Sutter leaps final hurdles in move to build new Sonoma County hospital

<p>Sutter Health's plans to build a new hospital north of Santa Rosa are rolling toward final approval after clearing another significant hurdle Tuesday.</p><p>The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors tentatively approved the Sacramento-based company's business plan for the hospital on a 5-0 vote, saying it met the provisions of a county contract requiring Sutter to provide public medical services.</p><p>Tuesday's action, along with an earlier vote this month accepting the hospital's environmental impact report, sets the stage for final authorization by supervisors next week. </p><p>All signs point to the hospital's approval. The vote likely will come as part of the board's consent agenda, which generally involves little discussion.</p><p>“I'm very excited,” Sutter Health Senior Vice President Mike Cohill said after Tuesday's hearing. In his presentation to the board, he called the proposed $284 million, 82-bed facility off Mark West Springs Road and Highway 101 near the Wells Fargo Center “a hospital of the future.”</p><p>That's in contrast to the former Community Hospital on Chanate Road, which Sutter took over from the county in 1996. Cohill called that facility, parts of which were built in 1931, “antiquated and inefficient.”</p><p>Sutter has been pushing for a new site for nearly a decade, partly to comply with state seismic safety standards.</p><p>In their vote, supervisors agreed with an earlier staff report that the new hospital would meet or exceed standards on quality of care, cost of care and access to care as contained in Sutter's health-care contract with the county.</p><p>“This has not been some quick review and analysis,” said Supervisor Paul Kelly. “I'm convinced it has been thoroughly reviewed and I'm convinced the conclusion is correct.”</p><p>Tuesday's decision came despite continued opposition to the new hospital by various critics and concern about what some called the hospital's limited capacity.</p><p>The county report said emergency and intensive care, and general medical and surgical services in the new hospital could lack as many as 35 beds by 2021 when the county's contract with Sutter expires.</p><p>Critics Tuesday repeated other arguments previously voiced: that the hospital site should be closer to lower-income populations or at a location more easily served by public transportation.</p><p>“We see this as medical red-lining,” said Benjamin Elliot, a labor representative for the California Nurses Association, which opposes Sutter's plans.</p><p>Critics also said that a new Sutter hospital could drive business away and lure doctors away from other district hospitals in the county.</p><p>“We continue to get no attention on this issue and it would seem to be intrinsic to providing quality care in the county,” said Scot Stegeman, a Sonoma County environmental consultant.</p><p>Supervisors rebutted each of those claims, saying the hospital would be centrally located for all county residents and public transportation could be expanded to the area or improved by 2014 in time for the hospital's expected opening.</p><p>“This is not about privatization (of health care)” said Supervisor Shirlee Zane. “This is about a public-private partnership. If it were a full privatization, we wouldn't be sitting here today.”</p><p>Hospital supporters, who outnumbered critics, cheered the hospital's plans. Their ranks included Sutter employees and representatives of the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency, sponsored partly by Sutter Medical Center.</p><p>“Our community needs and deserves a modern hospital for our future,” said Nora Valley, a Sutter emergency department nurse.</p>