S.J. medical scene seeing big changes
Feb. 24--STOCKTON -- Dramatic changes are on the horizon for San Joaquin County's medical landscape. Health care is a dynamic industry and new developments are ramping up -- fast.
It's not a stretch to think that, a year from now, we could look back on 2013 as the year that kicked off the most monumental transformation in health care in the county since Dr. Christopher Grattan opened Stockton's first hospital in 1849. Consider these facts:
-- An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 indigent adult county residents, currently uninsured, will meet the criteria to receive Medi-Cal benefits beginning Jan. 1.
-- An additional 20,000 to 34,000 uninsured residents with slightly higher incomes will be eligible for private insurance through the state's new exchange called Covered California.
-- Construction of the nation's largest prison medical facility -- the 1,722-bed California Correctional Health Care Facility, Stockton -- in the southeast corner of the city will be completed in May, with the first inmates expected to arrive in July. It is expected to operate with a staff of more than 2,400 skilled workers in more than 160 job classifications.
-- Next door, the Dewitt Nelson Correctional Annex is being constructed with 1,133 beds for state inmates needing psychiatric care and supervision.
-- The proposed VA medical facility on 52 acres adjacent to San Joaquin General Hospital, providing a comprehensive outpatient clinic and 120-bed community living center for the region's veterans, is just waiting for Congress to appropriate funding before construction can begin.
-- 100-year-old Dameron Hospital is in serious negotiations to finalize its joint venture with Sacramento's University of California, Davis, Medical Center, potentially opening up access to a significantly higher level of care.
-- St. Joseph's Medical Center, the county's largest and oldest private hospital, is establishing a new partnership with UC San Francisco Medical Center's Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, bringing world-class, cutting-edge cancer care to the county.
-- San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, California's oldest public hospital founded in 1857, is expected to establish the county's first designated trauma center, a dream of many for decades that is finally coming true. It could save hundreds of lives each year and provide county residents with an entirely new level of care.
-- O'Connor Woods Senior Living in north Stockton, anticipating future needs, is investing $7 million on a Memory Care secured facility for residents with dementia, larger two-bedroom apartments to accommodate couples and an adult-day care unit for both residents and community members.
-- Sutter Gould Medical Foundation will build a new care center in Tracy capable of accommodating up to 30 physicians while Dignity Health Medical Group Stockton hopes to add at least a dozen new physicians to its group after assisting in recruiting 12 new doctors to the community in 2012.
"I think this is going to be a very exceptional year because of the implementation of health reform and the uncertainties that go along with that," said Ken Cohen, the county's director of health care services.
The impact of tens of thousands of newly insured patients, Cohen said, has yet to be felt. "We've never served that many people because the indigent population has only sought health care when they need it. Medi-Cal will be assigning people to physicians under managed care."
Typically, the uninsured poor who suffer from chronic ailments such as heart disease, asthma and diabetes let their problems fester until they are serious enough and then they seek the most expensive care available in a hospital emergency room. Millions of dollars are wasted that could have been saved if the patient's care was managed by a primary care physician and earlier, less expensive interventions were provided.
Many questions remain, though, about where those physicians will come from. San Joaquin County has a serious shortage of primary and specialty care doctors as well as other medical personnel that will only be compounded when the massive new state inmate health facility comes on line this summer.
That $900 million, 82-buildingfacility on 400 acres, with an estimated annual payroll of $220 million, will require registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, psychiatric technicians, phlebotomists, medical and pharmacy assistants, and therapists in addition to physicians, psychiatrists, correctional officers, and administrative and support staff. In total, it will create 2,800 full-time jobs -- all new to the community. (For job information, visit ChangingPrisonHealthcare.org.)
Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/goldeenblog.
Copyright 2013 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.
