Last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting brought new demands, Burhoe said Wednesday. “We gave them one set of information and now they want a compilation; they demanded it on the 9th and now it’s the 15th. Our people did not receive some of the audit until about the same time. We’re working closely with the auditors and the board will continue to explore every option open to us.”Burhoe said there is no tentative date of a meeting between the county and SPMH: “I don’t see anything happening until after the first of the year.”“Things are so up in the air right now,” said Krause. “I feel that neither side, the county or SPMH, has approached this with an appropriate degree of urgency.”“This is not good,” Bobkiewicz said. “There’s no progress being made to serve the residents of this valley.”Members of the mediation team are contacting the county, St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Community Memorial Hospital, Simi Valley Adventist Hospital, Clinicas del Camino Real and Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara to arrange alternative services.“I do still see the county as the optimum partner but I’m not going to put all our eggs in one basket. Frankly, I don’t have a basket now but I’m going to work on getting one,” said Krause.Bobkiewicz said the first priority is an Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit as well as “anything else that might be out there we’re willing to talk about. We need to see what the options are,” including a cities’ supplied building to house emergency medical services.“This is urgent; we’re not going to sit on our hands,” he noted. “And, if we find a solution we’re not letting any state regulations stand in the way.”Bobkiewicz and Fire Chief Paul Skeels discussed hospital licensing with Assemblyman Tony Strickland, and “he indicated he would help us in any way possible with the state.”Bobkiewicz is frustrated with county and SPMH representatives: “I can’t understand why the over 50,000 residents of the Santa Clara River Valley aren’t enough reason for both sides to take a deep breath, sit down and hash this out.”“Regardless of how people feel about each other or their anger at how negotiations go, they do have the health care of the valley in their hands,” said Krause. “And we’re not going to allow their differences to compromise the community’s health any longer.”
VCMC, SPMH talks delayed
December 19, 2003
Santa Paula News
The Santa Clara River Valley mediation team found themselves in a new role as they scramble to find options to the imminent closure of Santa Paula Memorial Hospital after a key meeting was delayed between SPMH trustees and the County of Ventura.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe Santa Clara River Valley mediation team found themselves in a new role as they scramble to find options to the imminent closure of Santa Paula Memorial Hospital after a key meeting was delayed between SPMH trustees and the County of Ventura.Tuesday’s session to discuss an affiliation with the county health system was delayed by hospital trustees after county negotiators asked them Tuesday afternoon to provide more financial information for that evening’s session. Hospital trustees noted that since negotiations wouldn’t be on the table they would wait on further discussions.At issue are audited finances from March 31 to Nov. 31, additional information on the $2 million employee pension obligation, a lender’s letter regarding a $1.8 million hospital loan and a written proposal that would give control of the entire 25-acre hospital site to the county.As of midnight tonight the “Hospital on the Hill” will be closed, causing a state of emergency in the river valley and its 50,000-plus residents.The closure of the 49-bed SPMH, one of three hospitals in the state built entirely with community donations and opened in 1961, leaves the river valley without an emergency room. River valley emergency patients, including accident victims from Highway 126, will have to travel an additional 20 to 40 minutes to hospitals in Ventura or Valencia.The mediation team – Santa Paula City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, Vice Mayor Mary Ann Krause, Fillmore City Manager Roy Payne and Councilman Cecelia Cuevas – held an emergency meeting Tuesday night and decided that they must try to arrange medical services for river valley residents.There is no time to wait for the county and SPMH to return to the negotiation table, said Bobkiewicz and Krause.“It’s not us,” said Carol Burhoe, a SPMH trustee and negotiation team member about the cancelled Tuesday meeting with the county. “Basically, they’re not ready to make any kind of decision. They’re still hanging around and want to talk but don’t want to talk,” without additional demands for financial information.Burhoe said the “audit numbers have not changed; the county is taking their own damn sweet time,” in moving talks forward.The SPMH team has had to “deal county officials other than Supervisor Kathy Long, who’s been a huge supporter of this, is, was and still is. But there’s just no movement, glacial I guess. We’re willing to sit down and negotiate but they have to be willing to sit down and negotiate as well.”
