Panel Finalized to Help Save Small Hospital

The final members of a committee to save Santa Paula Memorial Hospital were appointed Tuesday night, just a month before city councils in Santa Paula and Fillmore hope to review the panel’s emergency recommendations to keep the tiny hospital afloat.

The committee’s last four members, named by the Fillmore City Council, join four appointees by the Santa Paula City Council and one by the Piru town council. County Supervisor Kathy Long is also on the panel.

Their task is urgent -- to staunch the flow of red ink that has drained the Santa Clara Valley’s only general hospital of $14 million in reserves and threatens to close it. Operating losses in the last five years alone are approaching $13 million.

If that was not daunting enough, some committee members say hospital administrators have been less than forthcoming with key documents since the hospital asked the Santa Paula and Fillmore city councils for help two weeks ago and the councils agreed to appoint the special committee.

“I wanted to look at their strategic [operating] plan,” said Fillmore Councilwoman Cecilia Cuevas, a committee member. “But now we’re told that information is proprietary. That doesn’t seem in the true spirit of reaching out to the community asking for more support.”

Long said the hospital must be completely open with the committee.

“They’re going to have to open their books,” she said. “There’s clearly a distrust of operations there.”

Hospital Chief Executive Mark Gregson said he is certain that he can work through such concerns.

“We’re in a very, very competitive situation and there are documents that are very sensitive,” he said. “But we’ll do everything we can to share as much as we can to make sure they know there is an operating strategy in place.”

To dispel distrust apparent at the Jan. 22 joint council meeting, at which council and community members demanded detailed financial information, Gregson said he is distributing an eight-page set of answers to questions raised.

The document outlines the nearly $500,000 paid each year out of a budget of about $15 million to Quorum Health Group, a Tennessee firm that has run the 39-bed hospital since 1994.

“We’re trying to make sure we’re being forthcoming with answers to questions on the table,” he said, “and stay focused on having this hospital to continue to be here.”

The 41-year-old hospital has not turned a profit since 1988. And officials announced in December that it needed to raise $600,000 in 90 days or it might be forced to close or downsize.

Its financial condition has begun to improve, however, Gregson said Wednesday. It averaged 13 patients a day in December, then increased to 18 a day in January. “So we’re optimistic, but we’re not out of the woods,” he said.

Its options include a merger with or sale to a larger hospital such as Community Memorial in Ventura or St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, officials said. But no negotiations have taken place, Gregson said.

Under such an arrangement, the hospital could scale back operations so it would remain a basic safety net in the farming valley, running an emergency room but focusing on outpatient treatment of less serious injuries and illnesses.

One committee member, Dr. Ernest Carlson, said the former Santa Ynez Hospital near Solvang followed that model after it merged with Cottage Hospital of Santa Barbara eight years ago.

“I believe our hospital needs to explore a merger with a larger hospital,” Carlson said. “A critical factor in a small hospital is maternity: There may be three or four days when nobody comes in in labor, but you have the ongoing expense.”

The 20-bed Santa Ynez Hospital was losing nearly $1 million a year before the merger, but turned a small profit last year, said its former board chairman, Owen Johnston.

He said the Santa Ynez center still provides many services to a community 35 miles from the closest hospital in Lompoc.

“We have an emergency room, a state-of-the-art CT scanner, operating rooms. Surgeons and other specialists come in once or twice a week from Santa Barbara,” Johnston said. “Affiliation is the only way to go.”

Santa Paula Councilwoman Mary Ann Krause, a committee member, said she wants to look at what services are truly needed in Santa Paula.

“Which services are essential is up for discussion,” she said, “and I’m not sure the community or the hospital board has thought that through.”