San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Pleading to rescue Daly City hospital
One panelist chair remained empty Saturday morning at Daly City’s City Hall. Amid an emotional meeting to discuss the fate of the city’s Seton Medical Center, the chair was a symbolic jab at the key player who didn’t show up.
The hall was near capacity as about 200 patients, hospital workers and local officials gathered in support of the hospital, which could face closure. Seton’s owner, Verity Health System, is bankrupt, and a deal to buy the hospital fell apart late last year.
But the man missing in action was Dr. Patrick SoonShiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times and principal owner of Integrity Healthcare, the company that manages Verity. The company, which operates six hospitals in California, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018. Seton may soon be acquired by a new medical buyer. But with the hospital seated on valuable property, many were concerned that Seton could close altogether and its land sold for development.
“The purpose of this town hall meeting was to make sure that Verity hears loud and clear that the community will not tolerate a land grab,” said San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa, whose district includes Seton Medical Center. “And in fact, the community wants the hospital to stay. We want the emergency room to remain open.”
The Daly City council has passed a resolution to keep Seton and its surrounding land zoned for hospital use.
In 2019, Strategic Global Management, an affiliate of health management company KPC Group, made a $610 million bid to buy four of Verity’s six hospitals, but those negotiations broke down in December. The Saturday meeting came weeks after Verity announced it was closing St. Vincent Hospital in Los Angeles, one of the four hospitals Strategic Global Management had been set to purchase.
Venus Messiah, a nurse who has worked at Seton for 30 years, attended Saturday’s meeting in hopes of keeping the hospital’s doors open. Messiah, 65, said she owes her life to the facility, where she was treated as a patient for gastrointestinal bleeding and pancreatitis.
“I’m a survivor because of the (gastrointestinal) doctor,” she said. “If this hospital were not open, I would be dead.”
Prolonged uncertainty about the fate of the 300bed hospital has worried local officials, who say their community would suffer greatly in its absence. The next closest acute care hospitals are San Francisco General Hospital, Kaiser in South San Francisco and Mills Peninsula in Burlingame, all of which would add critical driving time for patients in an emergency.
Dr. Robert Perez, who oversees the hospital’s physicians, served as a panelist at Saturday’s meeting and offered the most hopeful news of the day: As he told The Chronicle in January, Seton may soon be acquired by Apollo Medical Holdings and AHMC Healthcare, a Southern California health management company.
The 127yearold hospital, which serves many lowincome and elderly patients, is also Daly City’s largest employer, with 1,200 employees.
Dr. Mark M. Tsuchiyose, who works at Seton, blasted SoonShiong for his absence and broken promises to invest in the facility. Tsuchiyose recalled a community meeting with SoonShiong a few years ago, when SoonShiong vowed to pour “millions and millions of dollars” into Seton.
“In his time, how much money has he actually put into Seton?” Tsuchiyose asked the audience rhetorically. “Zero,” several people replied.
“He actually took things away,” Tsuchiyose said.
Tsuchiyose wondered aloud what would become of those in need of emergency care, or the surrounding hospitals that would be overwhelmed with former Seton patients.
“Not knowing is very, very anxiety provoking,” he said, adding that if it were possible for the owners to develop the land they could make $450 million. “Everybody in this room, whatever power you have, we need to connect together and make sure it doesn’t happen.”