Vote on Ailing Hospital Delayed

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors postponed a decision Tuesday on whether to pull the plug on negotiations to rescue Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, which has the only emergency room in the Santa Clara River Valley.

Two hospital trustees said they interpreted the supervisors’ silence as a positive sign, indicating that the board has not shut the door on talks to keep the small, semi-rural hospital open.

Santa Paula Memorial serves the 50,000 residents of the Santa Clara River Valley, which includes the farm towns of Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru. The 49-bed hospital has been on the brink of bankruptcy for a year as trustees struggled to find ways to pay off its growing debt.

Trustees Carol Burhoe and Rodney Fernandez said Tuesday it was too soon to say whether the hospital would file for bankruptcy, an option trustees have talked about for the past 12 months to keep creditors at bay while they developed money-making programs and services.

“It’s a difficult time for the hospital and the [hospital] board’s going to have to decide what to do,” Fernandez said. “We’re hopeful the Board of Supervisors would give us a signal that they are coming back to the table.”

Discussions between the county and hospital trustees aimed at saving the hospital collapsed last month over the issue of debt liability, but negotiators said they were heartened after talks were reopened last week between the county, the hospital and city officials from Fillmore and Santa Paula.

City leaders and a resident asked the supervisors Tuesday to reconsider the county’s decision to pull back, saying the county was the hospital’s last chance for survival.

Santa Paula City Councilwoman Mary Ann Krause said the hospital saved the lives of several people in recent days, including a person who was taken by helicopter to Santa Paula Memorial.

“If the hospital wasn’t there,” Krause said, “these people may not have survived.”

Robert Borrego, 77, of Santa Paula told the board he has received treatment at the emergency room three times, two of them for life-threatening illnesses.

“Please continue your negotiations with Santa Paula hospital and take over management of it,” Borrego said. “We need the hospital. Please don’t give up on the people of the Santa Clara River Valley.”