Published in the April 16-29, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life

Since 1989, Morgan Hill residents have had a hospital in our community. But that could change if the city council does not carefully plan for our community’s health care future.

Last month the council voted 4-1 with Rich Constantine dissenting, to start a process that could rezone the largest medical property in the city. The five members directed city staff to analyze the impact of any change.

The Daughter’s of Charity Health System, which owns Saint Louise Regional Hospital, has asked the city to rezone the property to allow for a senior housing project that could include 1,600 units. In addition, the DCHS has put up its network of area hospitals for sale, and they include Saint Louise in Gilroy and O’Connor Hospital in San Jose.

DCHS has said that they intend to build a new facility at another, as yet, unidentified location in town that will house an even larger medical center. They have yet to begin the official process.

Saint Louise Regional Hospital opened in 1989 as Saint Louise Hospital in Morgan Hill, then relocated to Gilroy in December 1999 as Saint Louise Regional Hospital to serve the fast-growing communities of southern Santa Clara County. It is now a 93-bed community hospital that has grown, and continues to grow, with the community. And if our community continues to grow – which all signs point toward – and the owners are successful in selling both hospitals to a for-profit group, it would leave the region without a hospital that serves both people with financial means and the poor.

And if DCHS is allowed to rezone the property, sell it to a developer, and does not abide by their promise to build elsewhere in town, it would leave Morgan Hill without a medical campus, thus impacting the quality of life we now enjoy.

The approved motion directs staff to tie the DePaul rezoning proposal to the stated intent by DCHS to build a larger, more modern medical office facility.

That’s a good idea.

If the council agrees to rezone the property, they must get in writing that DCHS will build another campus.