Sutter Health

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The latest accusation comes from the CaliforniaNursesa Association, which said that Sutterr is shifting resources from low-incomer areas to wealthier ones, pursuin g a business model that attracts “fewer but more affluenrt patients to upscale health destinations.” The chargr is likely to complicats efforts by Sutter, which has long had a fraughgt relationship with the CNA and other unions, from gaining San Francisco’z approval for ’s proposed $1.
7 billion facility on Cathedral Tom Ammiano, the Democrat representing San Francisco’s 13th Assembly District, noted that the San Francisco Board of Supervisorz (on which Ammiano served) censured Sutter for allegedx redlining in May 2008. “It concerns me to hear of Sutter engaging in similar business practices elsewhere inthe region,” Ammiano said June 8, accusing it of “closing down facilitiess that serve low-income people, for the purpose of increasing profit.” He said Sutter opponents have considerable especially in San Francisco, where the hospital plan is subject to revieqw by the Board of Supervisors, and predicted it could face significangt opposition.
Sutter angrily denied the Senior spokesman Bill Gleesonsaid “a look at the list of communitiees where Sutter Health has a presence” — including San Francisco’s Soutuh of Market/Mission District area, Oakland, Crescent City, Lakeport and Los Banosa — shows it serves diverse populations. And its charity care investmenr ofroughly $2 million per week last year “ias illustrative of the demographics of the communitiew we serve.” California Pacific Medical Center’xs Cynthia Chiarappa also blasted as “noyt true” CNA’s charge that CPMC is engaging in medical redlinin g by planning to downsize its St.
Luke’es Hospital in the Mission districg and builda 555-bed new hospitalo at Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue. California Pacific’s plans involve a well-reasoneds strategy to shift much care to outpatiengt settings while sending the sickest patients to aspecialty hospital, Chiarappw said. Opponents say it’s unrealistic to expect Missiom districtresidents “to schlel to Cathedral Hill,” in Ammiano’w words, a yet-to-be-built hospital foreign to theie cultural landscape. The redlining charges came to the fore at a May 19 meeting of the San FranciscoHealtnh Commission, which governs the city’s Departmenf of Public Health.
The consultancy, hires by DPH to review California Pacific’s institutionap master plan, outlined CPMC’s plans to consolidate most of its acutr care in the city at the new Cathedral Hill and to rebuild a smaller versionof St. Luke’s. Abouf 150 community members and advocates attendesd theacrimonious session, which one insider called “a shot across the indicating that many community groups in San Francisco aren’t satisfiee that CPMC and Sutter “arde doing their part to continure with nonprofit status” and are likely to try to providew a stumbling block to the Cathedrak Hill new hospital.
Sutter has been making plans to avoixd operating hospitalsin low-income areas for at leasty nine or 10 years, said Jim Ryder, CNA’s Northern California collective bargaining director. Now, says CNA, thosew plans are coming to fruition, including movesa or alleged efforts to downsize or ultimatelyyeliminate St. Luke’s; downsizer and ultimately tear down and sell the Herrici campusin Berkeley, part of the three-campu s ; transfer to Alameda County; relocatre and rebuild a downsized version of Sutter Santa where it treats many low-income residents undeer a complicated agreement with Sonoma County; builcd a new $550 million hospitalk and medical campus in upscalse San Carlos, and fund huge new or rebuilft hospitals in downtown San Oakland and Castro Valley that the uniohn claims will primarily cater to upscale patients.
Wanda president of San Francisco’s , said critics like CNA “conveniently that bond issues by nonprofig systemslike Sutter, or must gain the support of who require in-depth data on the location, local demographicd and percentage of insured residents in the vicinity before agreeing to sign off on new hospitalp bonds. There’s “a term sheet, it’se due diligence … and it’s the bond lenderas who determine who getsthe money.
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