Madera hospital goes bankrupt, will close in 10 days after Saint Agnes deal collapses
Madera Community Hospital plans to file for bankruptcy protection and close on Jan. 3, sources told The Fresno Bee on Friday.
The expected closure of the financially distressed 106-bed hospital — the only hospital in the city of Madera — comes after Fresno’s Saint Agnes Medical Center and its parent company, Trinity Health, backed out of a deal to purchase the struggling 51-year-old hospital, said Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Fresno.
Soria, newly elected to represent parts of Madera, Fresno and Merced counties in the state Assembly, met with Madera hospital leaders Friday morning and was informed of their plans.
“They have to close because they just don’t have money to keep the doors open,” Soria told The Bee. “I got wind of it late (Thursday) night.”
Madera Community Hospital has seen its inpatient volume decline steadily over the past decade, from more than 11,300 patient discharges in 2011 to fewer than 6,000 in 2021, according to data from the National Academy for State Health Policy. The hospital also experienced financial losses in four of the eight years from 2014 through 2021.
Those struggles were only aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the first confirmed coronavirus patient in the central San Joaquin Valley was treated at Madera Community Hospital. Soria said hospital officials told her Friday that they had to hire many travel nurses to maintain patient care during the pandemic, and reported that more than 40% of the nurses there were travel nurses who command hourly pay of as much as $200 or more.
The closure represents the first major challenge facing Soria, who for the past eight years served on the Fresno City Council.
“As I meet with other stakeholders, they’re telling me that there are pressures on community healthcare that are driving hospitals like Madera to the brink,” Soria said. “I’m committed to working with (Madera) to looking at all other options to keep the doors open. It’s critical that we keep access available to health care for the communities they serve.”
Soria noted that Madera Community Hospital, which opened in 1971, serve patients not only in the immediate Madera area, but also communities to the west such as Firebaugh and Mendota.
Backing out of the purchase
California Attorney General Rob Bonta last week announced that his office granted conditional approval for Saint Agnes and Trinity Health to take over what he called the “financially distressed” Madera hospital.
But on Thursday, after reviewing the conditions that Bonta placed on the transaction, Saint Agnes officials announced they were backing out of the deal which had been in the works since February.
“Trinity Health, Saint Agnes and Madera entered into this process with every intention of reaching a positive outcome,” Saint Agnes President and CEO Nancy Hollingsworth said in a statement to The Bee Thursday. “Unfortunately, given the complex circumstances and the additional conditions imposed by the AG … it became clear we could not move forward.”
“Therefore, the difficult decision was made to terminate the agreement so Madera could begin making plans for its next steps,” Hollingsworth added.
Saint Agnes officials did not specify what conditions from Bonta led them to reconsider the purchase.
County leaders seek ‘viable options’
Madera County Administrative Officer Jay Varney told The Bee that he and other county leaders were briefed Thursday about the collapse of the merger with Trinity Health/Saint Agnes.
Varney said the county’s Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting Dec. 29 to see if there are any “viable options” available for Madera County to explore over the hospital situation.
“Although the hospital is a private non-profit, and not a county hospital, we certainly recognize the value lost to the county and the cities of Madera and Chowchilla, should the hospital ultimately close,” Varney said. He added that county leaders including Board of Supervisors Chairperson Tom Wheeler don’t expect to offer any additional comment until closer to the special board meeting.
This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 1:14 PM.
