Urgent Care Clinic Proposed for Site of Former San Jose Medical Center
San Jose city and county officials are considering acquiring the site of the former San Jose Medical Center to open an urgent care clinic in an effort to restore some health services downtown residents lost when SJMC closed in December 2004, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
HCA, which owns the SJMC site, closed the facility last December because it was not profitable. HCA moved trauma services to the San Jose Regional Medical Center.
Earlier this year, San Jose officials took proposals from health care providers interested in operating a facility at the site. The city is evaluating six responses it received and plans to issue a report next month. The San Jose City Council will consider the issue Aug. 16.
County Supervisor Jim Beall commissioned a study on the issue and concluded that a downtown clinic could be feasible, the Mercury News reports. He has put the issue on Tuesday's board agenda.
San Jose County operates a public hospital and eight clinics. Under one proposal, the county would provide health services at the downtown facility. A study also suggested that San Jose voters form a hospital district and fund a public hospital through property assessment.
Bob Sillen, executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System, said a full trauma center at the SJMC site is not feasible but an urgent care clinic might be a possibility. Sillen also said that the formation of a hospital district might conflict with county plans for a sales-tax measure (Woolfolk, San Jose Mercury News, 6/20).