Seton Medical Middle's Coastside Emergency Room in Moss Seashore will quickly shut for 9 months beginning Monday, April 1. The announcement got here as staff on the well being care supplier's principal location in Daly Metropolis protested a brand new worker well being plan that they are saying severely limits their very own choices. for medical care.
The 2 occasions are the most recent in a protracted saga of monetary challenges and labor issues which have besieged the neighborhood hospital and very important well being care supplier in northern and coastal San Mateo County.
County Supervisor Ray Mueller, who represents Moss Seashore, the place Coastside Medical Middle is positioned, mentioned he was “deeply involved” about Seton's “lack of public transparency” about the necessity to shut the emergency room.
Mueller is anxious concerning the lengthy interval space residents should go with out close by emergency well being companies.
“There are individuals who arrive and are struggling, who could also be having a coronary heart assault. They might have a number of acute illnesses that require a go to to an emergency room,” Mueller mentioned. “It is a state of affairs the place we’re actually making an attempt to make sure the rapid well being and security of individuals in a life-threatening occasion.”
Seton's principal hospital in Daly Metropolis is about 30 minutes from Half Moon Bay, whereas the emergency room at San Mateo Medical Middle is about 20 minutes away. The hospitals function a security internet for the area's low-income residents.
Tim Schulze, Seton's affiliate chief working officer, didn’t reply to this information group's requests for remark. He mentioned throughout a latest Midcoast Group Council assembly that the closure of the emergency room for renovations is important after the property suffered injury from a felled tree and landslides throughout final 12 months's storms.
“These storms brought on substantial injury to the Seton shoreline,” Schulze mentioned.
Renovations on the medical middle started in October 2023.
However Mueller questioned the necessity to shut the emergency room, noting that one explicit space of the hospital was not broken.
“So, nothing has occurred since final 12 months's storms by means of April of this 12 months that may have required the rapid closure of these emergency rooms due to that storm, right?” Müller mentioned.
Schulze responded: “To my data, there was no direct injury.”
AHMC Healthcare acquired Seton from the chapter of Verity Well being Techniques, finishing the acquisition in 2020. Former Lawyer Common Xavier Becerra permitted the sale, with the situation that Seton's medical facilities in Daly Metropolis and Coastside stay open for 5 and a half years and supply care to folks incomes lower than 250% of the federal poverty stage, whereas partially subsidizing the prices of look after different financially distressed sufferers.
Mueller additionally took subject with AHMC's alleged lack of transparency and coordination with the county, which offered at the very least $10 million in grants to Seton to assist proceed operations.
Whereas Schulze mentioned in the course of the neighborhood assembly that the closure was momentary, Mueller questioned the timing of the closure. Subsequent 12 months is the final 12 months AHMC is required to handle Seton.
Given the monetary and administrative issues of the Seton hospital system, Coastside doctor Dr. Suzan Goodman echoed these considerations.
“We’re very hopeful that it’ll reopen, however a few of us have had considerations and doubts about that intent,” Goodman mentioned. “We've seen a really speedy drop in satisfaction charges at Seton… and physicians throughout the hospital system are involved concerning the long-term viability and the final word purpose for proprietor AHMC, if there actually is a concerted effort. , and they don’t seem to be going to run away.”
Mueller mentioned he would introduce a decision on the subsequent board assembly, whereas the county will ship a discover to AHMC to attempt to pressure them to clarify the ER closure in additional element.
In the meantime, at Daly Metropolis's principal hospital, greater than 400 staff not too long ago went on a two-day strike to protest modifications to their well being advantages, which they are saying had been severely restricted in early 2024.
The Nationwide Union of Well being Care Employees mentioned in an announcement that staff who accepted a extra reasonably priced well being plan must make do with “only a few taking part medical doctors, principally primarily based in San Francisco.”
In accordance with the union, the well being plan solely has two taking part hospital programs: John Muir Well being in Contra Costa or Seton, “which doesn’t supply pediatric or prenatal care.”
Juliya Vinogradsky, a Marin County respiratory therapist, has three kids and has labored on the hospital for the previous 17 years.
“We had been promised that UCSF Youngsters's Hospital could be included in essentially the most reasonably priced plan,” Vinogradsky mentioned. “I chosen that plan. Nevertheless, it turned out that UCSF shouldn’t be a part of the promised plan.”
Rachelle Ortua, a supplies administration technician, grew up close to Seton and has a six-month-old daughter. She has labored on the hospital for the previous 10 years. She now lives in Sunnyvale and mentioned none of her suppliers had been lined by the brand new plan.
“His four-month vaccination appointment was after we came upon we had been not lined,” she mentioned. “The protection doesn’t cowl us within the South Bay.”
A number of calls to Schulze about issues at each medical facilities went unanswered.
Daly Metropolis Mayor Juslyn Manalo mentioned she is intently monitoring Seton's labor points and referred to as staff the “spine” of the neighborhood.
“With out them, the hospital is a shell,” he mentioned.. ““They deserve well being look after themselves and their households that isn’t troublesome to entry.”