, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, NARAL, the National Women's Law Center, the MergerWatch Project and other groups, Halpern said. Ed Kahn, special counsel at the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, is working on possible legal action to block the sale. The groups contend patients will be hurt by the restrictions imposed by the Catholic leadership if Lutheran and Good Samaritan come under complete ownership of the Sisters of Charity. The Kansas group already is part-owner, but would gain full control if the Community First Foundation of Arvada sells it its share. Many doctors have said they'll leave the hospitals if they're sold because they don't want to compromise medical care. The medical staff at Lutheran was scheduled to meet Friday with Attorney General John Suthers' office to explain their opposition. Suthers could block the sale because of a 1999 law that allows his office to intervene if a sale of a nonprofit to another nonprofit would cause a material change in services. He has until Dec. 31 to decide. A group of Kaiser Ob/Gyn doctors who practice at Good Samaritan met with Suthers' office last week to object to the sale, said Scott Barton, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Good Samaritan. "We're very concerned from a patient care standpoint," Barton said. "If you're doing a C-section and a woman wants her tubes tied and you don't do it, what are the ramifications of that?" Other Catholic-owned hospitals have permitted birth control-related services to be provided in a "carve-out" — a section of the building or a mobile unit in the parking lot owned by another entity, she said.