Public investments in Santa Clara County’s hospital system are proving being uninsured doesn’t have to mean poor health care. The region’s poorest patients actually have access to one of the nation’s top-rated rehabilitation centers.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s Rehabilitation Center is ranked seventh best in the nation, according to the 2025-26 U.S. News & World Report, which evaluated more than 4,400 hospitals. Valley Medical Center also received high marks for its maternity, diabetes, pneumonia, heart failure and stroke care. The rankings analyzed each hospital’s performance based on objective measures such as risk-adjusted mortality rates, preventable complications and level of nursing care.
“This is the incredible work of our staff, people (who) put their heart and soul into everything,” District 2 Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong told San José Spotlight. “Just because we serve the most vulnerable, it doesn’t mean that service has to be subpar.”
The 64-bed rehabilitation center provides a full suite of services, including treating people with stroke, spinal cord injury and brain damage. It has been helping patients recover from neurological injuries since 1970.
VMC is one of multiple hospitals under the county’s health care umbrella. Regional Medical Center and O’Connor and St. Louise Regional hospitals are the others. Together, the county’s network of 15 clinics and four hospitals make up the second-largest county-owned public health system in the state.
District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said the ranking shows public hospitals can provide quality care.
“There are often, I think, presumptions made about county hospitals, the level of care, the populations they serve,” Ellenberg told San José Spotlight. “Our system is recognized in multiple departments as top five, top 10 in the country, and I think that is something for our entire community to be proud of. We serve the entire community. We don’t only serve the Medi-Cal, Medicare population. We serve everyone, and our efforts are recognized.”
County Executive James Williams said the county’s health care system is an asset to residents.
“As the operator of the largest public hospital system in Northern California, our entire region benefits from the critical, life-saving care that we provide in our emergency rooms, our trauma centers and our nationally recognized rehabilitation center,” Williams said at a Tuesday news conference.
The county hospital system is the only option for Silicon Valley’s low-income and uninsured patients. Half of the system’s patients pay through Medi-Cal, and one in four of the county’s nearly 2 million residents are Medi-Cal enrollees. The rest pay through a mix of other means and Medicare, a separate federal program serving patients 65 and older and patients of all ages with certain disabilities.
Last year, the county purchased Regional Medical Center from for-profit HCA Healthcare, following public outcry over the closure of the trauma center and other service cuts. In April, the county restored trauma, heart attack and stroke services.
Duong said because the county’s hospital system serve the most vulnerable patients, wraparound services are embedded into the care.
“You may come in for emergency services, but then you may leave with a referral for behavioral health services. You may leave with housing services,” Duong said. “When you are able to provide quality care for our most vulnerable, we elevate, uplift everybody in our community.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
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