 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
September
19, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 16Oakland,
CA
St.
Rose Hospital ceases to be Catholic,
but retains name as community hospital
St. Rose Hospital,
a 43-year-old Catholic hospital in Hayward affiliated with the Sisters
of St. Joseph of Wichita, Kansas, has become an independent, stand-alone
community-based healthcare facility. The hospital, the third largest employer
in Hayward, will now be governed by a local Board of Trustees.
The hospital completed transfer of sale and control from Via Christi Health
System to the local Board of Directors on Aug. 30 after California Attorney
General Bill Lockyer approved the $25 million sale and transfer of control.
His approval included a short list of provisions based on the healthcare
needs of the community. They are: the continuation of emergency medical
services for at least five years at current levels of service and licensure;
maintenance of the hospital’s obstetric services for at least five
years; and continued operation of the Silva Pediatric and Dental Clinic
for low-income families, a branch facility on West Tennyson Road, at current
levels of service or find someone else to operate the clinic.
Lastly, the hospital must spend at least $1.5 million in annual charity
case costs, not charges, for at least five years.
Michael Mahoney, St. Rose CEO for the past 14 years, said that Oakland
Bishop Allen Vigneron has granted permission for the hospital to retain
its name and has been extremely supportive of the transfer. The transfer
has been “bittersweet,” said Mahoney; “sweet because
the hospital will continue to serve the community – and bitter because
the Oakland Diocese no longer has a Catholic hospital.”
Mahoney said he was grateful to Via Christi for its cooperation in the
transition proceedings. Via Christi had decided that “it just couldn’t
stay in California any longer,” he said. The rest of its hospitals
are in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Hospital situations are different in Kansas and California – encompassing
such things as seismic retrofitting, the labor market, and Medicaid, Mahoney
explained.
St. Rose Hospital opened on Oct. 22, 1962, with a capacity for 129 patient
beds, to serve the smaller but growing Hayward community.
Today the hospital serves a larger population along the San Leandro-Fremont
corridor.
In 2004 the hospital recorded almost 75,000 outpatient visits, with an
additional 33,612 emergency room visits. St. Rose has more than 800 employees.
Its bed capacity today is 163, with a medical staff of over 300 physicians.
The hospital’s most recent service developments are a student health
center at Chabot Community College and a new state-of-the-art cardiovascular
laboratory. St. Rose also is the only hospital in Central Alameda County
to offer emergency angioplasty and life-saving non-invasive procedures
to diagnose and treat victims of heart disease, said Pamela Russo, executive
director of marketing.
St. Joseph Sister Rose Helen Burgur, activities leader in the skilled
nursing facility for the past 13 years, has opted to stay on at St. Rose’s
in that capacity.
