The state secretaries of Health and Human Services are apparently satisfied with Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center's response to a letter they wrote the hospital, requesting clarification of certain hospital polices including end-of-life care and women's reproductive health services.

Spokeswomen for both Department of Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil and Human Services Secretary Pamela S. Hyde said the secretaries had no comment on a letter they received Sept. 23 in response to their Sept. 1 inquiry into hospital polices.

The secretaries had written the hospital an eight-page letter detailing their ideas about how certain services were being handled at the hospital and asking hospital officials to reaffirm those ideas or correct them.

Public concern about those issues — as well as health care for gay, lesbian and transgender patients — peaked after the 2008 merger of St. Vincent Regional Medical Center with the Catholic provider group Christus Health.

The hospital's letter sought to assure the secretaries that public fears surrounding changes in these types of services were unfounded.

"It is important for us to inform the community that access to our services will always be unencumbered and if for some reason we do not provide a certain service we will work with others to make sure that services are provided in as efficient and convenient fashion as we can arrange," said the letter.

The hospital's response also provided statistics, as requested by the secretaries, regarding the volume of elective tubal ligations performed at Physicians Plaza — a distantly affiliated clinic where the hospital now sends patients, who haven't just given birth, for the sterilization procedure.

According to the letter, Physicians Plaza performed the procedure 176 times between April 2008 and July 2009; and 136 times in the 15 months proceeding the merger.