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.