Madera County lost its only hospital. County officials can help bring it back to life | Opinion

This week has seen a dramatic turn in the fate of shuttered Madera Community Hospital.

And perhaps that turn will be a favorable one for all of Madera County.

First came the news that the Madera County Board of Supervisors might extend $500,000 to keep the hospital afloat until a new buyer emerges or an operations agreement can be reached.

As reported by Bee staff writer Melissa Montalvo, the county funding would cover another month of expenses — including building maintenance, utilities and salaries — as Madera Community seeks a new partner that would either purchase the hospital or operate it as an acute-care facility.

More news on that front then broke on Thursday, when Montalvo reported that the Adventist Health hospital chain was discussing taking over operations at Madera Community and saving it from liquidation.

“I can confirm the (Madera Community Hospital) board accepted a letter of intent with a suitor,” Riley C. Walter, an attorney representing the hospital in its bankruptcy proceedings, said in an email statement to The Bee. Another source confirmed to Montalvo that the suitor was Adventist Health. The CEO of Adventist Health could not be reached.

All of this is good news for the county of 160,000. Madera County residents have been without emergency room or surgical services at the hospital for more than six months. No patients are being admitted to the hospital, as it closed in late December and filed for bankruptcy protection in March.

Causes of Madera hospital closure

Madera Community Hospital’s financial troubles stem, in part, from the low-income nature of the county. More than 20% of residents are considered by the U.S. Census to be in poverty. Karen Paolinelli, Madera Community’s CEO, said 84% of its patients were on Medi-Cal or Medicare assistance.

Reimbursement rates for those government-run programs have not been increased for years, while the overall cost of care has been steadily rising, she explained.

The COVID pandemic brought unexpected costs to the hospital’s budget, Paolinelli said. Not only did the hospital have to buy additional safety equipment for medical staff, but it also had to start using traveling nurses more to maintain mandated patient-nurse ratios. Traveling nurses make more than $200 an hour, well beyond what a staff nurse would earn.

The problems facing Madera Community are being experienced at small hospitals throughout the state.

Carmela Coyle, president of the California Hospital Association, told the online news site CalMatters that half of the state’s 337 hospitals are operating at a deficit. “We are at a tipping point; Madera is just the first one,” Coyle said.

Another hospital in the San Joaquin Valley confronting financial pressures in Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia. Due to financial losses in the millions, it laid off 130 employees last year and froze retirement contributions. Top officials took pay cuts and the hospital reduced how many elective surgeries could be performed.

County, state funding critical

Adventist Health also operates the hospital in Hanford and medical centers in Reedley, Selma and Tulare. It is a system founded on Seventh-Day Adventist Church principles, and overall it serves patients in 75 communities in the West and Hawaii.

On Tuesday, the Madera County supervisors are to vote on extending the $500,000 lifeline to the hospital. Supervisor Rob Poythress, also a member of the hospital board, said having an agreement with an operator like Adventist Health would be a big plus.

Presuming that agreement indeed comes through, the supervisors should give speedy approval to the lifeline funding.

Beyond the emergency funding, Madera Community can also take advantage of a $100 million loan program that was initiated by two Merced Democrats who have Madera County in their districts, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria and state Sen. Anna Caballero. Hospital officials must apply, but the bill that created the program was written specifically for facilities like Madera Community.

Madera County residents have gone long enough without a hospital, or, at the minimum, an acute-care facility. Efforts by county and state officials can hopefully bring emergency care back to this part of Central California.

This story was originally published July 27, 2023 at 4:32 PM.