To: Board of Supervisors of Sonoma County
Department or Agency Name(s): Department of Health Services
Staff Name and Phone Number: Barbie Robinson, 565-7876
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Adopt a Gold resolution proclaiming May 2019 as Health Care District Month in Sonoma County. (Health Services)
End
Recommended Actions:
Adopt a resolution proclaiming May 2019 as Health Care District Month in Sonoma County.
Executive Summary:
This item requests that the Board adopt a resolution proclaiming May 2019 as Health Care District Month in Sonoma County. The following six health care districts currently serve Sonoma County: Cloverdale Health Care District, North Sonoma County Healthcare District, Palm Drive Health Care District, Petaluma Health Care District, Sonoma Valley Health Care District, and Coast Life Support District.
Discussion:
Shortly after the end of World War II, California faced a severe shortage of hospital beds. Many of the more rural and undeveloped areas of the state had almost no access to basic hospital and health care services. To respond to the inadequacy of acute care services in the non-urban areas of the state, the California legislature enacted the Local Hospital District Law in 1945 (§ 32000 et seq. of the Health and Safety Code). The intent was to give rural, low-income areas without ready access to hospital facilities a source of tax dollars that could be used to construct and operate community hospitals and health care institutions, and, in medically underserved areas, to recruit physicians and support their practices (e.g., subsidies, office space, equipment).
The Local Hospital District Law allowed communities to create a new governmental entity, independent of local and county jurisdictions, that had the power to impose property taxes, enter into contracts, purchase property, exercise the power of eminent domain, issue debt, hire staff, and so forth.
Typically, the process of creating a hospital district began with a group of citizens in a community or cluster of communities identifying the need for improved access to medical care. Boundaries for a proposed hospital district were usually based on the distance between the communities and the closest available acute care hospital services. Community leaders organized grassroots campaigns to gather support from the majority of residents in a designated area. That designated area could be within a county, near another underserved area in the county (districts do not need to encompass contiguous areas), or could overlap two counties. In fact, some current health care districts, such as Coast Life Support District, do cross county boundaries.
The first hospital districts were formed in 1946, with several more districts being formed in the late 1940s, and associated hospitals beginning to open in the early 1950s. In 1951, in a response to the needs of these new districts, a new trade organization, the Association of California Healthcare Districts, was formed. The Association of California Healthcare Districts' objective was to educate new hospital board members and provide a statewide forum for legislative advocacy. Today that group represents 66 of the 85 health care and hospital districts, both large and small, throughout the state.
Currently, California's 78 health care districts can be found throughout the state in both urban and rural settings and offering a variety of services including community grant making, chronic disease management education, senior services, ambulance services, primary care clinics, dental clinics, nutritional counseling, physical education, long term care/skilled nursing, senior housing, and acute hospital care. In many instances, health care districts are the sole source of health care in the community; serving as an integral part of the safety net for the state's uninsured/underinsured. In 1994, in recognition of the rapidly expanding role of hospital districts, the state legislature broadened the scope of activity of the districts and renamed the statute to its current reference, Local Health Care District Law.
The following six health care districts currently serve Sonoma County:
Cloverdale Health Care District
Cloverdale Health Care District is a local government entity, formed in 1958 by a vote of the greater Cloverdale area. The district provides emergency ambulance service to an 85 square mile response area, responding to over 900 calls for service per year. The Cloverdale Health Care District ambulance provides the only Paramedic level patient care in Northern Sonoma County and also provide services to parts of Southern Mendocino County. These services include pre-hospital critical care with transport to local and specialty hospitals based on the patient's care requirements. The district's team approach between their agency, other local responder agencies, and specialty hospitals allows them to diagnose and treat heart attack, stroke, and trauma patients at the scene and obtain rapid, appropriate services in a timely fashion to save lives and ensure quality of life. The district's focus is to provide essential services to a medically underserved area and to work in cooperation with and to help facilitate care among limited local services.
North Sonoma County Healthcare District
North Sonoma County Healthcare District, located in Healdsburg, was formed in 2001 and has operated the Healdsburg District Hospital (founded in 1905) since 2002. The North Sonoma County Healthcare District is mainly comprised of Windsor, Healdsburg, Geyserville, Cloverdale, and the surrounding areas, totaling approximately 60,000 residents.
Healdsburg District Hospital is a licensed 43-bed critical access hospital offering 24/7 emergency care with an average wait time of 15 minutes, and a broad spectrum of services including physical rehabilitation, joint replacement, wound care, behavioral health, primary care, and recently added pain management services and state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging. The hospital’s mission is to connect and deliver personalized high quality, accessible, local healthcare services, and advocate for the health and wellbeing of the communities in the District.
Palm Drive Health Care District
Palm Drive Health Care District, located in Sebastopol, was formed in April 2000. The District owns a 37-bed community hospital, Sonoma Specialty Hospital, which includes a physician-staffed Urgent Care Center that operates from 9am to 9pm, an operating room, critical care, and a medical surgical unit. The hospital has active research related to Alzheimer's and provides telemedicine services. The district serves approximately 40,000 people who live in western Sonoma County, including the communities of Sebastopol, Graton, Bodega Bay, Occidental, and Freestone. The District sponsors the Gravenstein Health Action Chapter and focuses on community services related to housing, seniors’ access to care, disaster planning, children from cradle to career, and behavioral health. Some of the health action programs the Chapter has implemented or helps support include the Sebastopol Teen Center, Map Your Neighborhood projects, nail care clinics for seniors, anti-bullying programs in high school, fall prevention program at the Senior Center, blood pressure screening at Farmers Markets and housing at Park Village.
Petaluma Health Care District
Petaluma Health Care District was established in 1946 and works to improve the health and well-being of Southern Sonoma county residents through leadership, advocacy, support, partnerships, and education. Petaluma Health Care District owns Petaluma Valley Hospital and leases hospital operations to St. Joseph's Health, ensuring access to local quality acute and emergency hospital services benefitting the community. Petaluma Health Care District serves as a community leader and local Health Action Chapter to support countywide efforts of identifying community health priorities and addressing the social determinants of health, inequities, and disparities that exist and impact the well-being of the community. The outstanding leadership of Petaluma Health Care District in improving the health and well-being of the people of Southern Sonoma County led to their being named 2015 Health Care District of the Year by the Association of California Healthcare Districts, and also being recently recertified as a HeartSafe Community.
Sonoma Valley Health Care District
Sonoma Valley Health Care District was formed in 1946 and operates Sonoma Valley Hospital, a 51-bed, full-service acute care hospital, located in the heart of the city of Sonoma and serving the 42,000 residents of the Sonoma Valley. The Hospital provides the Sonoma Valley with emergency services and a broad range of health care services, with medical treatment extending to all but the most specialized care. The hospital has undergone several renovations and expansions in recent years, including the addition of a new wing housing a modern Emergency Department and Surgery Center. Sonoma Valley Hospital affiliated with UCSF Health last year and recently unveiled plans for an Outpatient Diagnostic Center with state-of-the-art imaging equipment which will better serve the Sonoma Valley community and provide more convenient diagnostic access for UCSF Health’s North Bay patients.
Coast Life Support District
Coast Life Support District was formed in 1986 following special California state legislation and a local election to form a new multi-county agency. Coast Life Support District provides emergency medical services, including emergency ambulance and life support services and other health-related services to a specified area within Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. From the center of the district, the closest medical facilities with 24-hour emergency medical care are a minimum of 1.5-2 hours travel time traversing the coast highway. Due to the longest transports in California to tertiary care, district paramedics routinely provide more comprehensive stabilization and in-transport care than the standard protocols of their urban counterparts.
Coast Life Support District's mission is providing and promoting high quality healthcare services, facilities, emergency care and health education to all district residents and visitors. They work collaboratively with their community's Federally Qualified Health Center (one of only four non-hospital facilities designated by the California Emergency Medical Services as an Interim Stabilization and Triage Designation) allowing them to receive ambulance transports. A high percentage of these patients are treated and released locally, thereby minimizing unnecessary transports, avoiding additional clogging of already impacted emergency rooms, and allowing paramedics to stay in the area to be available for other emergencies.
Prior Board Actions:
Most recently, on May 8, 2018 the Board adopted a resolution proclaiming May 2018 as Health Care District Month in Sonoma County.
Fiscal Summary
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
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Attachments:
Resolution
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None