Madera Community Hospital to shut down emergency room days before entire operation closes

Madera Community Hospital will no longer service people in its emergency department starting Friday.

The financially distressed hospital already planned to close its entire operation for good come Tuesday.

Now, it will shut down one of its primary services a few days earlier with the ER department closure taking effective at 12 a.m. Friday.

Madera Community Hospital, which is considered a private non-profit and has 106 beds, is shutting down after Fresno’s Saint Agnes Medical Center and its parent company, Trinity Health, backed out of a deal to buy the struggling 51-year-old hospital, according to Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Fresno.

“They have to close because they just don’t have money to keep the doors open,” said Soria, who is newly elected to represent parts of Madera, Fresno and Merced counties in the state Assembly.

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.

In addition to the emergency department closing a few days before the entire hospital shuts down, Madera Community Hospital announced that all labor and delivery services at the hospital stopped immediately, effective Wednesday.

After Jan. 3, all patients in the hospital will be transferred as beds as available or discharged home.

“Madera Community Hospital is dedicated to continuing services to our patients that are in the hospital and will ensure that they are safely transferred or discharged,” a statement from the hospital reads.

Those requesting copes of their medical records must do so no later than Jan. 10, by calling 559-675-5415.

All Madera Community Hospital clinics — which includes Family Health Services Madera/Specialty Clinic in Madera, Family Health Services in Mendota, and the Chowchilla Medical Center — will also close Jan. 10.

Part of Madera Community Hospital’s financial struggles stems from a decline of inpatients over the past decade.

The hospital’s patient discharges went from about 11,300 in 2011 to fewer than 6,000 in 2021, according to data from the National Academy for State Health Policy.

Madera Community also experienced financial losses in four of the eight years from 2014 through 2021.

Saint Agnes officials announced earlier this month that they were backing out of its deal with Madera Community after reviewing the conditions of the transaction placed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“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. “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.”

Saint Agnes officials did not specify what conditions from Bonta led them to reconsider the purchase.

This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 7:09 PM.