Search Results: doctors medical center

Former Doctors Medical Center in contract to become hotel

The former Doctors Medical Center buildings in San Pablo are in contract to be sold to a boutique hotel operator based in Davis, California for $13.5 million. The board hopes that the money from the sale will help fill the district’s budget deficit and meet continuing financial obligations to former employees.

Community members mourn the closure of Doctors Medical Center

Plywood with large red letters simply reading “DMC Closed” was affixed to the signs on the street that once welcomed patients to the largest public hospital on the western part of Contra Costa County. Members of the community gathered at the hospital in the early morning of April 21 to say goodbye, then made their way to the Board of Supervisors meeting at the county seat to inform the public about the threat of living in an area without a hospital….

Contra Costa County offers loan forgiveness to Doctors Medical Center

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors agreed to forgive about $9 million in repayment debt from struggling Doctors Medical Center (DMC) over the next three to five years. Supervisors John Gioia and Federal D. Glover proposed the two resolutions on Dec. 2, one providing immediate financial relief and the other a long-term stabilization strategy. DMC has been steeped in financial turmoil since it was rescued from bankruptcy in 2008, and  faced possible closure since the beginning of summer. Now,…

Doctors Medical Center fights closure

About 250,000 West Contra Costa County residents may soon be in the midst of a health care crisis. Doctors Medical Center San Pablo has lost millions of dollars for years by treating the uninsured and underinsured. The hospital has stayed afloat with the help of two parcel taxes and previous funding from the state and area providers including John Muir and Kaiser. But it still faces a sixteen million dollar shortfall for this year. A third parcel tax measure will…

Healthy Steps: A hospital administrator’s struggle to save Doctors Medical Center

Dawn Gideon remembers walking down the steep stadium steps of the Ashland Regional Medical Center auditorium, staring at the backs of the heads of 100 hospital workers, each step taking her closer to the front of a crowd filled with people she had known for only a month. It would be her first attempt at saving a hospital. “Oh my God, I have to save these people’s jobs, and I haven’t even looked in their eyes yet,” Gideon remembers thinking….

Voters pass parcel tax for Doctors Medical Center

Voters in West Contra Costa County passed a ballot measure Tuesday that Doctors Medical Center administrators said will keep the struggling hospital from closing. Measure J, which won with nearly 74 percent of voters casting “yes” ballots, will allow the county to put in place a $47 parcel tax increase per household in West County, bringing the hospital about $5 million in tax revenue that will help it close an anticipated $18 million budget gap. The Yes on J campaign…

West County voters to decide on parcel tax to save Doctors Medical Center

Residents of West Contra Costa County will vote this fall on a special parcel tax to support the ailing Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo. The five-member West Contra Costa County Healthcare District board, the elected body that oversees the public hospital’s operations, voted unanimously last week to approve a ballot measure that would raise over $5 million per year to pay for the hospital’s continued operations.

California lawmakers to vote on bill that could prevent closure of Alta Bates medical center

It’s the final week of this year’s legislative session, and East Bay lawmakers are pushing a bill that could stop Sutter Health from shuttering its Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley. Senate Bill 687, by local state Sen. Nancy Skinner, would require the attorney general to review and approve the closure of any emergency rooms run by nonprofits. Proponents say the law would preserve Californians’ access to emergency medical services. Skinner authored the bill after Sutter announced it would…

Patients struggle, doctors worry in aftermath of hospital shutdown

In the months following the April shutdown of Doctor’s Medical Center, doctors and patients have dispersed to other care centers. Some have had to go only across the street in San Pablo, while others must find care much farther away in Pinole, Walnut Creek, Martinez, Concord, Oakland or Berkeley. The distance takes a toll on former patients, and that concerns some doctors.