Palomar Health to decide downtown hospital’s fate June 24

Palomar Health invites the public to a community conversations regarding plans to transition medical services from the Palomar Health Downtown Hospital Campus to Palomar Medical Center and Pomerado Hospital.

•June 15, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Pomerado Hospital, Conference Room C/D, 15615 Pomerado Road, Poway.

•June 16, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Palomar Health Downtown Campus, Graybill Auditorium, 555 East Valley Parkway, Escondido.

•June 22, 6 to 7:30 p.m., California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido.

•June 23, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Pomerado Hospital, Conference Room C/D, 15615 Pomerado Road, Poway.

Between 60 and 75 full-time employees and an additional 180 to 220 “per diem” workers will lose their jobs if the Palomar Health directors decide on June 24 to close its downtown Escondido hospital, officials said Friday.

Potential layoff numbers came one day after the inland North County health system announced plans to shutter the facility and move its remaining services to the new Palomar Medical Center across town and to Pomerado Hospital in Poway.

About 850 people work at the Palomar Health Downtown Campus, which houses a labor and delivery department, inpatient rehabilitation, a reserve emergency room, a behavioral health department and some outpatient surgery operations.

Robert Hemker, Palomar’s chief executive, said Friday that most jobs involving direct care of patients will move to Pomerado and Palomar Medical Center.

“Those doing direct, hands-on care have to follow where their patients are going to be,” Hemker said.

Layoffs are more likely to fall on support workers whose jobs are already filled at the other facilities, he said. He did not provide an exact breakdown of job types in jeopardy.

Palomar plans to move labor and delivery to the new hospital’s eighth floor while rehabilitation services will be relocated to the seventh. Behavioral health will consolidate with an existing ward at Pomerado.

Diane Hansen, Palomar’s vice president of finance, said a team of analysts spent many hours studying how services could be moved and determined that, at least at first, it will not be necessary to build out 2½ currently empty floors at Palomar Medical Center.

“There was a lot of really detailed analysis and thought that went into this to say ‘what’s the right placement of these services?’” Hansen said.

Palomar says it’s losing $20 million per year operating the old hospital, which it promised the city it would make a good-faith effort to keep open when it sought permission to build the new hospital.

Hansen said the old hospital also will need more than $160 million in maintenance to keep operating, an amount that would detract from the public health care district’s ability to invest in Pomerado Hospital and Palomar Medical Center.

“We have a central plant that needs to be upgraded, we have piping that needs to be replaced, we have wiring and IT needs within that facility,” she said.

Some were not happy to learn of Palomar’s downtown plans. Robroy Fawcett, an Escondido attorney and longtime opponent of Palomar’s decision to build a new hospital outside of the downtown area, said closure was always the plan.

“I don’t think they’ve broken any promises they intended on keeping,” he said.

He also questioned whether the move is an attempt to backfill the new hospital if Kaiser Permanente does not renew a current bed lease past 2020. The health care giant must notify Palomar this year if it intends to re-up for another five-year period through 2025.

Hemker said in an email that the Kaiser contract was not part of the decision.

“They have not indicated either way as to their intent to renew,” Hemker said.

Others in the community have said they view the possible closure of the downtown campus as breaking a promise to the city.

But Hemker said Palomar’s most important pact will be maintained.

“The promise that I think is essential for the community is the provision of health care services, and that is the core in which we are going forward,” he said, adding that much has changed in health care finance since Palomar made its agreement with the city.

He said Palomar remains committed to making sure that an urgent care clinic is opened in downtown Escondido so residents don’t have to travel to the new hospital for basic care. The future of the 14-acre site on Valley Parkway is up in the air. Escondido Mayor Sam Abed said Thursday that the city will work with Palomar to determine the best use.

“There is a longtime legacy of Palomar Hospital being in downtown Escondido. It’s difficult to replace that, but we’re going to work together to bring a good anchor to downtown and make sure that area continues to thrive,” Abed said.

For more information visit PalomarHealth.org.