San Jose health advocates said Good Samaritan Hospital leadership has refused to commit to a community benefits proposal as part of its $1.2 billion bid to expand the hospital.
Members of the Rescue Our Medical Care campaign rallied in front of City Hall on Wednesday to call on HCA Healthcare, the parent company of Good Samaritan Hospital, to restore inpatient psychiatric care and help local governments pay for health care services the hospital previously cut that will now fall on the shoulders of taxpayers. Health care advocates told San José Spotlight they want to see these community benefits included within the proposed expansion of the hospital. Hospital representatives say the expansion is necessary to align with California earthquake mandates by 2030.
Working Partnerships USA Organizing Director João Paulo Connolly said the group received an invitation to meet with Good Samaritan officials, including CEO Patrick Rohan, as well as District 9 Councilmember Pam Foley to discuss concerns over health care equity. The hospital is in Foley’s district — she declined a request for comment.
“We are looking forward to that conversation and hope it can be a genuine, good faith conversation about rescuing and restoring desperately needed mental health services in this community, but that’s really all we know so far,” Connolly told San José Spotlight.
After meeting with Good Samaritan officials Wednesday evening, Latinas Contra Cancer Executive Director Darcie Green said the hospital was unwilling to agree on a proposed community benefits package that would include a patient protection fund.
Green told San José Spotlight she hopes the City Council holds the hospital’s parent company accountable for its business practices.
Councilmembers will vote Nov. 19 whether to allow the hospital’s 21-acre expansion, which includes 750,000 square feet for two new hospital wings, 200,000 square feet of medical offices and two new parking garages.
“We’re asking for a patient protection fund established by HCA, not only to make up for past harm, but really more so to think about future harm,” Green said. “We actually don’t have to imagine what might be on the path for Good Sam — because there’s a very clear roadmap that HCA has left behind.”
Connolly and Green say the fund would help offset some of the costs Santa Clara County is going to incur after it recently approved spending $315 million to acquire Regional Medical Center from the for-profit corporation. The county plans to restore its trauma center, heart attack and stroke services.
A spokesperson for Good Samaritan Hospital said extensive community feedback was incorporated into the development plan submitted to the council.
“Good Samaritan Hospital has been a faithful steward of San Jose’s planning process, communicating extensively the benefits and impact of our $1.2 billion proposal and state-mandated seismic retrofit,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “We are hopeful the city council approves our proposal and ensures a vital community hospital meets the 2030 retrofit deadline without risking the hospital’s ability to remain operational.”
Backlash over HCA Healthcare cutting lifesaving services at Regional Medical Center in East San Jose and selling the hospital to the county earlier this year came to a head at a recent San Jose Planning Commission meeting, where members voted 7-1 against recommending the Good Samaritan Hospital expansion to the city council.
In the decision to recommend against the expansion, planning commission Vice Chair Charles Cantrell cited the city’s goals of treating health care as a regional issue and ensuring existing facilities meet the needs of all residents.
City leaders at a Nov. 6 Rules and Open Government Committee meeting clashed with hospital representatives and grilled them over the effects of potential service cuts to low-income communities. Councilmember Dev Davis said hospital representatives failed to answer her questions about restoring mental health services.
“Our county needs 1,000 more psychiatric beds and we needed 950-970 before you closed the beds that you had. You aren’t helping expand a very needed service that our community needs,” Davis said at the meeting. “I think it’s atrocious that you closed your psychiatric facilities.”
Good Samaritan Hospital closed its 18-bed inpatient psychiatric facility at Mission Oaks Hospital last August along with its neonatal services. The closure led to an 8% decrease in inpatient psychiatric acute beds, exacerbating the county’s ongoing mental health problems.
HCA Healthcare has a history of closing facilities and services that have been deemed not profitable. It shuttered San Jose Medical Center, the city’s only downtown hospital, in 2004. It eliminated Regional’s maternity ward in 2020. It also cut trauma, stroke and heart attack services at Regional in August, which prompted the county to purchase it.
“The idea is it would be a fund going toward mental health needs, helping to address mental health emergencies and the need for acute care,” Connolly told San José Spotlight.
Story updated Nov. 14 at 12:48 p.m. Original story published Nov. 13 at 4 p.m.
Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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