Sonoma West Medical Center mulls management change

After nearly eight months in operation, Sonoma West Medical Center is trying to recruit an outside organization with deep pockets and expertise in health care billing to keep the Sebastopol hospital alive.

Sonoma West, which manages the taxpayer-owned hospital, had been scheduled to submit a proposal Wednesday to subcontract certain management functions to an outside entity, said Jim Maresca, president of the Palm Drive Health Care District, the agency that provides financial support and public oversight to the hospital.

District officials abruptly canceled a special meeting Wednesday that had been called to review Sonoma West’s proposal. The agenda for the meeting listed only one item: ”Consideration and possible approval of a change in management at Sonoma West Medical Center Inc., including a change of the hospital CEO.”

The current CEO at the hospital is Ray Hino. He did not return a phone call to his office Wednesday morning.

Sonoma West spokeswoman Jane Rogan said hospital officials could not comment on the agenda item.

“We can’t talk about anything right now,” Rogan said. “The agenda was posted and they canceled. It’s kind of a non-item right now. There’s nothing to talk about right now.”

Proposal not ready

The meeting was canceled less than three hours before it was scheduled to begin. Maresca said the special meeting was called within the required 24-hour window to hear the proposal from Sonoma West. The change would be significant enough to warrant approval by the district board, Maresca said.

He said the meeting was canceled because Sonoma West was not yet ready to put forth the proposal.

“We don’t know if we’re going to see a proposal or not,” he said.

At a district board meeting earlier this month, Hino said the medical center was negotiating with Valley Emergency Physicians to have the Walnut Creek doctors’ group take over some hospital management duties and to provide crucial capital, which would be lent to the medical center on commercial terms.

Maresca said it’s unclear if Valley Emergency Physicians is the group that Sonoma West was planning to propose as a subcontractor at Wednesday’s meeting. It is possible that bringing in another management entity as a subcontractor could lead to Hino’s departure, he said.

“I talked to Ray and he said, ‘I’m for whatever helps the hospital,’?” Maresca said.

The district itself also is looking for potential partners that could shore up the hospital.

Two top officials with the Palm Drive Health Care District met Wednesday with the head of St. Joseph Health System Sonoma County to discuss a potential alliance. St. Joseph Health operates both Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Petaluma Valley Hospital, as well as myriad outpatient medical services and several urgent care centers.

Maresca and district executive director Alanna Brogan met with Todd Salnas, president of St. Joseph, to discuss a possible partnership to help the west county hospital become financially sustainable, Maresca said.

In a statement, Salnas said the meeting resulted in “a good discussion … about the needs of the Sebastopol community.”

“We have not taken a formal position at this time,” Salnas said.

Revenue cycle

Maresca said current management has not been able to come up with an efficient way to manage the hospital’s revenue cycle, a term used to describe all administrative and clinical aspects of patient management, including claims processing, payment and revenue generation.

“That whole process has not been managed effectively,” Maresca said. “We need financial capital and we need intellectual capital.”

“Getting the revenue straightened out and getting all the revenue that we’re entitled to collect is critical to the sustainability of the hospital,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.