After months of fighting to save the services of the Regional Medical Center, officials in Santa Clara County have found a way to stop the hospital owner from looting the clinic: They plan to buy the hospital.
County officials today announced their intent to purchase the hospital from HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital group. This will allow the Santa Clara Valley Health System to expand and enhance its existing network and services.
“The addition of Regional Medical Center to Santa Clara Valley Healthcare’s network of hospitals and clinics ensures that East San Jose and the surrounding community will continue to have access to world-class Level II trauma care, comprehensive stroke care, specialized heart attack care and, ultimately, obstetric care,” County Executive James R. Williams said in a statement.
This is the county’s third hospital purchase since 2019, when it bought O’Connor and St. Louise Regional hospitals, which were on the verge of closing. This is the latest attempt to save financially struggling hospitals from closing or cutting services, turning parts of Silicon Valley into healthcare deserts.
That comes after Tennessee-based private health care giant HCA Healthcare announced it would close its Level II adult trauma center and cut stroke and heart attack care at 225 N. Jackson Ave. The cuts took effect Aug. 12 after activists and county officials unsuccessfully urged state health officials and Attorney General Rob Bonta to intervene. In the meantime, the company is expanding Good Samaritan Hospital, which serves the wealthier West Side.
For months, critics painted a disturbing picture of the impact of the cuts. At public hearings earlier this year, county doctors publicly called the idea “dystopian” and warned that the closures could lead to a 70% increase in trauma patient numbers, or about 2,600 cases a year, to the poorly equipped and underfunded Valley Medical Center eight miles away.
Emergency services officials said the cuts would force East San Jose residents to wait longer for medical care and cause life-threatening ambulance delays throughout the region. The reduction or elimination of services would require more people to be relocated out of the region for health reasons.
After months of protests from patient advocates and county officials, HCA backtracked on its plans. In July, the company announced that it would not close its trauma center entirely but would instead downgrade it to a Level III, an on-call unit more commonly found in rural areas. But the announcement did little to appease critics.
HCA has a reputation for putting profits before patients. In San Jose, the multibillion-dollar corporation has systematically closed facilities that rely on Medicare and Medi-Cal patients because profit margins are too low.
In 2004, HCA closed San Jose Medical Center, the only hospital in the downtown area. In 2020, the company closed the maternity ward at Regional, which had an immediate impact on East San Jose residents. In 2023, HCA closed its acute psychiatric services and neonatal intensive care unit at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose.
In 2023, the North Carolina Attorney General took similar action against HCA for severe service cuts at a local nonprofit hospital acquired by HCA, forcing patients in that state to travel long distances for treatment.
HCA’s takeover of Regional decades ago was met with fierce protests. Patient advocates feared that corporate interests would consolidate control of health care on the East Side. HCA bought the hospital in 1998.
This story will be updated.
Contact Brandon Pho at (email protected) or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
