Let Hospitals Be Transparent About Affiliation

Jennafer Norris, at home with her three children, had life-threatening pre-eclampsia in all her pregnancies. She asked for a tubal ligation after an emergency cesarean section to deliver her third child, but the doctor said she couldn’t perform the procedure because the hospital was Catholic.Credit...Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

Among US Catholic hospitals, 21% did not explicitly disclose their Catholic identity on their website, and only 28% specified how religious affiliation might influence patient care. Although it is unknown what proportion of Catholic facilities are in full compliance with the directives, a recent review demonstrated that patients are more likely to encounter reproductive restrictions at Catholic facilities compared with non-Catholic facilities⁴; less is known about end-of-life care restrictions. Many patients do not realize the implications of Catholic affiliation on their health care.⁵ If patients are unaware of the affiliation and encounter restrictions, refusal of or delay in care due to the need to go elsewhere can result in increased medical risk and contribute to wasted health care expenditures.

This study was limited to hospitals listed in the Catholic Health Care Directory; some hospitals may have changed ownership or listings may have been inaccurate. The number of search terms was limited, but preliminary work revealed that other reproductive terms were generally linked to external sites and the term abortion appeared sufficient; nevertheless, some disclosures may have been missed. Whether the low proportion of hospitals that did not cite health care restrictions reflects a lack of transparency or nonadherence to the directives is unknown. In addition, some of the hospitals that cited the directives may provide reproductive services. How often patients consult hospital websites for such information is also unknown.

Greater transparency about religious affiliation and care restrictions may allow patients to make more informed choices.¹ In the state of Washington, hospitals must provide their reproductive health and end-of-life care policies on publicly available websites.⁶ Further research on the effect of this initiative on patient satisfaction and health care choices is warranted.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2728476

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/opinion/letters/health-care-catholic-hospitals.html