October 8, 2004

San Jose Medical Center closure could prove disastrous for South Bay

San Jose City Council tries to stall Dec. 9 closure

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

San Jose Medical Center owner Hospital Corporation of American (HCA)’s Sept. 9 announcement that it would close the Medical Center, one of only three trauma centers located in the South Bay, on Dec. 9 created a beehive of activity last week. HCA had earlier indicated it would not close the center until 2007, according to a city council staff member.

The City Council and the San Jose community in general are concerned the center’s closure, which will create a loss of 200 hospital beds and an emergency room and trauma center, will have an adverse affect on health care in this area.

While two other trauma centers are located in the South Bay, Stanford University Medical Center and Valley Medical Center, the loss of San Jose Medical Center could prove devastating in a natural disaster like an earthquake or in a terrorist attack. San Jose Medical Center also serves Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties.

City Councilmember City Chavez is concerned because the center’s closure could have “huge implications for everyone who lives, works, plays and learns in San Jose. If something happened and there was a bomb threat and that hospital was closed and the other was full, the next closest trauma center [an emergency room with 24-hour surgeons and 24-hour anesthesiologists available] would be in Alameda County,” she told the Times.

In order to stave off the closure, at least until HCA can move the trauma center to its other facility at Regional Medical Center in East San Jose, the City Council this week looked at options to find ways to postpone the closure. Among these are a letter Mayor Gonzales wrote, on behalf of the city, to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer; an HCA spokesperson’s reaction to questions before the Oct. 5 City Council meeting and a community forum on Oct. 4.

Mayor Gonzales, who was prompted to write the letter by the City Council, told reporters before the council meeting that “I think we have to take every responsibility to try to get as much information about this [closure] decision as possible. I am asking the attorney general to look at this issue and review whether their closure meets and is conforming with state law and if it’s in conformance with the responsibility they’ve provided in the past in terms of health care for our people.”

Gonzales added that he wants to ensure that the closure is consistent with any procedures the state may have. Before resorting to any activities, such as eminent domain, the Mayor stressed that the San Jose community and its City Council research decisions the city can take to keep a health care facility in the downtown area.

The mayor’s letter asks the attorney general to review HCA and its 90-day closure in regard to the corporation’s “responsibility to the health and public safety of the residents of San Jose and surrounding areas.”

In the letter, Gonzales questions whether HCA should have gone through a closure process similar to public hospitals because it has a large number of Medi-Cal patients. Since the regional hospital has not yet been certified as a trauma center, a process that potentially could take a long time, Gonzales asks Lockyer to consider closure impacts to the entire community.

Prior to Gonzales and the council meeting, reporters interviewed Leslie Kelsay, the assistant administer for public affairs for San Jose Medical Center. She let them know that the closure is pretty much a done deal.

“I wish there was another decision available to us. The fact is that these two hospitals are losing between $3 and $4 million per month. If we’re going to continue with our investment at Regional Medical Center of San Jose [formerly Alexian Brothers’ Hospital], we simply have to stem that tide.”

Kelsay earlier said that the center has “done everything legally required in terms of notifying the committee and is making a reasonable plan for transition of our services in what is obviously a very unusual circumstance”

At its Oct. 5 meeting, the City Council asked San Jose Medical Center to remain open until the new trauma center can be moved and certified. The city and county initiated a joint impact study earlier this year about timing the expansion to the regional center with the closure of the downtown center. Those results are due to be released in early November.

On Monday, more than 250 people attended a community forum on the center’s closure set up by City Councilmember Cindy Chavez in the council chambers from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. About 40 of those people spoke eloquently about the damage possible from a Dec. 9 closure.

The discussion was to center on two issues: future Santa Clara County emergency trauma care and planning and land use decisions by the City Council for the 11-acre site on which the medical center currently is housed. Most of the discussion centered around the closure.

Some of the community members attending asked HCA regional CEO Bill Gilbert and Steve Dixon, CEO of the San Jose Medical Center to sign pledge cards to delay the early December closure. Both declined, commenting that financial problems were forcing them to close the center.

Staff writer Kymberli Brady contributed to this article.