Alameda County, Sutter Health in talks about San Leandro Hospital

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 28, 2009 | by Karen Holzmeister

SAN LEANDRO -- Could San Leandro Hospital, with its many vacant patient beds and bustling emergency room, become Alameda County's next public hospital?

County officials are in private and ongoing talks with Sutter Health, which operates San Leandro Hospital, to use the centrally located medical complex as a backup to Oakland's Highland Hospital.

Half of the 27,000 patients who come yearly to San Leandro Hospital's ER are Oakland residents, county Health Care Services Agency Director Dave Kears said two weeks ago.

George Bischalaney, chief executive officer of Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, a Sutter Health affiliate, said the county has made "an expression of interest in the San Leandro campus, if decisions made in the future result in its being available."

Discussions "are occurring" between the county and Sutter, acknowledged Ruben Briones, deputy chief of staff to county Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker, whose district includes San Leandro.

Neither man would disclose whether the county is interested in buying or leasing San Leandro Hospital, or contracting with Sutter for services.

Sutter has the first option to buy the hospital at East 14th Street and 138th Avenue, which, as far as the general community knows, is in limbo.

Sutter Health and Eden Medical Center operate San Leandro Hospital through June 2010 under a contract with the Eden Township Healthcare District, which owns San Leandro Hospital. San Leandro residents and local medical workers, who fear Sutter will convert San Leandro Hospital for other uses if it buys the facility, are lobbying local and county-elected representatives to keep the 122- bed hospital and its ER open.

The county now is reviewing plans for a new Eden Medical Center. The residents and medical workers want approval of that complex linked to a requirement that Sutter continue to subsidize operating costs at San Leandro Hospital, where Kears said only 40 percent of the beds are filled, on average. Income from insurance and patient payments also don't cover the bills.

"What will happen if there is a disaster?" San Leandro resident Gloria Pineo asked the San Leandro City Council on Monday. "What if we cannot get to Eden?"

About 50 health care workers and former San Leandro Hospital patients picketed the county administration building in Oakland on Tuesday, where supervisors postponed discussion of the Eden plan until May 12.

Most comments on keeping San Leandro Hospital open focus on Sutter as the operator.

The San Leandro council, with Councilman Bill Stephens abstaining, on Monday passed a carefully worded statement that merely requested Sutter, the county and the health care district keep San Leandro Hospital and its ER open.

Staff writer Chris Metinko contributed to this story. Reach Karen Holzmeister at 510-293-2478.IF YOU GO-- WHAT: Regional health care forum on changes in San Leandro Hospital's medical services-- WHEN: 6:30 p.m. today-- WHERE: San Leandro City Hall, 835 E. 14th St.