ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — The boards of the Ashland Community Hospital and a hospital chain based in San Francisco have approved a merger of the two organizations.
The Ashland Daily Tidings (http://bit.ly/OtOyug) reports it now is up to the Ashland City Council to weigh in on whether the merger with the Dignity Health group goes through. The city has retained sole corporate ownership since turning the hospital over to a nonprofit group that has run it since 1996. The council is likely to vote in November.
One issue likely to come up is assisted suicide. Representatives of Dignity Health have said that physicians working at a hospital it runs would not be allowed to prescribe lethal drugs under Oregon's assisted suicide law.
The hospital has been running in the red.
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Information from: The Ashland Daily Tidings, http://www.dailytidings.com
