Staff Answers Call From an Ailing Hospital : Health care: More than half of the employees are giving part of their pay back in a bid to keep the Santa Paula facility open.

After training at Ventura County’s larger hospitals, registered nurse Sue Houx chose to work at Santa Paula Memorial, a community hospital that serves the mostly rural Santa Clara Valley.

“This is a friendly atmosphere for the patients,” Houx said from her post at the nurses’ station. “We’re allowed to give a little extra tender loving care here, and that’s the reason many of us went into nursing in the first place.”

But that friendly atmosphere did not attract enough patients to prevent the 60-bed, nonprofit hospital from incurring big financial losses in recent years. At the same time admissions went down--due largely to an emphasis on non-hospital treatment by health maintenance organizations--the hospital experienced a rise in uninsured patients.

After losing $1.1 million in the latest fiscal year, administrators launched a $500,000 fund-raising campaign to keep the hospital open until it can again balance its budget.

That’s when Houx and other employees decided to help.

Responding to an appeal from the Hilltoppers, a group started by employees to assist the hospital, more than half of the facility’s 280 employees are giving part of their salaries back to the hospital.

The 152 employees--including nurses, housekeepers, doctors and clerks--are donating a portion of their paychecks through a withholding program. The amounts vary from as little as a dollar from each two-week paycheck to $20 or more, Dale Hawkins of the Hilltoppers said.

“What’s amazing is that the staff has done this even though they haven’t had an increase in salary for two years,” hospital President Rulon J. Barlow said. Barlow said he has also donated part of his salary to the drive.

With less than two weeks remaining in the campaign, the hospital has received more than $435,000 in cash and pledges from the community, including $110,000 from the city of Fillmore and another $35,000 from Santa Paula.

The staff’s payroll deductions have resulted in a combined contribution of about $2,000 a month, Barlow said. “The dollars are significant,” he said.

The response from the employees and valley residents determined to save the area’s only emergency care provider is reminiscent of the outpouring of aid in 1962 that paid for the hospital’s construction. Back then, many of the valley’s pioneer families and other residents donated $1 million in less than three months to bring an acute-care facility to the Santa Clara Valley.

By contrast, many participating in the Hilltoppers’ drive come from the lower-paying ranks of the hospital’s staff, Hawkins said.

Saving their jobs by helping the hospital is not the main reason they give, she said.

“It isn’t exactly a matter of the staff preserving their money or salary,” said Hawkins, who supervises the hospital’s business office. “Instead, it’s a matter of the staff--who mostly live in Santa Paula--helping the hospital stay in Santa Paula for themselves, their families and the community. It says something about how much people care about the hospital.”

Barlow said the concern shown by employees reflects the type of people who choose to work in medicine.

“They work here because they are compassionate and enjoy serving others,” the hospital president said. “Every hospital talks about giving personal care. But of the many hospitals I’ve seen, it’s more talk than it is here.”

Sylvia Cordova, who has worked for three years at the hospital as an admitting clerk, said both her sons have had surgery there.

“It only seems fair to contribute to the hospital,” Cordova said. “Where better to donate than to a place that’s a benefit to the community?”

Many elderly patients who visit the hospital daily for lab tests and other routine procedures would be among those hardest hit if the hospital closed and they had to travel long distances, she said.

As she cleaned an empty room, housekeeper Sheila Pena said she didn’t think twice before agreeing to donate a small amount of her paycheck to help the hospital.

“I just decided to do my part,” said Pena, who has worked at the hospital eight years. “Everybody feels close to each other here, like a little family.”

Although Pena said her job has diminished her fondness for cleaning her own house, she said she has enjoyed her years working at what town residents call “the little hospital up on the hill.”

And she has not missed the small amount deducted from her paycheck, Pena said. “I set it in my mind I was going to let the money go, so I didn’t miss it,” she said. “It’s just like the taxes they take out.”

Irene Reardon, a staff nurse at Santa Paula Memorial since 1979, said rumors about the hospital’s poor financial shape had been circulating before administrators called a staff meeting in February to explain the situation.

“Because we’re a smaller hospital, when our (patient) census goes down, it hurts us more than a large hospital,” Reardon said.

During the past five years, the number of patient days--admissions multiplied by length of stays--has declined by half, a drop that Barlow said would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The average daily census dropped to 25 last year and has continued to go down, he said.

At the same time, the hospital has cut staffing to the bare minimum, Barlow said.

“We still need people in the emergency room and we still need people in the (maternity) ward,” he said.

A longtime member of Hilltoppers, Reardon said the fund-raising drive was an opportunity for the group to recruit new members. As more employees signed up to donate to the campaign, the progress was noted on a hand-drawn thermometer displayed in the cafeteria. Last month, participation topped the 50% level for the first time.

“We take pride in the hospital because it is a personable place,” Reardon said. “The staff gets along very well together and it’s not cliquish at all. Nobody thinks anything of dropping what they’re doing and lending a hand in an emergency.”

Buoyed by the staff’s sacrifices and contributions from the community, Barlow predicted that Santa Paula Memorial will survive its current crisis.

“The hospital wasn’t easy to start, but the community and residents are not known for backing down from a challenge,” Barlow said.