A profit-driven decision five years ago is about to be reversed — enabling women to once more give birth at their neighborhood hospital in East San Jose.
Regional Medical Center plans to restore labor and delivery care around October 20 after joining Santa Clara County’s massive public hospital system six months ago. The obstetrics department at Regional was eliminated in 2020, generating major protests over its closure by former owner HCA Healthcare.
The county boldly purchased Regional for $150 million from HCA Healthcare last year, following waves of profit-driven service cuts that threatened to turn the Eastside working-class neighborhoods into a major health desert. The purchase made it the fourth hospital in the county health care system and the second largest in the state.
Wednesday’s announcement came from Santa Clara Valley Healthcare CEO Paul Lorenz at a forum hosted by San Jose Spotlight.
“We’re working very closely with our physicians, nurses and community (to make it happen),” Lorenz said. “We’re looking forward to doing that.”
In Santa Clara County, about 80% of Medi-Cal patients giving birth live around Regional Medical Center, and the 2020 obstetrics unit closure created a greater distance to access, according to James Byrne, an OBGYN at the county’s flagship hospital, Valley Medical Center.
“The majority of women giving birth in the county actually come from within a 4-mile radius of Regional Medical Center. They’re concentrated in the central and eastern part of the county,” Byrne told San José Spotlight. “If you’re looking to help provide this service, this is the ideal location.”
It’s another entry in a series of revived services at the hospital under new county leadership. Officials in April restored the hospital’s trauma center to a Level 2 rating after HCA downgraded it to a Level 3 , a designation typically reserved for rural hospitals.
Darcie Green, the executive director of Latinas Contra Cancer, helped lead the community movement to save Regional from HCA’s cuts.
“The County’s decision to restore maternity care is a victory not only for East San Jose but for the entire county, and a powerful affirmation of our dignity,” she told San José Spotlight. “With one in 10 county residents being a Latino under 25, our families are continuing to grow and build our futures here. Our children, like all of our county’s children, deserve to enter our world with care, safety and equity.”
Increased distance from the hospital makes it challenging for families to visit newborns and new mothers, Byrne said. That’s important for the often-multigenerational Vietnamese and Latino families living in the East Side.
“This allows more community-based support for what is an influential experience of anyone’s life,” he said.
But each high comes with a major low. Trillions in federal spending cuts to critical social safety net programs will imperil 30% of the county’s $14 billion budget, most of which goes toward the county hospital system. Medicaid – the federal health insurance program known as Medi-Cal in California— is headed for the Trump Administration’s chopping block. It is the single largest source of federal revenue for Santa Clara County health care system, representing about $2 billion in funding received in just one year.
“The problem is that as we talk about opening services, we’re also trying to deal with a billion-dollar shortfall,” Lorenz said at the forum. “We do have to make decisions, but our decisions are going to be based on the needs of the community — making sure we can mitigate as much as we can of these losses and focus on our patients.”
East San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who joined last year’s protests against the HCA cuts, called it a victory for East San Jose families.
“When the previous owners announced plans to close critical units, we knew only the power of working families, health care workers, and community advocates could protect lifesaving care in our neighborhoods,” he told San José Spotlight. “Today’s announcement is more than the return of a service; it is a step forward for District 5 families in our commitment to ensure every family in our community has access to safe, equitable care from birth onward.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
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