Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill giving $3 million to financially troubled Doctors Medical Center in western Contra Costa County. The hospital has been in danger of closing for weeks.
SB883 appropriates the money from the state's Major Risk Medical Insurance Fund to the West Contra Costa Healthcare District, which oversees Doctors Medical Center. It is considered "bridge funding," according to a release from Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), an author of the bill, so that the hospital and health care district have time to identify more secure funding.
“Doctors Medical Center is the safety net hospital for Richmond, San Pablo and other West Contra County communities. Its closure would leave a community in need without emergency care, cardio, dialysis and other critical hospital services,” Skinner said in a statement.
“The governor’s support of this $3 million lifeline expands our window for pursuing solutions to continue to meet these critical health care needs.”
Doctors Medical Center (DMC) has been struggling financially for more than a decade. The crisis hit hard in early August when (DMC) stopped accepting emergency ambulance patients and reduced inpatient beds from 140 to 50. Just days after the ambulance diversion began, a group of doctors, nurses and advocates sued Contra Costa County.