Eden Township Pledges Contribution To Hospital Rescue Effort

The Eden Township Healthcare District Board of Directors has voted unanimously to approve a third year of funding to join the Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) in maintaining Emergency Room Services at San Leandro Hospital (SLH).

The San Leandro City Council, as the third partner in the rescue attempt, recently approved a to shoulder some of the expense.

Any deal would need the approval of Sutter Health, which owns San Leandro Hospital. 

The Board of Directors voted to provide more than $250,000 in fiscal year 2013 and more than $500,000 in each of the two following fiscal years.

The Board could also release additional funds from District reserves with permission from the District’s lender, US Bank, which has outstanding loans of $48 million secured by the District’s assets and reserves.

Alameda County Medical Center has proposed taking over operations of San Leandro Hospital and maintaining the facility as an acute general hospital for the next two to five years. SLH’s current operator, Sutter Health, had previously planned with ACMC to convert the facility to rehabilitation services. 

Eden Township Healthcare District (ETHD) Board Chair, Carole Rogers, said, “We were the first agency to make a commitment and now we are increasing that commitment”.

Eden Township Healthcare District CEO, Dev Mahadevan, cautioned that District funding was contingent upon ETHD ending a pending legal action with Sutter Health stemming from a recently ended lawsuit between the District and Sutter concerning Sutter’s lease of SLH.

District officials said Sutter deserved great credit for maintaining full acute and emergency services at SLH during its dispute with the District over the last two years, and for giving ACMC time to pull together this rescue attempt.

“Sutter and ACMC’s efforts were now bearing fruit,” Mahadevan said.

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