| El Camino has big profitable plans for its Los Gatos Hospital | | Print | |
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El Camino Hospital Los Gatos has officially opened. On July 12, the ribbon was cut and the hospital was open for business. A few people sat in the emergency department lobby, waiting to be seen. The hospital hallways were silent, since no patients had been admitted yet. But the quiet opening of the hospital is just the beginning for officials at El Camino Hospital. They plan to work with the physicians, staff and community to create a comprehensive plan that will include offering additional medical services and the possibility of a physical expansion in the future. The end of an era The Sunday afternoon ribbon cutting had been a long time coming for hospital officials and Los Gatos residents alike. Since the April 10 closing of the facility’s previous incarnate, Community Hospital Los Gatos, the town of Los Gatos has had no acute-care hospital services. Last year, previous owner Tenet Healthcare Corp. decided not to renew its lease on the property, as the hospital had been bleeding cash for years. In 2008 alone, the hospital reported a loss of $19.3 million, according to financials filed with the state of California. At first, it appeared there were no buyers for the downtrodden hospital. But then came El Camino. El Camino Hospital, based in Mountain View, is one of the most profitable in Northern California, earning a net profit of $63 million in 2008, up from $61 million a year earlier, according to records filed with the state. As an independent, district-owned hospital, El Camino has consistently recorded profits for many years, and officials there were eager to expand operations. While Tenet operated the hospital in the red for several years, El Camino officials believe they can turn a profit of nearly $2 million within its first year of operation, said Eric Pifer, M.D., chief medical officer for El Camino Hospitals in Los Gatos. Thus, El Camino Hospital swooped in to capture the opportunity to own a hospital in one of the wealthiest towns in the Bay Area. El Camino Hospital purchased the Los Gatos facility for $45 million from Long Beach-based real estate investment trust HCP Inc. and certain operational assets from Tenet Healthcare Corp. in December 2008. At first glance, hospital officials hoped to have a seamless transition from Tenet to El Camino without closing the hospital, but the transition proved too complex to avoid a temporary lapse of services. Both Tenet and El Camino sought to reduce the time the hospital was closed, and entered into an agreement in March that allowed for an early close of escrow on the Los Gatos facility. The agreements allowed El Camino Hospital to gain access to the hospital April 11 instead of June 1, seven weeks earlier than previously announced. Since gaining full access to the facility, activation teams have worked overtime and made significant investments of both time and money to open the hospital in just three months. While the hospital was closed, many of its former physicians began performing procedures at and admitting their patients to two nearby hospitals, Good Samaritan and O’Connor, both in neighboring San Jose. “I’m confident the doctors will return,” said Pifer. “There have already been 185 physicians credentialed and we are still working on applications.” Community physicians had already booked up the first week of operating rooms and hospital officials were working to accommodate more requests from physicians for time in an operating room, Pifer said. “We’ll give the doctors whatever they need,” Pifer promised. Dawning of a new day During the 90-day closure, there were some cosmetic improvements such as cleaning, painting, and decorating with the finest Herman Miller furniture — but the facelift is just the beginning of big plans El Camino officials have for the one of the smallest hospitals in the Bay Area. “We intend to retain the hospital’s reputation as a focal point of the Los Gatos community, and at the same time, we are bringing in improvements that will help us serve the communities of Los Gatos, Campbell, Cupertino and Saratoga even better. These improvements will help reach our goal for both locations to be among the top five percent of hospitals in the country for quality,” said Ken Graham, CEO of El Camino Hospital and both its campuses. Already, new information technology was installed that provides the hospital workers with a wireless and nearly paperless system that’s connected to the El Camino Hospital system in Mountain View. The connectivity is expected to build a medical care system that enhances — rather than duplicates — medical procedures. Additionally, a new medicine dispensing technology was installed that will enhance the safety of drug dispensing to patients. Under the El Camino franchise, some medical procedures will be enhanced, while others will be discontinued. While the hospital won’t have a GYN cancer program like it once did, they will offer more medical services in eye care. And nurses will wear a special identification badge that will allow them to communicate to the mother hospital in Mountain View to call for backup if necessary, Pifer said. In the near future, additional technology upgrades will include new radiology equipment with digital views capabilities, advanced ultrasound technology and a state-of-the-art electronic medical records system. That electronic medical records system may be offered to surrounding physicians, in a system similar to the one already in use in the Mountain View facility. Mike Wasserman, mayor of Los Gatos, has high hopes for the hospital under El Camino. “I know our residents will benefit greatly from the investment El Camino Hospital has made in our community and the increased level of medical services,” he said. - By Troy May Troy May is a contributing editor of the Healthcare Journal. |
| Last Updated on Friday, 08 January 2010 14:17 |
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