Doctors Medical Center San Pablo Campus

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox hospital | name = Doctors Medical Center San Pablo Campus | org_group =  | image = Doctorssanpablo1.jpg | caption = Hospital (From Vale Road) | logo = | location = 2000 Vale Road | region = San Pablo | state = California | country = US | healthcare = | type = | speciality =  | standards =  | emergency = | beds = | founded = 1954 | closed = 2015 | website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629165449/http://www.doctorsmedicalcenter.org/ Archive of website] }}

'''Doctors Medical Center''' (originally '''Brookside Hospital''') was an eight-story, 120-bed public hospital in San Pablo, California which served 250,000 residents in western Contra Costa County from 1954 to 2015.<ref name="bside">[https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/voters-ok-tax-to-keep-san-pablo-hospital-open-2289302.php Voters OK tax to keep San Pablo hospital open], Carolyn Jones, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 16-11-2011, access date 27-02-2012</ref><ref name="woe">[https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/doctors-medical-center-2676317.php Doctors Medical Center], ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 01-05-2005, access date 17-02-2011</ref><ref name="parcel">{{Cite web|last=Jones|first=Carolyn|date=2011-11-10|title=Parcel tax would support Doctors Medical Center|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Parcel-tax-would-support-Doctors-Medical-Center-2323280.php|access-date=2021-09-27|website=SFGATE|language=en-US}}</ref>

==History==

In 1948, the residents voted to create the West Contra Costa Hospital District,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=15 Oct 1954, 17 - The Independent at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/698772381/?terms=brookside%20hospital&match=1|access-date=2021-10-10|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}}</ref> one of the Health care districts in California, for the purpose of building Brookside Hospital. The five-story, 165-bed hospital cost $4 million and 3 years to construct, and opened its doors in 1954.<ref name=":2" /> The district (renamed the West Contra Costa Healthcare District in 1994) operated Brookside until 1997, when it affiliated with Tenet Healthcare to administer the hospital, which Tenet renamed Doctors Medical Center.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Colliver|first=Victoria|date=2004-01-29|title=Fate of hospital in doubt / Tenet to spin off Doctors Medical Center in East Bay|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Fate-of-hospital-in-doubt-Tenet-to-spin-off-2805361.php|access-date=2021-07-21|website=SFGATE|language=en-US}}</ref> In January 2004, Tenet announced that it would not be renewing the leasing arrangement, and the district resumed administration of the hospital on July 31, 2004, until its closure in April 2015.<ref name="woe"/><ref name=":0" />

===Financial woes=== The hospital was bailed out through several state loan, county funding, and ballot measure schemes throughout the 2000s.<ref name="bside"/><ref name="parcel"/><ref name="ambu">[https://www.sfgate.com/health/article/contra-costa-county-supervisors-approve-2548190.php Supervisors approve hospital bailout plan Doctors Medical Center to restore ambulance service], Jason B. Johnson, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 01-11-2006, access date 27-02-2012</ref><ref name="loanapproved">[http://e-lobbyist.com/gaits/CA/SB644 Legislative Detail: CA Senate Bill 644 - 2011-2012 Session] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111131052/http://e-lobbyist.com/gaits/CA/SB644 |date=2012-01-11 }}, 09-10-2011, access date 13-03-2012</ref><ref name="state">[http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/09/24/east-bay-mayors-press-governor-to-save-doctors-medical-center/ East Bay Mayors Press Governor To Save Doctors Medical Center], KCBS, CBS5, 24-09-2011, access date 13-03-2012</ref> The hospital also struggled to secure funding necessary to retrofit and modernize to meet the state's strict earthquake proofing building standards.<ref name="bside"/><ref name="parcel"/><ref name="ambu"/><ref name="state"/>

In 2006 the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved $20 million to the hospital.<ref name="ambu"/> This deal came with the condition of heightened county scrutiny over the medical center's bookkeeping.<ref name="ambu"/> Half of the funding came from the county's emergency reserves and half from county administered federal Medicaid funds, and it permitted the center to continue ambulance services.<ref name="ambu"/>

In 2011, a ballot measure was approved by 74% of the voters to assess $47 per parcel annually as long as the facility remained open, and was projected to raise $5 million annually.<ref name="bside"/><ref name="parcel"/> SFGATE reported that the hospital "had already cut its budget to the bone", discontinued obstetrics, and that 80% of its patients were on Medi-Cal, and 10% had no insurance at all.<ref name="parcel" />

Also in September 2011 Richmond mayor Gayle McLaughlin along with area state senator Loni Hancock and the mayors of Hercules, Pinole, and El Cerrito lobbied governor Jerry Brown for loan guarantees, which were approved on October 9.<ref name="state" /><ref name="loanapproved" />

In March 2015, the West County Health District Board voted to close the hospital and sell the property. The estimated $7.5 million from the sale would satisfy employee, physician, and vendor liabilities. The hospital closed on April 21, 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.contracosta.ca.gov/documentcenter/view/35781 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150823103353/http://www.contracosta.ca.gov/documentcenter/view/35781 |archive-date=2015-08-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The hospital was sold to the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians in 2017, demolished, and replaced with parking lots for the adjacent San Pablo Lytton Casino.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lochner |first=Tom |date=September 8, 2017 |title=Sale of bankrupt hospital to owner of San Pablo Lytton Casino pending |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/09/08/sale-of-bankrupt-hospital-to-owner-of-san-pablo-lytton-casino-pending/ |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=East Bay Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Facilities== In 2005, Doctors Medical Center employed 1,100 people and was the primary radiation and cardiac center in the area. It also provided cancer treatment, obstetrics (until 2006), and burn care.<ref name="woe" /> At the time, it offered the only full service emergency room in west Contra Costa County, receiving 41,000 patients annually,<ref name="parcel"/> so its financial instability was of significant public interest.<ref name="state" /><ref name="rally">[https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Staff-Rallies-For-Hospital-in-Richmond-Patient-2994039.php Staff Rallies for Hospital in Richmond], Suzanne Espinosa Solis, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 01-09-1998, access date 23-03-2012</ref>

The site, when open, was accessible by AC Transit bus lines that connected it with local BART and Amtrak stations.<ref>[http://www.actransit.org/pdf/maps/version_17/city_map.pdf AC Transit system map]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ACTransit.com, 2012, access date 04-02-2012</ref> It had a heliport in front of the main entrance.<ref name=":1">[https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=37.937285,-122.360283&spn=0.004189,0.006212&t=h&z=17&om=1 Google maps], 2000 Vale Road, San Pablo, CA 94806, access date 24-04-2012</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629165449/http://www.doctorsmedicalcenter.org/ Official website (archived)] * [http://gis.oshpd.ca.gov/atlas/places/facility/106070904 This hospital in the CA Healthcare Atlas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202183912/http://gis.oshpd.ca.gov/atlas/places/facility/106070904 |date=2015-02-02 }} A project by OSHPD

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Category:Hospital buildings completed in 1954 Category:San Pablo, California Category:Hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area Category:1948 establishments in California Category:Hospitals in Contra Costa County, California