Madera Community Hospital celebrates the end of its two-year closure. ‘Hope is restored’
Maderans have their own hospital again.
The more than two-year closure of Madera Community Hospital ended Tuesday morning as staff pulled the tarps that covered the signage on the building’s exterior, unveiling to the newly reopened facility.
Madera hospital CEO Steve Stark stood alongside local and state elected officials, and Madera hospital nurses and doctors, as a crowd celebrated the return to service.
“For too long, our community faced uncertainty, forced to travel long distances for medical attention, never knowing if they would make it in time,” Stark said. “But today, that uncertainty is over.
“Hope is restored.”
The hospital closed its emergency room in December 2022 and then declared bankruptcy, leaving Madera County without an acute care facility for adults. The shutdown led a largely low income patient pool to seek care in neighboring Merced and Fresno counties, where emergency rooms saw a surge of Madera patients.
The hospital is reopening as part of the Modesto-based hospital management firm American Advanced Management (AAM). The state provided a $57 million, zero-interest loan from the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, an initiative quickly pushed through the California legislature in 2023 by State Sen. Anna Caballero and Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, both representing the city of Madera.
“It’s a historic day in the state of California because I don’t think we can point to one hospital of this size ever reopening their doors after they close, especially after two years,” Soria said.
Madera hospital is reopening in a remodeled state, with brand new equipment and close to 500 employees.
Some of them, including CT scan technologist Gloria Welch, are returning employees who worked at Madera hospital long before its closure.
“I was here for 17 and a half years,” Welch said. “When the facility closed, it broke my heart because this place is really special to me. I thought this was going to be the place where I would retire. And now, maybe, it still will be.”
Welch’s best friend, radiology manager Stela Gallegos, left the hospital in 2018 but had worked there for 12 years before that.
“One of the reasons is I really wanted to help the community and bring the hospital back,” Gallegos said.
Stark said that the hospital’s true work is just beginning.
“Restoring hope is not just about opening our doors,” he said. “It’s about keeping them open and ensuring that every person that walks through these halls receives the care they deserve.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 1:04 PM.
