EDITORIAL
Alameda Journal
By Guy Ashley, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Posted on Fri, May. 07, 2004

ANYONE WHO noticed the news last month about the Alameda County Medical Center's plan to lay off 350 employees may also have noticed that more private hospitals in the Bay Area have put their palms out to the public for tax money to keep their doors open.

Alameda Hospital is no exception to this statewide trend. In 2003, voters approved a $298 annual parcel tax to keep the hospital open.

But the hospital is still on shaky ground, with a drop in revenues leaving it with a nearly $2 million hole.

Alameda Hospital isn't alone in its circumstances.

Here is a bit of background about the state of the hospital industry in California, gleaned from a report, "California's Closed Hospitals, 1995-2000." The document, ordered by the state attorney general's office, comes from the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare at UC Berkeley. Its findings were based on studies of the 23 general acute care hospitals that closed between 1995 and 2000.

• The largest proportion of closures took place at for-profit facilities.
• Small hospitals of less than 100 beds were more likely to close than any other kind.
• The hospital industry -- citing seismic retrofit requirements, managed care and shrinking reimbursements -- has predicted that up to 150 of the state's hospitals will close in the next few years.

Alameda's Health Care District trustees recently approved a consultant's contract to the tune of $69,000 per month to manage the daily business operations. How could the board approve such a contract when the facility is already in the red? What can they be thinking?

They're thinking this: Left without immediate action, the hospital will die.

They're thinking that the firm they hired, Delta One, will see the operation differently from how an insider views it, so that hiring, retiring and firing employees and managing finances will be done with a business objective in mind. Practical, business-oriented decisions must be made.

The contract can be ended by either party with 90 days notice.

Hospitals are closing and will continue to do so. That means fewer medical professionals, fewer facilities, longer waits and increasingly crowded hospitals. It means less urgent health care everywhere in the state, including the Bay Area. And it could be a fast track to even higher health care costs.

The prudent thing is to try to turn Alameda Hospital back into a profitable venture. This is an island. Should a catastrophe hit, there is no guarantee the bridges and tubes would be a lifeline out of town. We may need to rely solely on Alameda's resources.

A community without a hospital is a community at risk. Let's do what needs to be done to move Alameda Hospital ahead.