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Exploring Partnerships to Serve the Community Better
The District Board created an ad hoc committee in March 2024 to explore potential external partnerships to enhance the operations and health equity impact of Watsonville Community Hospital and expand services to our community.
Exploring partnerships is part of the District's long-term plan to achieve financial sustainability and ensure we can provide hospital services to the community for generations to come. There are three parts of this strategy, as shown in the diagram.
Measure N funds have allowed us to purchase the hospital land and buildings –and now we can use the annual $3 million in rent savings to reinvest in services. The funds will also allow us to invest in long-overdue improvements like new MRI and CT scanners, replacing aging building infrastructure, and planning for a new Emergency Department, to nearly double the size of the current one. Rather than resting on the laurels of that positive momentum, the District leadership is choosing to use that positive momentum to explore the possibilities that might accelerate it. For example, we could explore partnering with another local healthcare organization to recruit physicians to our area, or to achieve economies of scale by leveraging the strengths of other organizations who have a strategic interest in the success of Watsonville Community Hospital.
As a non-profit, community-owned organization, the District has sought input from the community throughout this publicly transparent process, and we are grateful to all who have participated. As a result, a Request for Proposal was releasd to encourage creative proposals from potential partners, and we are in the process of reviewing proposals. We understand the importance of this community owning its own hospital and we commit to retaining that ownership and control of our local hospital with any new external partnership we may engage in.
The future of healthcare requires collaboration. In the same way healthcare organizations work together to transfer patients between their facilities when it’s in the patient’s best interest, there are ways we can work together to survive in a healthcare world that offers hospitals the slimmest of reimbursements for services. We have an opportunity to accelerate to something special, where we might be able to offer more needed services to our community.
For a look at the many existing partnerships Watsonville Community Hospital engages in to meet the healthcare needs of its community click here.