Santa Clara County on Tuesday officially took over operations of San Jose's Regional Medical Center.
County leaders finalized a plan to purchase the center in early January at a cost of $150 million.
The hospital and its prior operator HCA Healthcare endured drastic cutbacks over the years to stay afloat and recently downgraded the hospital's trauma care level.
But many expressed that a top priority is to restore the trauma, stroke and heart attack services as soon as possible.
"It’s a very densely populated area, and the downgrading of the Level II trauma center would have been a death sentence for the residents of East San Jose," county Supervisor Betty Duong said in January.
During a news conference Tuesday, the county announced it has returned the hospital’s status as a Level II trauma center and brought back vital stroke and STEMI care. It also announced labor and delivery care will return in the future.
Dr. Gloria Jimenez said she wanted to be the first trauma surgeon on duty Tuesday. She said she's seen the impacts of not having a Level II trauma center in the area for more than six months.
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"It was devastating," she said. "I also worked at [Santa Clara Valley Medical Center], so I saw the impact. Basically, people from this community had to go extra travel time in an ambulance, which means life or death."
Before it was shut down last year, Regional Medical Center’s trauma unit served more than 2,400 patients a year – one-fourth of all the county's trauma patients. County leaders said reopening the trauma unit at Regional Medical Center will also benefit patients at other county hospitals.
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"[Valley Medical Center] itself faced a 50% increase in trauma volume, so its services were heavily affected as well," County Executive James Williams said.
The county has been working to onboard the hospital’s employees to the county system, and has said it expects a smooth transition.
Santa Clara County also operates Valley Medical Center in San Jose, O'Connor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy.
