Washington Township Health Care District Announces Intent to Explore Partnership to Preserve St. Rose Hospital

Fremont, Calif.— On Wednesday, February 22nd, the Board of Directors of Washington Township Health Care District approved specific actions in an effort to help preserve St. Rose Hospital as a local community hospital. The actions included the authorization to execute a Letter of Intent, which outlines a viable plan to work with Alameda County to preserve the financially struggling St. Rose Hospital located in Hayward. In addition, the Board of Directors committed up to $2,000,000 in support of a coordinated effort to help St. Rose. These actions were taken due to the critical importance of St. Rose Hospital to the overall healthcare system of Alameda County. The closure of St. Rose Hospital, a critical safety net facility, would not only create unacceptable access problems for St. Rose patients, but would also create access issues for the residents of Southern Alameda County as well.

The proposal by Washington Township Health Care District involves the establishment of a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) in partnership with Alameda County that would allow for sufficient oversight and management of St. Rose. The purpose of the JPA would be to preserve St. Rose and to assure that sufficient interim funding is secured to keep St. Rose open, pending the completion of a due diligence review of the situation. To restore St. Rose to a place of solvent operations, allowing them to focus on providing much needed health care services to the community, the District believes that the JPA structure represents the hospitals best chance of survival.

“The closing of St. Rose would create an extraordinary public health crisis, jeopardizing the health, safety and welfare of residents of both northern and southern Alameda County. St. Rose Hospital is tremendously important to the Alameda County public healthcare system as a community safety net hospital providing vital care to underserved populations,” said Nancy Farber, CEO, Washington Hospital Healthcare System. This past year, St. Rose experienced more than 35,000 emergency department visits and had over 7,500 inpatient admissions that accounted for over 40,000 inpatient days. “If St. Rose were to close, the community would be severely impacted by the loss of these important services. Other local hospital’s such as Washington Hospital would be inundated beyond capacity, thereby potentially creating a public health and safety crisis in Alameda County. In order to protect access and the capacity to provide health care for our local communities, we should not allow this to happen,” said Ms. Farber.

St. Rose Hospital is an independent not for profit community safety net hospital with an emergency room located in Hayward, California. St. Rose provides general acute care and other necessary medical services to the residents of Alameda County, particularly to traditionally underserved populations.