The Creditors Committee plan was accepted by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in April. About 16 acres of vacant hospital property was auctioned off for residential development late last year for $10.6 million, a deal made possible by City Council approval of a zoning change.When the hospital reopens - projected in mid-January - it will have cost the county an estimated $4 million for repairs and renovations on the neglected facility, including rain damage from a leaky roof. “The hospital needs and deserves a lot of hard work and I want to cheer,” said Long.“Santa Paula could not be happier,” and the county will make the hospital “stronger than ever with the unparalleled care” now offered by VCMC, noted Krause. “People who need emergency medical services will again be able to go to the Hospital on the Hill, a very important lifesaver.”“The efforts and can do attitude, the dedication of making this a reality,” of all those involved in the long process of restoring the hospital to the river valley community paid off, said Villegas. “Reopening will really make a difference to Fillmore” residents, who will again have emergency medical care only 10 minutes away.“Dr. Sam is leading the charge up Hospital Hill” to ready the hospital for business, noted Long, but state and federal inspections will be the final step in the process. The county has received written concurrence for the necessary licensing to bring the hospital under the VCMC license and Medicare/Medi-Cal billing authority.With the reopening of SPMH’s 49 beds, it will be the first expansion of VCMC in about 50 years, said Ventura County Healthcare Executive Director Pierre Durand. Revenues, including from those county employees who already utilize VCMC, could be more than $20 million annually, and patients will benefit from the “convenience and quality of service.... People are going to be very proud,” he noted.Since Community Memorial Hospital once was a potential partner who passed on SPMH, it should not have any objections to the competition, said Long in reply to a reporter’s question. And there will be one major change at SPMH... it will renamed. “How does Heritage Valley Hospital sound?” asked Long.
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(Left) Santa Paula Mayor Mary Ann Krause, (center) Supervisor Kathy Long, (right) Fillmore Mayor Ernie Villegas place their hands on the escrow papers sealing the sale of Santa Paula Hospital to the County of Ventura. The escrow papers were signed Monday morning. Photo by Debbie Johnson |
County signs Santa Paula Hospital escrow papers
September 21, 2005
Santa Paula News
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula TimesIt will be slightly more than the three years since Santa Paula Memorial Hospital shut its doors when the only facility serving 50,000 river valley residents reopens for business in January 2006, after Supervisor Kathy Long on Monday signed the close of escrow papers for the hospital.Long’s signature sealed the deal with the SPMH Bankruptcy Creditors Committee for the county purchase of the 11.5-acre hospital campus for $2.75 million. Santa Paula Mayor Mary Ann Krause and Fillmore Mayor Ernie Villegas, as well as several county health care officials, were on hand as Long signed the escrow papers for SPMH, one of only three hospitals in the state built entirely with community donations.Opened in 1961, SPMH, known affectionately as the Hospital on the Hill, abruptly closed December 19, 2003, following a year of scrambling to save the financially failing facility.“It was a longtime coming, time well spent and time to get it right,” noted Long of the long process of acquiring the hospital campus, which will reopen as an arm of the Ventura County Medical Center. Even the SPMH Auxiliary is “eager to go,” noted SPMH Administrator Sam Edwards.“It’s so wonderful that so many of the former hospital employees want to come back,” said Long. In fact, she added, about 100 of the projected 148 full-time employees will be former SPMH staffers, “hometown people still loyal to the hospital and who love the community.”On December 21, 2002 and after years of falling revenues, SPMH Directors announced that the hospital was failing fast and needed an infusion of community donations to continue operations. But the community found itself at odds with the hospital’s controversial management firm, Quorum Health Resources, which created more outrage than financial support.In January 2003, the county and river valley cities declared a healthcare state of emergency. An ad hoc committee was formed to study hospital issues and try to find a way to save the facility, but committee members were thwarted by Quorum management’s refusal to open the books.SPMH trustees said they were negotiating with new partners, efforts that started and sputtered with Community Memorial Hospital as well as the County of Ventura, which claimed that SPMH was not negotiating in good faith. Hospital trustees declared bankruptcy on December 21, 2003, three days after closing the doors.
