Coming Soon: Fewer Episcopal Hospitals

In case you haven’t heard, the Diocese of Texas has decided to sell the St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System, including the flagship Saint Luke’s Episcopal Hospital of Houston, to Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI). You can find the story in the Episcopal New Service at ; and it was picked up at Episcopal Cafe. According to reports, “CHI has committed to maintain all current physician models and all employees will continue to be employed by St. Luke’s.” You can learn about more CHI here. Their network is literally coast to coast.

Not quite six years ago I wrote at Episcopal Cafe about Episcopal health ministries. In that article I noted at that time 17 hospitals, identified by digging through the Episcopal Church Annual (better known as The Red Book). Since that post the systems in the Diocese of Texas and in the Diocese of West Missouri (in which I serve) have both added services and hospitals. I don't know these days how many Episcopal hospitals or health systems remain. I appreciate the continuing commitment of the Diocese of Texas to supporting primary care in underserved communities. At the same time, I'm sad that there will now be that many fewer Episcopal hospitals.