The Pajaro Valley Health Care District board will vote Wednesday on whether to ask voters to support a $105 million bond measure to help Watsonville Community Hospital buy the hospital buildings and the land they sit on and to help fund health care services.
The district currently pays about $4 million a year to lease the land from Alabama-based investment firm Medical Properties Trust. Hospital leaders say that for the long-term sustainability of the district, the board needs to buy out its landlords, at a purchase price expected to be about $40 million.
If a majority of the board approves the resolution to pursue the bond measure at Wednesday’s meeting, the board will seek to put it on the March 5 ballot.
“It’s crucial and critical that we get this passed,” said board chair John Friel. “We’ve been very fortunate having a lot of support from the community and we believe they’ll step up and support us again — knowing that just purchasing the hospital as we did a year or so ago was not the only step that we needed to take for long-term sustainability.”
The district needs more than two-thirds of voters to approve the measure in order for it to pass.
In a survey of 400 voters in the Pajaro Valley Health Care District, 75.5% said they would vote yes on a bond measure to support Watsonville Community Hospital and 2.5% said they were leaning in that direction. Within the health care district’s boundaries, 42,286 registered voters reside in Santa Cruz County and 4,443 registered voters reside in Monterey County, for a total of 46,729.
In addition to the $40 million to buy the hospital’s land, Friel said the remaining $65 million raised through a bond would go toward both the hospital’s operations and infrastructure improvements.
While Friel said all the specifics aren’t yet public, the board compiled a list of items that brought it to the $105 million estimate. He said generally, the district would use the money to fund projects already in the works, such as a new cardiac catheterization lab, as well as new projects like doubling the size of the emergency department — which could result in 10 new beds.
The hospital also hopes to purchase a new computer system.
“The computer system that the hospital has is pretty antiquated and needs to be brought up to date,” he said.
Friel added that if the resolution is approved at Wednesday’s meeting, a board committee will continue to clarify what the bond money will be used for so the public will be aware prior to voting in March.
The district’s board meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the hospital’s Kathleen King Community Room, located at 85 Nielson St. in Watsonville. The public can also attend the meeting here via Zoom or by phone at (669) 900-9128, webinar ID 934 4306 1917.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.