Gilroy
– San Jose Medical Center will close its doors in 90 days,
officials announced Wednesday.
The downtown hospital contains one of three acute trauma centers
in Santa Clara County, and its officials hope to move their trauma
center to Regional Medical Center in East San Jose, according to
spokeswoman Leslie Kelsay.
Gilroy – San Jose Medical Center will close its doors in 90 days, officials announced Wednesday.
The downtown hospital contains one of three acute trauma centers in Santa Clara County, and its officials hope to move their trauma center to Regional Medical Center in East San Jose, according to spokeswoman Leslie Kelsay.
In 2002, parent company HCA Healthcare announced it would close San Jose Medical Center in 2007 and transfer services to Regional, which HCA also owns.
That timetable changed, however, after San Jose Medical lost $12 million in 2002, $16.3 million in 2003 and is now on track to lose more this year than last, Kelsay said.
“This is not a decision we wanted to make,” San Jose Medical Center CEO Steve Dixon said in a prepared statement.
Over the last two years, Kelsay said the hospital’s expenses rose by 23 percent while its revenues rose by 4 percent.
San Jose Medical is one of two trauma centers to which ground and air ambulances generally take patients with severe injury in south Santa Clara County.
The county-owned Santa Clara Valley Medical Center remains an option, but Stanford Hospital, the third choice, is farther away.
“We’re not really thrilled about it; that’s the main hospital we transport to,” CALSTAR flight nurse Vickie Shannon said from the non-profit helicopter service’s Gilroy base.
The closure will cost 450 people their jobs, according to hospital officials.
