Residents fear new hospital may cut services

From Volume 2, Number 1 Published August 1, 2001
What do Burlingame residents want to see in a new Peninsula Hospital?

Judging by the comments made during two recent 'focus group' sessions organized by the Peninsula Health Care District, residents are anxious to retain many important services and to restore some that have been discontinued , including a 24-hour trauma center , when the new hospital is constructed.

The focus groups, which are sounding boards for public opinion, involved private meetings between district consultants and 10 residents at each session, and were held during the week of January 8. However, the district will publicly unveil the first architectural plans of the large project during an open meeting on Wednesday, January 17, at 7 p.m. in Millbrae City Council Chambers.

Because of stricter seismic regulations by the State of California, the existing hospital on El Camino Real will be torn down and replaced by a new complex within the next five years. Right now the hospital is on public land but is operated by Mills-Peninsula Health Services, which is an affiliate of Sutter Health, a private regional health system with hospitals throughout the Bay Area.

It was clear from the focus groups that some residents suspect Sutter Health will pursue a policy of concentrating certain treatments at regionally designated hospitals, thereby forcing patients to drive long distances. And, indeed, the consultants offered leading questions intended to ascertain how far people would be willing to travel to get a 'higher quality' of treatment.

After the focus groups, some participants said they were so concerned that Sutter intends to decrease the level of care in Burlingame that the public might be better off pushing for a ballot initiative to fund the project entirely with tax dollars, thereby retaining local control. Such an initiative would have to address what entity, if not Sutter - would manage the hospital.

Residents who participated in the focus groups made these recommendations

• The hospital should have 24-hour 'walk-in' emergency services and patients should not be required to wait more than one hour for medical attention.
• A trauma care unit should be reactivated to serve all of San Mateo County. Peninsula is the closest hospital to San Francisco International Airport and therefore should be positioned to handle any catastrophic event there.
• The existing birthing center at Peninsula should not be moved to another hospital.
• The hospital should retain a minimum of three major insurance carriers, thus allowing the maximum number of residents to access services there.
• Senior citizens should have a referral and information center to speed up their access to treatment and medicines.
• Nurses should be given a bigger say in how the hospital in managed, since they are the most familiar with operational and staffing challenges.
• Peninsula should bring back in-patient rehabilitation services, which currently are located on the Mills campus.
• While the hospital doesn't need to have the top specialists in each major field of medicine, it should have the most important diagnostic and treatment services, as well as a system for referring patients to specialists.
• The existing blood bank, located on the hospital grounds, should be retained.
• More local doctors should be given access to the hospital.
• The hospital should be a 'good neighbor' by scaling down or relocating a planned parking structure, and by retaining a significant percentage of open space on the 30-plus acres of land controlled by the district.

There will be an informational town meeting on Wednesday, January 17th at 7 pm at the Millbrae City Hall Council Chambers, 621 Magnolia Ave. in Millbrae. For more information please contact The Peninsula Health Care District at 650-696-6450.