Eden Township Healthcare District Completes Purchase of San Leandro Hospital

Officials for the Eden Township Healthcare District last week announced that it has completed its purchase of San Leandro Hospital from Texas-based hospital chain Triad Hospitals for $35 million, the Oakland Tribune reports (Bartholomew, Oakland Tribune, 7/3). The district will lease the hospital to Eden Medical Center, an affiliate of not-for-profit Sutter Health Network. Medical center directors, not including district directors, approved San Leandro's lease to Eden for 20 years, including provisions to maintain emergency department and acute care services at San Leandro for three years (California Healthline, 6/1). Under the agreement, the hospitals will be governed by a single board of directors and will operate "independently but collaboratively," according to the Tribune.

The Tribune reports that employees of San Leandro have been hired by Eden and are continuing in their same positions; medical staffs in both hospitals now have a single executive structure; and doctors have been granted practice privileges at San Leandro as an extension of Eden. According to the Tribune, the purchase of San Leandro by the health care district brings "greater flexibility" to Sutter and Eden's $300 million plan to redesign the Eden campus, rebuild the hospital and add a new outpatient surgery and medical office building because the hospitals will be able to maintain health services during the redesign without taxpayer support (Oakland Tribune, 7/3).