Santa Cruz County earmarks $500K to Pajaro Valley Healthcare District project

Financial support will pave the way to acquisition of hospital by June 2022

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning unanimously allocated $500,000 to the recently introduced Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project.

Last week, the board officially endorsed the formation of the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project, a nonprofit organization formed by Santa Cruz County, the city of Watsonville, Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley and Salud Para La Gente.

This week, with the financial support, the project chairs can begin strategizing how the money will fall into assessment, planning, policy development and project activities specifically to maintain Watsonville Community Hospital as a local asset. The money, as stipulated, must be used to focus on making sure the hospital provides quality health care offerings to the south county community including to the Medi-Cal, Medicare and uninsured patients in that area.

Originally, the Health Services Agency (HSA), the sector of the county government helping out Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project, was to appear before the Board of Supervisors in December with an agreement such as this one based on an anticipated project timeline to be complete in June 2023. However, a further conversation between HSA and project coordinators such as former HSA director Mimi Hall indicated that the timeline would need to be moved up to June 2022 — a condensed effort that would translate to a higher fiscal total because of the timeline expedition.

For now, the project is in the early stages. Introduced in late October, it is simply a philanthropy that will, hopefully, be transitioned into a health care district that acquires, governs and operates Watsonville Community Hospital in a more consistent manner than previous owners.

“The organization has assembled a team of subject matter experts to develop an overall project strategy, provide legal expertise, conduct assessment and planning, develop policy strategy and recommendations, perform due diligence, assess operational and financial status, plan acquisition and operational financing, and manage communications,” Hall’s interim replacement, Dana McRae, said in the report to the board Tuesday.

However, the contract attached to the board’s agenda notes, by June 2022 the project leaders from the four agencies will have returned four deliverables upon the county’s investment: a public communications plan, a feasibility study for acquiring the hospital, a drafted agreement of acquisition if feasibility was determined and a negotiated and executed agreement of acquisition.