County-Sutter Agreements

Doing the Right Thing

Over a year ago Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa (Sutter) announced its intent to transfer the Health Care Access Agreement and discontinue providing in-patient services in Sonoma County. Sutter identified Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital (Memorial) as a likely partner and began working with Memorial to transfer the various services within the Health Care Access Agreement including but not limited to; indigent care, women's reproductive services, access to government funded programs, in-patient jail medical services, and sexual assault services. During this time, the Department conducted a review of hospital services and capacity in the county, convened a number of discussion groups on various aspects of the Health Care Access Agreement, and published a Preliminary Study on the Impact of the Proposed Sutter Memorial transaction. (A copy of the HCAA and Preliminary Study are posted below).

After more than a year of negotiations, Sutter and Memorial Hospital announced the end to negotiations regarding the transfer of services to Memorial. Sutter will remain open and explore options for growing its business/revenues and reducing its hospital losses.

Moving forward, the Department will continue to work closely with Sutter to monitor compliance with the Health Care Access Agreement. Sutter has met its obligations under the agreement during the difficult past year. The Department will work with Sutter and review the service approach proposed for the people of Sonoma County, and next steps Sutter must take to continue to meet their responsibilities under the Health Care Access Agreement.

The health care landscape and financial pressures in Sonoma County and indeed the state and nation have not improved over the past year and in many cases have worsened. Federal and state lawmakers will undoubtedly propose solutions too many health care issues, but their progress will be slow and hampered by the economic realities of a $17 Billion state deficit and seemingly limitless federal deficit.

Sutter's announcement of closure focused attention on an acute issue. Now that this issue has evolved into a more protracted period of discussion, the community can return its attention to many hopeful local activities. Kaiser Permanente recently opened their new medical clinic and began expansion/upgrades of their emergency room and the addition of 100 hospital beds. Memorial recently added 80 beds and has plans for additional expanded services. Healdsburg Hospital opened a new emergency room and has expanded its ICU capacity. Palm Drive Hospital has re-opened its intensive care unit. District hospitals in the region have formed a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) and the North Coast Integrated Health, a non-profit organization.

Additional important local efforts include the Santa Rosa Family Practice Residency Programs which has formed a non-profit consortium with leadership from Sutter, Southwest Community Health Center, Kaiser, Memorial, UCSF and the County. Also a group of primary care and safety net providers have formed Sonoma Health Access Coalition (SHAC) which completed a study of existing national programs and approaches that could improve access to care in Sonoma County. SHAC will focus on medical home with patient-centered primary care, expand information technology and innovative medical practice models as it moves forward.

Finally, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors authorized the Department of Health Services to convene Health Action to work on improving health and health care for all Sonoma County residents. Health Action will mobilize collaboration and partnerships among health care providers, community organizations, businesses, and community members to benefit the community by concentrating resources where they are most likely to improve health status. There is a lot that can be accomplished locally and much that we can learn from other counties that have had success upon which Sonoma County can build.

Please feel free to provide feedback to county-sutter-agreements@sonoma-county.org

Documents:

Health Care Access Agreement (6.28 MB)

A Preliminary Study for the Sonoma County Department of Health Services (1.02 MB)