Doctors Medical Center Execs Consider Options to Sell Hospital, Community Members Protest

As they grapple with dwindling funding and staff, administrators at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo are considering selling part or all of the hospital property to the casino located next door. The possible sale of the once full-service public hospital, which has stopped accepting emergency ambulances, closed and downsized units and reduced its number of inpatient beds to 50, was revealed in an email from hospital CEO Dawn Gideon and members of the West Contra Costa Healthcare Board that was later sent to the California Nurses Association.

Hospital spokesman Chuck Finnie confirmed that the email is genuine and said that Gideon and other hospital administrators are exploring their options for the possible sale of DMC.

“I have signed an agreement for (a broker) to explore options for the sale of the hospital property as well,” Gideon wrote in the Sept. 9 email. “It is widely believed that the casino would likely pay the highest price for the property, but we need to explore all avenues.”

With fewer services offered at the hospital, the daily number of patients has dwindled from about 75 patients in July to about 25 by early September, Gideon said in the email. Payments from the higher number of hospital visits in July as well as the continuously shrinking staff and other cost savings will buoy the hospital’s finances temporarily and could allow DMC to stay open until the beginning of next year, she said.

In addition, the San Pablo Casino, which is operated by the Lytton Tribe, last June paid the hospital $4.6 million to lease 100 parking spaces in DMC’s lot, according to Finnie. The spokesman said the income from that lease agreement is helping to keep the hospital open.

“The leadership of Doctors Medical Center has been fighting for decades to save it and is still holding out hope for a miracle and doing everything they possibly can to preserve cash and to keep the doors open,” Finnie said. But some two dozen nurses, patients and other community members who gathered at the intersection between DMC and the San Pablo Lytton Casino in protest today said they were unconvinced of hospital leaders’ interest in saving the hospital. Many also criticized the county Board of Supervisors for failing to take financial responsibility for the hospital.

“Contra Costa, can’t you see? This is a healthcare emergency!” protesters chanted, with some passing motorists honking in support. Nurse Vinnell Thomas, who said she worked at the San Pablo hospital for five years before she and many of her co-workers were laid off last month, said DMC and the county’s Board of Supervisors are putting profit before people.

“The county has a responsibility - a moral, legal and ethical responsibility to save this hospital,” she said, noting that the majority of DMC’s patients are low-income, elderly residents. According to nurses’ unions, two Richmond-area patients who were taken to other East Bay hospitals due to the diversion of ambulance service at DMC starting in August have died due to the resulting delay in care.

“Nobody should have to go 30-plus miles to get to a hospital,” said Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. McLaughlin, who has also urged the county to find a financial solution to the hospital’s problems, said today that county leaders are “afraid to step on corporate toes” and lack the political will needed to keep the hospital open. County supervisors have said the county doesn’t have the funding to absorb DMC’s $18 million annual deficit and that more than $30 million has already been transferred from county coffers to the hospital in recent years to prevent its closure.

Founded in 1954 under the West Contra Costa Healthcare District, DMC has struggled financially for years under the weight of a patient population consisting of about 80 percent Medi-Cal and Medi-Care recipients, which provide lower reimbursements than private insurers. In May, healthcare district voters rejected a parcel tax measure aimed at closing DMC’s budget gap. Meanwhile, a hospital council made up of health care providers from Contra Costa County and private hospital groups in the Bay Area has met to discuss alternative models - such as a stand-alone emergency room -- that could allow DMC to remain open.

By Bay City News

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