The looming possibility that MemorialCare Health System may shutter its San Clemente hospital and emergency room has led city officials to look at another option: their own, brand-new hospital.
City Manager James Makshanoff announced last week that city staff is trying to identify a site for a new hospital and emergency room on land the city owns along the path of Avenida La Pata, a road being extended to link San Clemente with San Juan Capistrano in 2016.
Amid outcry from some residents, MemorialCare Health System, owner of 73-bed Saddleback Memorial Medical Center San Clemente, is looking seriously at shutting down its hospital and ER at 654 Camino de los Mares to build a three-story medical pavilion offering a wide range of outpatient services offered at a lower cost than a hospital.
Missing from MemorialCare’s announced proposal last August was 911 emergency services. That drew a backlash from residents alarmed that closure of the only ER between Mission Viejo and Oceanside would create a gap in coverage. A group of local physicians formed savesanclementehospital.org.
I-5, FINANCIAL CONCERNS
Closure would take away paramedics’ option of driving San Clemente area 911 patients to the closest state-licensed emergency receiving center, forcing all transports to ply an increasingly congested freeway to Mission Viejo, or farther if Mission Hospital’s ER is saturated.
South County faces losing one of its four ERs (San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills) as the population is growing.
At a financial planning meeting March 4, the City Council pondered what the shutdown of the ER might cost taxpayers. Among other things, it would force local paramedics to deploy out of town on all 911 calls, making ambulances and their firefighter operators less available in town.
The city may need an extra ambulance and more Orange County Fire Authority personnel. The city’s annual OCFA bill already rises 4.5 percent per year at the present level of services.
HOSPITAL? BOUTIQUE? OUTPATIENT PAVILION?
Asked about the idea of a new hospital on city land, Makshanoff said “staff is looking at how we could change the zoning there from open space to a hospital/institutional use. We haven’t had any discussions with interested parties. The idea is to change the zoning to see if it would attract the right suitor, especially with La Pata opening up and the 14,000 or so homes being built on the Rancho Mission Viejo land.”
Dr. Gus Gialamas, leader of the save-the-hospital group, said he applauds the city’s efforts but hopes MemorialCare will maintain hospital/ER services at the present site. Gialamas’ group has asked MemorialCare to include a small boutique hospital and ER in its plan, and the firm Ware Malcomb is donating design services.
Tony Struthers, San Clemente hospital administrator, said MemorialCare’s high-end outpatient facility with multiple services would replace a small hospital facing dwindling patients and an unsustainable future. He said attempts to preserve the small hospital model are a poor investment when medicine nationwide is moving to less costly outpatient services.
The boutique plan could cost $100 million – more than double the proposed outpatient facility – making it “a nonstarter,” Struthers said. He said MemorialCare supports state legislation introduced by Sen. Patricia Bates and Assemblyman Bill Brough to permit a standalone San Clemente ER or allow the planned pavilion’s 24/7 advanced urgent care to accept 911 patients.
“We would rather have the experts at Ware Malcomb authenticate the costs,” Gialamas said. “We’ve had three separate schematics. Every time we get something back from Memorial and they say we don’t do this or we can’t do this, we’ve come up with another schematic for them.”
The save-the-hospital group also has asked MemorialCare to wait three years, to get legislation and a standalone ER in place.
Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127
