East San Jose hospital loses services while richer areas thrive

A private health company plans to reduce lifesaving care at an East San Jose hospital as it expands another hospital in a wealthier part of the city.

HCA Healthcare is increasing the number of acute care beds at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood on the West Side, close to Los Gatos. Company representatives said the expansion is driven by state mandates to bring the campus up to seismic standards — with 200,000 square feet of new office space. At the same time, HCA is downgrading trauma, heart attack and stroke care at Regional Medical Center on the East Side, where there are more Vietnamese and Latino residents — and uninsured patients .

Community health advocates led a caravan of cars adorned in protest signs from Regional Medical Center to Good Samaritan on Thursday, and protested outside Regional the day before. Improving one hospital while divesting from another leaves more questions than answers for resident Lupe Friaz, who recently rushed her brother, who lives on the East Side, to Regional to save him from a stroke.

“If this place hadn’t been there, he would have been gone,” Friaz told San José Spotlight.

Related Stories

East San Jose hospital won’t close trauma center amid scrutiny

Santa Clara County wants state to stop trauma center closure

East San Jose trauma center closure could break county hospital system

A spokesperson for HCA said Good Samaritan began the process of meeting California’s 2030 seismic standards three years ago.

“Funding these state mandated upgrades is not optional and has no impact on decisions or investments at any other hospital,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “Separately, the service line changes we are making at Regional Medical Center are designed to meet the changing needs of our patients and demonstrate our continued commitment to the East San Jose community.”

HCA earlier this month walked back plans to close Regional’s trauma center after public outcry — and will instead downgrade it from a Level 2 adult trauma center to a Level 3. The company initially proposed steeper cuts to stroke and heart attack care that representatives blamed on a lack of demand. Yet doctors working at the next closest hospital, Valley Medical Center, had publicly deemed the closures “dystopian.” They warned ending services at Regional would overload county waiting rooms that are already full with dying or seriously ill patients.

“Our continuing question to HCA about its cuts to Regional has been, ‘Why? Why are you divesting in resources, critical care dollars and support from East San Jose?'” Darcie Green, executive director of Latinas Contra Cancer, told San José Spotlight. “The response from them has consistently been underutilization, trying to balance budgets — and lo and behold, we find there’s a massive expansion happening at a hospital just across town.”

County doctors said that strain on their system was largely the result of past cuts HCA has made to health care in the South Bay. In 2004, HCA closed San Jose Medical Center, the city’s only downtown hospital. In 2020, the company shut down the maternity ward at Regional Medical Center.

“They should restore that maternity ward,” Peggy Elwell, a semi-retired librarian who lives about a mile from Regional Medical Center, told San José Spotlight. “You can’t say there are not going to be babies born on the East Side.”

Elwell goes to Kaiser Permanente as her main hospital because of her health insurance. But if she were to have a stroke, her first and closest option would be Regional.

“There are few places to go. Valley Medical Center is far away and Good Samaritan is near Los Gatos,” Elwell said.

Patient advocates and county leaders weren’t convinced about Regional’s abrupt announcement walking back the trauma center closure. They called the reversal a PR stunt and complained that Regional never consulted them before announcing the change of plans. Critics said a Level 3 trauma center isn’t real emergency care and is usually designated for rural hospitals — a far cry from the dense urban neighborhoods surrounding Regional in East San Jose.

Our news is for everyone.

That means it needs to be free! We don’t put our news behind a paywall. Your tax-deductible donation is critical to our mission of keeping you informed.

I support San José Spotlight

Regional is, however, pushing forward with expanding its emergency department. The hospital plans to increase its emergency department capacity from 43 beds to 63 by next year.

District 5 San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who represents where Regional is located, questioned HCA’s investment disparity during a Wednesday news conference.

“It’s troubling to know that HCA is coming to the city, asking us for our support to expand medical services for the wealthier side of our city,” Ortiz said.

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The post East San Jose hospital loses services while richer areas thrive appeared first on San José Spotlight .