Health advocates want to pause San Jose hospital expansion

A San Jose hospital wants to construct two new hospital wings in a more than 1 million-square-foot expansion to satisfy California earthquake mandates — but health care equity concerns are also rising to the surface.

Patient advocates and leaders gathered outside Good Samaritan Hospital last month to protest what they said were health care inequities in East San Jose at Regional Medical Center. Now advocates like East San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz and retired state Sen. Jim Beall are calling for the Good Samaritan expansion to be put on pause in light of ongoing cuts and reductions to critical services being made across San Jose by HCA Healthcare, which owns both hospitals.

“As a councilmember and advocate, I will always support the expansion of health services for all residents in San Jose,” Ortiz told San José Spotlight. “However, at this time, I am calling for a pause on the expansion because the city needs to study exactly how the decisions that HCA is making will impact the residents of East Side San Jose and the entire community.”

Beall said he would like to see San Jose halt Good Samaritan’s expansion process until city officials can study the impacts of HCA’s ongoing service cuts in the West Valley and East San Jose hospitals.

“When you look at what they’re proposing to increase at Good Samaritan Hospital, it’s the type of medicine that makes the most money,” he told San José Spotlight.

If considered and approved by the San Jose City Council later this fall, a tower and day care center at the existing Good Samaritan Hospital on the borders of West San Jose and Los Gatos would be demolished and replaced with new hospital wings totaling 750,000 square feet, a new medical office building and two parking garages.

These plans have been in the works since 2021 and are part of the state’s seismic mandates for hospitals which must be in compliance by 2030.

HCA Healthcare has a history of systematically shuttering facilities and services that have been deemed not profitable at its two hospitals. It shuttered San Jose Medical Center, the city’s only downtown hospital, in 2004. It eliminatd Regional’s maternity ward in 2020 and Good Samaritan’s neonatal intensive care unit and acute care psychiatrist services in 2023. HCA now plans to downgrade Regional’s Level II trauma center.

A spokesperson for HCA said the company has to complete the seismic upgrades at Good Samaritan. California law requires acute care general hospitals to either refitted or replaced facilities to meet functional safety standards.

The spokesperson also said health care equity advocates are spreading false information about Regional and their concerns are without merit.

“Funding these state-mandated upgrades is not optional and has no impact on decisions or investments at any other hospital,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “Separately, the service line changes we are making at Regional Medical Center are designed to meet the changing needs of our patients and demonstrate our continued commitment to the East San Jose community.”

Beall said more health care experts should review the proposed expansion plans and provide their insight as opposed to land use consultants and lobbyists, who are representing HCA’s development plans to city officials.

“Lobbyists have no concept of health care unlike folks like myself who chaired the state Senate mental health committee for eight years, and state assembly alcohol and drug abuse committee for six years,” he told San José Spotlight. “They’re just paid political people that work in politics.”

Residents have until Sept. 3 to review the environment impact report for the Good Samaritan expansion at 2425 Samaritan Drive and 2333 Samaritan Place and send in comments.

HCA was ranked last year as the 66th largest U.S. company by total revenue among Fortune 500 companies. Its total revenue for December 2023 was about $65 billion, according to its year end filing.

Beall, who also serves on the board of Valley Water, said hospitals get less money from residents using affordable health care like Medicare or MediCal as opposed to private insurers who pay out higher rates This leads a profit-driven hospital to make cuts. Many of Regional’s patients rely on Medicare and Medical, whereas Good Samaritan has a more affluent demographic seeking services.

“It’s a business model, it’s not a public health care model,” Beall told San José Spotlight. “The other part of it is (HCA) might not have the sensitivity to our communities because their decisions aren’t being made here, they’re being made in Nashville, Tennessee.”