Santa Paula Hospital to Be Resuscitated

Shuttered Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, once the emergency lifeline of the Santa Clara Valley, is expected to reopen this fall with full services after a bankruptcy judge approved a plan to pay off $13 million in debt.

“People are getting their hospital back,” said Kathy Long, the Ventura County supervisor in whose district the medical center is located. “There’s no question they want it open today.”

Approval of the bankruptcy plan Wednesday clears the way for the 41-bed rural hospital to become an arm of the Ventura County Medical Center, the public healthcare safety net for the poor.

About 50,000 people live in the Santa Paula hospital’s service area.

After more than four decades of operation, the Santa Paula hospital closed in December 2003 and went into bankruptcy after its board of directors, intent on maintaining control despite mounting debt, rejected county offers to save it.

County officials, determined to reopen the only emergency room between Ventura and Santa Clarita, found a solution after hospital creditors and the city of Santa Paula became allies.

The Santa Paula City Council agreed to rezone 16 acres of hospital-owned property, and the parcel was sold to Comstock Homes of Manhattan Beach for $10.6 million. That money, plus $2.75 million the county is paying for 13 acres and the hospital buildings, was enough to settle hospital debts and pension obligations.

“It’s great news for Santa Paula,” said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz. “We’ve been able to bring back a general service hospital. And that doesn’t happen very often. We’re very proud.”

Long, Bobkiewicz and about 20 others traveled to Santa Barbara to ask Judge Robin L. Riblet to approve the bankruptcy plan.

They responded with applause after the bankruptcy judge talked with familiarity about what reopening the hospital would mean for residents of Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru, Long said.

“It was a red-letter day,” said Long, who helped push the plan through the county bureaucracy. “We get our emergency room back and give people the security they need.”

Dr. Samuel Edwards, former administrator of the county medical center, is overseeing the plan to get the tiny Santa Paula facility running. Karin Lyders, head of nursing at the closed hospital, and Lisa Powell, a former coordinator of patient care at the county hospital, are assisting Edwards.

“We’re saying we’ll have it open by mid-October,” Edwards said.

But it could be December before all hospital equipment is inspected, the hospital is licensed by the state as part of the county medical center, and state and federal approval is secured for Medi-Cal and Medicare payments, he said.

“I haven’t even been able to walk through the hospital door, and won’t be able to until we take possession,” Edwards said.

Escrow should close by summer, officials said. The Comstock Homes escrow was expected to close next month, Long said.

Until the facility changes hands, Edwards said, he’s putting together “a hospital on paper,” including staffing of more than 200 employees. That’s the same level as before the closure.

Services will include not only emergency care but surgeries and the delivery of babies, Edwards said.

The hospital’s goal -- and mandate -- is to break even financially, Edwards said. And its advantage is that as an arm of the county hospital, it qualifies for premium government payments.

Also, the Santa Paula hospital will save money on overhead, because several departments -- such as purchasing and billing -- will be overseen by administrators at the county hospital in Ventura.

And purchases of all supplies will be made in bulk through the larger facility, Edwards said.

The county hospital system -- which includes about 45 general and specialty clinics -- sees about 450,000 patients a year, including thousands at clinics in Santa Paula and Piru, Edwards said.

The county is also building a new clinic in Fillmore.

Under the aegis of the county, the Santa Paula hospital will also be able to delay a costly state-mandated earthquake retrofit, Edwards said. The deadline for seismic strengthening is 2013.