Doctors Medical Center San Pablo Will Not Layoff Workers, Close Chemical Dependency Program
Doctors Medical Center San Pablo does not plan to lay off any of its union workers or close its chemical dependency program to rein in costs, CEO Irwin Hansen said Tuesday, the Contra Costa Times reports (Silber, Contra Costa Times, 8/25). In June, voters in West Contra Costa County voted to approve a property tax measure that will raise an estimated $6.1 million per year for the health care district. Without the funding, officials said the hospital would have been forced to close. The 200-bed facility serves patients in El Cerrito, Hercules, Pinole, Richmond and San Pablo and operates West Contra Costa County's only full-service emergency department.
The West Contra Costa Healthcare District on Aug. 1 took over operations at the hospital, which so far this year has lost a total of about $10.5 million. The hospital's new administrators said at the time that if initial cost-cutting efforts and patient care improvements are insufficient to turn around the facility's finances, the district would consider laying off some of the hospital's 1,050 full- and part-time staff. Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare operated the hospital through July 31 (California Healthline, 7/30).
Thirteen nonunion workers have been laid off to date. Hansen said that the hospital would not have to eliminate any more jobs because its work force has been reduced sufficiently through attrition, according to the Times. Hansen, who had suggested in July that the hospital might need to eliminate its chemical dependency program because of low patient volume, on Tuesday said he would focus on business growth rather than eliminating services, the Times reports (Contra Costa Times, 8/25).