News

State's 5 Planned Parenthood affiliates consolidating

Posted February 07, 2008 10:00 pm

Dean Olsen

To operate more efficiently and cope with rising costs, Springfield's Planned Parenthood will merge with the state's four other Planned Parenthood chapters, effective March 1, an agency official said Thursday.

But Planned Parenthood will continue to provide the same family planning and outpatient health-care services at 1000 E. Washington St., said Judith Barringer, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Springfield Area.

"Our clients won't know the difference," she said. "We will be there for the clients. Instead of money going for all of the infrastructure, eventually we will be able to put more money into the care of the patients."

The state's five Planned Parenthood affiliates - separate not-for-profits that provide health services and education - are based in Springfield, Decatur, Champaign, Peoria and Chicago. They will merge into one Chicago-based affiliate called Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

"This will allow us to thrive in ways we could not accomplish with our current limited resources," Barringer and Heather Dorsey, the Springfield affiliate's board president, wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to donors.

CEO positions at the current affiliates will be eliminated, and the CEO of the Chicago-area affiliate, Steve Trombley, will become chief executive of the new statewide organization, Barringer said.

Barringer, who is resigning, receives a $66,000 annual salary, while Trombley earned $260,414 in the fiscal year ending in June 2006, according to the Chicago-area affiliate's most recent IRS Form 990.

Barringer said she doesn't know whether any of the remaining 11 employees of the Springfield affiliate will lose their jobs.

"I seriously doubt we would lose many people," she said. "We have always had a very lean staff. They do a bang-up job of providing services, and they care about our clients."

The five affiliates won't close, Barringer said. In fact, she said efficiencies gained in the merger eventually could allow Planned Parenthood to expand services to southern Illinois.

The Springfield affiliate is 35 years old and operates with an annual budget of about $1 million. The budget includes $390,000 from the federal government for primary health-care services, exams, pregnancy tests and counseling, as well as communitywide education on reproductive health.

The new merged affiliate will have a total budget of more than $20 million annually.

Barringer, who has led the Springfield affiliate for 15 years, said money saved by the merger also will be used to help Planned Parenthood clinics afford the rising costs of birth control pills and employee salaries.

The merger, which has been discussed by Planned Parenthood officials for more than a decade, will allow the clinics to upgrade their electronic medical records and increase their presence on the Internet, she added.

Planned Parenthood's Chicago Area and Champaign affiliates perform abortions, but Barringer said there are no plans under the merger for Springfield's clinic to provide abortions.

The Springfield affiliate's local board of directors, which Barringer said supports the merger "100 percent," will be dissolved, as will the boards of the other affiliates.

A new statewide board will include representatives from Springfield. And local advisory boards will be formed from Planned Parenthood supporters in Springfield and other areas served by the agency's clinics, Barringer said.

The affiliates are separate from the Springfield-based Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, which is involved in public-policy advocacy and lobbying.

Dean Olsen can be reached at (217) 788-1543.

Article Categories
News