Two Orange County legislators introduced bills Monday in Sacramento seeking to let Saddleback Memorial Medical Center San Clemente establish a stand-alone emergency room.
The bills – SB-787 by State Sen. Patricia Bates and AB-911 by Assemblyman Bill Brough – are in response to a proposal by MemorialCare Health System, owner of Saddleback Memorial Medical Centers in Laguna Hills and San Clemente, that could close San Clemente’s hospital and ER.
MemorialCare would replace the 73-bed hospital and emergency room with a comprehensive outpatient medical pavilion offering a surgery center, imaging, rehab, wellness programs, specialist physicians and advanced urgent care. No decision has been made, but MemorialCare’s board could decide this month upon receiving a feasibility study.
The plan has drawn opposition from residents worried that closure of the emergency room will create a void in South County’s 911 services. Under current state law, paramedics can only transport 911 patients to a licensed hospital emergency room. Advanced urgent care doesn’t qualify.
The two lawmakers said the goal of their bills is to preserve emergency medical services in San Clemente and try to facilitate dialogue between MemorialCare and a Save Saddleback San Clemente Hospital group to reach an emergency services solution.
“We both hope that our legislation will not be needed at the end of the day,” Bates and Brough wrote in a statement. “But if that is what is required to preserve emergency care, then we will work hard to pass it into law.”
They wrote that south county residents deserve convenient access to emergency care, “and we are committed to doing everything we can in the legislature to preserve that access. Our legislation is meant to facilitate a consensus between the hospital’s operator and the community, and we will continue to work with everyone in the weeks ahead.”
MemorialCare says its proposal is the future of medicine, toward convenient, less-costly care than a hospital.
Critics have proposed an alternate plan, a small boutique hospital with an emergency room and the outpatient facilities MemorialCare wants, and asked for a three-year delay to either get a stand-alone ER in place or secure state approvals for paramedics to transport to the proposed advanced urgent care facility.
“We support our legislators’ efforts completely,” Dr. Gus Gialamas, leader of Save Saddleback San Clemente Hospital, wrote via e-mail. “It is very gratifying how both have listened so closely to the needs of their constituents. We also agree with their statement that they hope such legislation ‘will not be needed at the end of the day’ and be supplanted by a compromise with MemorialCare, such as the one our organization has already proposed.”
Tony Struthers, administrator of the San Clemente hospital, wrote via e-mail that MemorialCare supports the legislators’ efforts and options “that will allow us in a timely fashion to integrate emergency services in our vision for a unique outpatient medical pavilion that will bring together many healthcare services in one location.”
“We have spoken in person to thousands of community members, employers, elected officials, community groups and others to share our vision and gather input,” Struthers said. “We have met with both primary care and specialty physicians throughout the region, representing more than 80 physicians, the vast majority of whom believe this unique outpatient health care campus of the future will help enhance health care quality and vastly expand access and services in one convenient location.”
Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127