Will Sequoia Hospital be rebuilt at current site? Will Sequoia Hospital be rebuilt at current site? (February 11, 2004)

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

Sequoia Healthcare District officials were "taken aback" by Catholic Healthcare West's announcement last week that it intends to rebuild Sequoia Hospital at its current Alameda de las Pulgas site, according to the district's chief executive.

But they nevertheless welcomed the development after months of unsuccessfully trying to ascertain from CHW -- the district's partner in administering Sequoia -- what it was willing to do to keep the hospital open, district CEO Frank Gibson said last week.

However welcome the announcement was, though, the frustration has not ended. CHW, which co-owns the Redwood City hospital with the district through a nonprofit corporate mechanism, has still not revealed specific plans for the project.

"Will it have a cardiac program? Will it have an emergency room? Will it continue all the services?" Mr. Gibson said. When the district asked such questions, CHW officials "said they don't know yet," Mr. Gibson added.

Plans by the district and CHW, which operates Sequoia, to rebuild the 54-year-old hospital at a Redwood City site closer to the Bayshore Freeway were given a serious second look when the Palo Alto Medical Foundation announced plans last spring to build a new medical complex in San Carlos, just a few miles from the site officials favored for the new Sequoia Hospital.

Sequoia Hospital must be rebuilt or seismically retrofitted by 2013 to meet a state mandate, or it will have to close. But many in the health-care community -- including members of the district board -- are doubtful that the area can support two hospitals.

District officials asked CHW and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation to present their plans at a public meeting early last month to clarify their intentions. CHW officials declined, but agreed to meet privately with district representatives in late January. It was then that they said they were abandoning plans to relocate the hospital, and would redevelop the existing campus instead.

CHW's redevelopment plan must be approved by Sequoia Health Services (SHS), the nonprofit entity that owns and administers the hospital. The SHS board has five members appointed by CHW and five appointed by the district.

Art Faro, president of the Sequoia Healthcare District Board said board members "need to know CHW's plans before we know whether we can support it."

CHW said that its plans won't be completed until April 9. "The respective roles of CHW and the district for funding of the redevelopment and the structure of the relationship will be finalized shortly thereafter," according to a statement released last week.

Before announcing their plans early last year to relocate the hospital, district and hospital officials had studied several options for reconstructing Sequoia. They concluded that rebuilding it on its current site would be more costly and problematic than building a new hospital at a different site. A major problem, they predicted, would be disruption of services and a resulting exodus of doctors who treat their patients there.

In a letter sent out last week to the hospital's employees, physicians and volunteers, Sequoia President Glenna Vaskelis noted that, under CHW's plan, "construction will take place in a phased manner with minimal impact to patient care at the existing facility."

The letter also noted that "CHW is committed to redevelopment on this site regardless of the district's participation."

E-mail a friend a link to this story.