Palm Drive Hospital In Santa Rosa Shuts Down, No Money

Here’s yet one more in northern California that’s been struggling to say alive for a few years with a couple of bankruptcies.  It’s that same old subject that nobody wants to talk about, “hospital inequality” 

“Hospital Inequality” - Yet One More Growing Issue With Healthcare In the US..

The hospital was subsidized with taxpayer money.  Hospital officials are trying to keep negotiations open to again open the hospital again but once closed, that might be hard to do.  The hospital had been in business for 73 years.  BD 

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“It’s a very sad day. This is a wonderful hospital,” said Palm Drive CEO Thomas Harlan.

Harlan, who came out of retirement in 2012 and became the hospital’s 10th CEO in five years, was charged with bringing the 73-year-old hospital back to financial stability but instead saw the facility’s final day.

“It’s the last thing in the world I ever anticipated in my career,” said Harlan.

Inside the hospital, nursing staff took a final inventory of the medical and pharmaceutical supplies. Some of the drugs, such as narcotics, were boxed up and arrangements made to send them back to drug companies

For years, Palm Drive Hospital has endured difficult financial times, including two bankruptcy filings in the last seven years. Palm Drive officials say the district hospital has suffered crippling declines in overnight patients, reduced payments from insurance companies and staggering competition from Santa Rosa hospital giants Sutter, St. Joseph Health and Kaiser Permanente.

Langridge said she and others would have done anything to keep the hospital open. Last summer, she and other managers took a 20 percent pay cut for three months and later a permanent 10 percent cut. In January, she stepped down from a management position to save the hospital money.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140428/articles/140429562#page=0