New TGH Recommendation Would Keep Psych And Skilled Nursing Facility Open For Up To Three Years

Sonora, CA — This coming Tuesday the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on what the future will entail for Tuolumne General Hospital.

County Administrator Craig Pedro says unless some unlikely last minute state funding becomes available, his final recommendation to the Board will be to privatize the hospital with a few exceptions. Pedro is recommending that the Skilled Nursing Facility (Long Term Care Facility) and the Psych Unit remain open and operational for up to three years.

The Skilled Nursing Facility would continue with the specific purpose of seeking a community wide solution to the existing bed shortage in the community.

Pedro says the reason for keeping the Psych Unit open would be to provide time to develop regional partnerships for the placement of patients in out-of-county facilities, or find new funding to allow continuation of a unit within Tuolumne County. Pedro and his staff had called for closure of the Psych Unit in their preliminary recommendation to the Board as late as Tuesday of this week.

Under Pedro´s proposal, acute services (e.g. ER, OR, medical-surgical beds, ICU beds, ancillaries, etc.) at TGH would be discontinued and Sonora Regional Medical Center would be relied upon to provide such services. As for the Rural Health Clinic, it would be operated by a private provider. Pedro says this could include Sonora Regional, Tuolumne Me-Wuk Indian Health Center or the Mariposa-Amador-Calaverras-Tuolumne MACT Health Board, Inc. If the recommendation is approved, it would go into effect on July 1.

Pedro will be featured on Mother Lode Views this weekend on the Clarke Broadcasting Stations. The show will air Saturday at 10:30am and Sunday at 8:30am on AM 1450 KVML, Sunday at 9am on Star 92.7, and Sunday at 10am on 93.5 KKBN.

Written by BJ Hansen