CommonSpirit Health


CommonSpirit Health is the largest Catholic health system, and the second-largest nonprofit hospital chain, in the United States. It operates more than 700 care sites and 142 hospitals in 21 states. Founded, in 2019, by the merger of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives; CommonSpirit Health formed as one of the largest non-profit hospital systems by revenue in the United States.

History

Formed on February 1, 2019; the hospital network was created by the merger of two nonprofit hospital systems: San Francisco-based Dignity Health, and Catholic Health Initiatives of Colorado.
Dignity Health was founded, in 1986, as Catholic Healthcare West, when the Sisters of Mercy Burlingame Regional Community and the Sisters of Mercy Auburn Regional Community merged their healthcare ministries into one organization.
Catholic Health Initiatives began operations on July 1, 1996. The founding systems were the Catholic Health Corporation of Omaha, Nebraska, the Franciscan Health System of Aston, Pennsylvania, and the Sisters of Charity Health Care Systems of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Financial

In the 2018 fiscal year, CommonSpirit Health’s founding organizations Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health provided $4.2 billion in charity care, community benefit, and the unreimbursed cost of government programs.
CommonSpirit reported operating losses of $227 million in the first quarter of 2020, while combining Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives into a single organization.

Leadership

Lloyd H. Dean and Kevin E. Lofton served as joint CEOs for the health system from its founding, in early 2019. Prior, Dean was CEO and president at Dignity Health, and Lofton was CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives. Lofton retired at the end of June 2020, leaving Dean as sole CEO.