Although Santa Clara County was one of the first in the nation to create a behavioral health court, criminal offenders with mental health and drug problems sit in jail for months before getting treatment. That could change this week. County officials on Monday launched a pilot program with a separate court calendar that could fast-track...
Santa Clara County to buy Regional Medical Center
After months of fighting to save Regional Medical Center’s services, Santa Clara County leaders figured out how to stop the owner of the hospital from gutting them: they plan to buy it. County officials today announced their intent to buy the hospital from HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital corporation, for $175 million. County Executive...
Silicon Valley screens high school athletes for silent killer
It’s a silent killer that could happen to any high school student: sudden cardiac arrest. One school district wants to make sure it prevents another tragedy. The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District is the second public school district in the state to require heart screenings for all student athletes, 16 years after Los Gatos...
Ex-San Jose official lobbies for private hospital she spoke out against
Magdalena Carrasco, a former San Jose councilmember, once joined protests against one company’s hold over health care on the East Side. Today she’s helping HCA Healthcare make its most criticized move yet. Carrasco, who left office in 2022 after serving two terms as East San Jose’s representative, now lobbies city officials and her former colleagues...
Silicon Valley’s most vulnerable live in filthy homes
When Azazel Holmkvist was placed in a squalid home on East San Fernando Street, his case manager told him there was no other housing available. The 42-year-old was receiving treatment at a residential program operated by Momentum for Health, one of Santa Clara County’s largest nonprofit behavioral health service providers. Holmkvist said he’s a survivor...
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...
East San Jose hospital loses services while richer areas thrive
A private health company plans to reduce lifesaving care at an East San Jose hospital as it expands another hospital in a wealthier part of the city. HCA Healthcare is increasing the number of acute care beds at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood on the West Side, close to Los Gatos. Company representatives said...
East San Jose hospital won’t close trauma center amid scrutiny
East San Jose may keep its only medical trauma center after all — just not in the same form. Regional Medical Center — the private hospital owned by for-profit company HCA Healthcare — is walking back the planned closures of its trauma, heart attack and stroke care services which have kept residents alive in that...
San Jose nurses say hospital leaders undermine patient care
Santa Clara County nurses who keep oxygen flowing to people with spinal cord and brain injuries already work in a tense environment, but some fear their jobs are about to get harder. Three nurses in the acute respiratory rehabilitation unit at Valley Medical Center — who spoke to San José Spotlight under condition of anonymity...
Advocates say San Jose is misusing opioid settlement funds
San Jose has received more than $1 million from opioid makers and distributors after major companies settled a lawsuit with cities and states wanting to hold them accountable for the opioid epidemic — but advocates are not happy with the proposed use of the funds. Criminal justice and mental health advocates said the ongoing funds...