A North County hospital that is losing more than $20 million a year may soon close its doors after six decades of treating patients.
The board of directors for Palomar Health’s Downtown Escondido campus is expected to vote Wednesday on shutting down the facility, which has been on E. Valley Parkway since 1950. However, residents got a chance to weigh in on the decision Monday night at a public forum.
"The right thing to do and the right decision at the right time is to make the recommendation to the board of directors they should close the downtown campus," said Bob Hemker, the president and CEO of Palomar Health.
More than 8,000 patients were treated at the hospital last year, but it wasn’t enough to stop the operation from hemorrhaging money.
If closed, patients would be diverted to either the Pomerado Hospital in Poway – about 12 miles away -- or to the new Palomar Health Center on Citricado Parkway – roughly 11 miles away.
At the one and a half hour public meeting, several vocal nurses led the opposition, worried about staff layoffs and reduced services.
"I don't like the secrecy; I don't like the suddeness of it," said registered nurse Joyce Punton. "I think it's something that should've been announced earlier or we should've been given more time to think on it."
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The downtown Escondido location was built to increase the availability of hospital beds in the North County, among other reasons. However, a Palomar Health spokesperson told NBC 7 that none of their hospitals are operating at capacity right now, so closing the downtown campus would help increase efficiency.
However, the nurses said that if you cut beds, you could have longer emergency room wait times. The plan calls for increased use of urgent care facilities to make up for the loss of the downtown emergency room, as construction on the new Palomar Health Center is completed.
The move is expected to have an impact on businesses surrounding it.
“My business is insurance services, so I was planning on being close to the hospital,” said Ricardo Vazquez. “But thanks to this, if they close the hospital, I’m probably going to have to close before opening.
The Palomar spokesperson said keeping the facility open would cost more than $270 million over the next five years, which would include much needed structural upgrades.
“Well, I am not happy about that because the building is going to be empty, but at the same time, I can understand where the hospital is coming from,” said neighbor Mary Kluff.
