PD Editorial: Yes on E: Keeping Sonoma’s hospital healthy

Hospitals in 80 rural communities across the country have shut their doors since 2010, and almost 700 others are reported to be teetering on the edge.

The most common issue, of course, is finances.

In its most recent brush with insolvency, Sonoma West Medical Center in Sebastopol apparently came within a day or two of ceasing operations. The longtime operator of Petaluma Valley Hospital announced plans to leave last summer, and the Petaluma health care district is still trying to work out a deal with a new management company.

Sonoma Valley residents have largely been spared from concerns about the viability of their local medical center - in part because they have stepped up to support the hospital.

In 2002, voters approved a $195-a-year parcel tax to help fund Sonoma Valley Hospital, and the tax has been renewed on lopsided votes twice since then.

The tax generates about $3 million a year for the 48-bed hospital, which treats 11,000 people a year in its emergency room and offers skilled nursing services for rehabilitation that aren’t typically found in a community hospital. It’s also the largest employer in the city of Sonoma.

“Without the parcel tax, we would not be alive,” Kelly Mather, the hospital’s CEO, told The Press Democrat Editorial Board earlier this year. “No way.”

As it stands, however, the parcel tax will expire on June 30 because Measure B, a renewal effort in March, fell 64 votes short of the two-thirds majority required for approval.

Measure E on the June 6 ballot is another opportunity for voters in the Sonoma Valley Health Care District to renew the parcel tax. The Press Democrat recommends a yes vote.

With such a narrow margin, no organized opposition and a relatively small turnout - less than half of the district’s 21,800 registered voters cast ballots in March - it’s hard to pinpoint why support for the tax dropped to 66 percent from the 73 percent received when it was renewed in 2012.

A likely possibility is the district’s proposal to increase the tax from $195 to $250 a year. Mather and other hospital officials cited ongoing reductions in reimbursements from Medicare and other federal and state insurance programs as the primary reason for an increase.

Some of those insurance programs could reduce hospital reimbursements even further if the Republican-controlled Congress succeeds in repealing the Affordable Care Act.

The parcel tax covers a little more than 5 percent of the hospital’s $55 million annual budget.

Still, having lost in March, and with the deadline for renewal approaching, we think the Sonoma Valley Health Care District might have been wise to forgo an increase at this time. But board members unanimously agreed that it’s needed to maintain services at the hospital.

“Without a new parcel tax,” Jane Hirsch, the health care district board president, said a day after the March election, “the hospital will experience a critical revenue shortfall by fall.”

Sonoma Valley Hospital gets high marks for quality of care, and it operates the only emergency department and intensive care unit in the Sonoma Valley. Without them, it would be a long drive to Napa or Santa Rosa for emergency medical care.

Sonoma Valley residents cannot afford to lose this asset. Vote yes on Measure E.