Santa Clara County never intended to buy the Regional Medical Center in East San Jose. The board didn’t want to take on any more health care responsibilities, as it had rescued three failing hospitals five years ago and was already considered the second largest public health and hospital system in California. But things were dire.
Don’t worry, people would die. Ambulances would have had to travel further when every minute counted. Residents would have had to wait longer for intensive care because immediate treatment would not have been available. District leaders knew this, as did the doctors and nurses in our overburdened public health system.
Then the county learned it was receiving a long-overdue reimbursement of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds for health care costs related to COVID-19. The windfall allowed officials to negotiate a $175 million deal with HCA Healthcare, the hospital’s owner, to buy Regional.
The timing was nothing short of miraculous, as HCA continued to cut life-saving hospital services in a San José neighborhood that has fought for decades for equal opportunities in health care, education, and housing.
The county could have used those millions to offset its $250 million deficit or to use the money for unfunded state health care efforts, including the CARE Court and guardianship laws that now require closed acute care facilities for patients with substance use disorders.
But this time it should be different.
When the California Department of Public Health and Attorney General Rob Bonta refused to intervene, county officials were undeterred. They began talking to HCA, determined not to let Regional go down the same path as San Jose Medical Center, which closed in 2004 after HCA systematically cut its essential services. The county was not going to let East San Jose residents lose their hospital or other essential services. In fact, plans are in place to restore previously cut services, such as the obstetrics and delivery unit. This health care disparity would be reversed.
It will take time to repair the damage done to the hospital and systematically restore the necessary services that will help people get better health and live better lives when appropriate care is available. Just knowing that Regional will eventually be whole again is like taking a patient off ECMO, a machine that helps the patient breathe, when they no longer need it.
County officials no longer need HCA. They made the right move, the only one left, and they knew it.
They fought for the community, and the residents of East San Jose can finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their hospital will no longer be owned by a for-profit corporation.
Moryt Milo is an editor at San José Spotlight. Reach Moryt at (email protected) or follow her at @morytmilo on X, formerly known as Twitter. Read her monthly editorials here.
