No Sugar Daddy

St. Joseph no ‘sugar daddy’ Owns area hospitals but no capital to build one in Sonoma, official says

Sonoma Valley Sun

Will a “sugar daddy” step forward and pay for a new Sonoma Valley Hospital so that taxpayers don’t have to?If that happens, the St. Joseph Health System, which operates hospitals in Santa Rosa, Napa and Petaluma, won’t be Mr. Moneybags.

At the Monday night meeting of the Sonoma Valley Healthcare Coalition, George Perez, the CEO of St. Joseph, said it doesn’t have the money to build a new facility here.“We just wouldn’t be able to do that,” said Perez. “We just don’t have the capital.“These are very expensive, very difficult times for people in healthcare right now.”

Perez went on to describe — with help from his vice president Mark Knight — how things work at St. Joseph as a crowd of about 60 people peppered him with questions at the Vintage House senior center.St. Joseph owns Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and both of those are doing well, Perez said.

One thing that helps Queen of the Valley is the high level of donations that it receives, he said.“Napa’s consistently done much better than Santa Rosa” when it comes to philanthropy, he said, noting that about $11 million in donations have been made towards the heart institute there with $15 million expected by years’ end. But the real advantage that the two hospitals have over Petaluma’s publicly owned hospital (which St. Joseph’s operates) is size.“Economy of scale is a large part of it,” he said.

As an example, Perez said that a $450,000 piece of medical equipment costs as much for a small hospital as it does for a large one — but the large hospital will recover its expense sooner because the equipment gets more use.“It’s going to cost you $450,000 if you’re a 25-bed hospital or a 350-bed hospital,” Perez said.

All of St. Joseph’s hospitals, including some small ones along the California coast in the Eureka area, have to support themselves. The system’s big hospitals don’t subsidize the small ones, he said.Taxpayers in Petaluma will have to pass a bond to pay for facility improvements there; Petaluma’s hospital — though growing — doesn’t earn enough to make the improvements without taxpayers’ help, he said.A subsidy of some sort or donations generally are needed to keep a smaller hospital afloat, Knight said.“When you get below 100 beds, you’re in a tough situation no matter where you are,” he said.

• Want to stay abreast of the Sonoma Valley Healthcare Coalition’s doings? Check out the ad hoc committee’s blog at http://www.svhcc.blogspot.com