VENTURA, Calif. — The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with a proposed medical office building in Santa Paula as the community prepares for the eventual closure of Santa Paula Hospital.
The hospital faces a state-mandated closure by 2030 because of declining patient numbers and financial pressures.
The plan approved Tuesday would create a medical office building designed to serve as a hub for county clinics and health care services in the Santa Clara Valley.
The facility would include urgent care, imaging and diagnostic services, a laboratory and pharmacy. It would also operate during extended daytime and evening hours.
However, the proposed facility would not include inpatient beds and would not be classified as a licensed emergency room. That means ambulances would not be able to transport patients there for emergency care.
For nurses who work at Santa Paula Hospital and Ventura County Medical Center, the loss of emergency and inpatient services is raising concerns about access to care.
“It’s very distressing because resources are being taken away from our community,” said Susana Macias-Robles, a Ventura County Medical Center nurse who lives in Santa Paula.
Macias-Robles said emergencies cannot wait.
“A heart attack doesn’t wait, a stroke doesn’t wait. Minutes matter,” she said.
Health care workers also warned that eliminating hospital services in Santa Paula could put additional pressure on hospitals elsewhere in the county.
“You have St. John’s and Oxnard, CMH and Ventura,” said Lisa Magallanes, a Santa Paula Hospital nurse. “They’re already super full. And so the patients that would have to come from the Santa Clara Valley would go to those hospitals, and it would just be more impacted.”
County officials say the new facility would still provide care for many conditions that currently send patients to the Santa Paula Hospital emergency room.
Ventura County Supervisor Matt LaVere said expanding access to preventative and primary care could help address health disparities in the Santa Clara Valley.
“If we really want to put a dent in those disparities, it’s not done through an emergency room,” LaVere said. “It’s done through greater access, robust access to preventative care, to screenings, to giving people appointments and visits with their primary and their specialty care doctors.”
The proposed project could cost up to $40 million to develop. County officials say the facility would likely not lose money in the long run.
The county will now move forward with developing the plan and determining the next steps for the transition of health care services in Santa Paula.
Ventura County Supervisors Approve Plan for New Health Care Facility in Santa Paula, Healthcare workers not satisfied News Channel 3-12.
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