Published in the May 13-26, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Mike Wasserman
Mike Wasserman
Several years ago, I received a chilling 2 a.m. phone call. “Mr. Wasserman, your mother has activated her medical alert system and emergency personnel have been dispatched.” She had taken a serious fall at home, hitting her head, and was in a life-or-death situation.
My mother is still with us because our health care system worked that night. The 911 emergency dispatcher quickly dispatched an ambulance, and skilled first responders delivered my mother safely into the hands of the waiting emergency room doctors and nurses. Several hours of emergency brain surgery and months of rehab resulted in her full recovery.
Continued health care access is critically important for all Santa Clara County residents. I think of my mother when looking at the situation with Saint Louise Regional Hospital and O’Connor Hospital – two of the six hospitals statewide being sold by the Daughters of Charity Health System due to their unsustainable financial losses. Although Attorney General Kamala Harris approved the sale of the Daughters of Charity Health System to Prime Healthcare Services with conditions, Prime declined to move forward with the purchase. Now Daughters of Charity is back to reviewing offers to buy the hospital chain, including the offer from the County of Santa Clara.
The county is still interested in buying the two hospitals so that we can ensure that residents have continued access to local health services. The recent revelation that Saint Louise Hospital will discontinue maternity and pediatric services is of grave concern.
Cutting services to pregnant women, kids and unwell infants is troubling. Most of those patients are county patients too, either because they get prenatal care at our Gilroy clinic or they are members of Valley Health Plan. In an emergency situation, traveling from Gilroy or Morgan Hill to Valley Medical Center or to Kaiser is a long way to go. The county made the commitment not to let residents suffer during this process, but the future of our health care system in South County rests in the hands of Daughters of Charity and how they decide to proceed.
Hospitals are an integral part of that system which is why the situation with Daughters of Charity is so important to me and to everyone involved in making sure that our system stays intact. No matter which city or neighborhood someone lives in, everyone deserves access to a health care system that works.
To me, every South County resident is like my mother whose life depends on our system working as it is intended. I will continue to push for a resolution that keeps our health care system intact so that the next person who gets that 2 a.m. phone call will get the best outcome possible for their loved ones.
Mike Wasserman is the Santa Clara County supervisor for District 1 which includes Morgan Hill. He wrote this column for Morgan Hill Life.
