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Hazel Hawkins Hospital has a long and storied history in the County of San Benito. It was conceived of in 1902 by Thomas Hawkins as his granddaughter Hazel lay dying of appendicitis and the nearest hospital that could save her was two days travel to the south in the direction of Monterey. Five years later his vision was realized and the hospital opened its doors on Monterey Street in Hollister. It was initially funded through private donations and the fees charged to patients for its services. In 1957 an entity called a district was created to support the hospital and it became a quasi-public institution with a publicly elected board of directors. This primarily allowed the hospital to raise money through local taxes.
Over the years the hospital has struggled financially. The cost of operating a full blown hospital with all of the advanced equipment and staff is extremely high. Determined to keep the hospital open and up to date, in 2005 a group of private citizens got together and put Measure L on the ballot to raise money to support the hospital. The effort was very successful and raised enough money to expand the facilities and purchase modern equipment such as an MRI (about 1 million dollars at the time) etc.
Eventually the money ran out and through the unwavering dedication from a small handful of people the Hospital Foundation worked tirelessly to bring in donations from private citizens and philanthropic foundations such as the Packard Foundation to keep the facility afloat.
Over the years however with the ever rising cost of health care, the ability of regional hospitals such as Hazel Hawkins to remain solvent has become almost unmanageable. Regional hospitals are hospitals that serve relatively small, isolated populations such as Hollister and generally do not offer highly profitable services such as voluntary cosmetic surgery and advanced cardiac care. Regional hospitals are primarily dedicated to serving the immediate needs of the population and are not necessarily oriented to maximize their profitability.
In the past 24 months almost 200 regional hospitals in the United States have either filed for bankruptcy protection or closed down altogether. This is largely due to the fact that the reimbursement rate for services covered by private insurance, medicare, and medi-cal are always lagging woefully behind the actual costs of delivering medical care.
To combat this trend, regional hospitals have been consolidating into groups to control costs by consolidating expenses such as billing, inventory control, and regulatory reporting and compliance. In addition, a group of hospitals has the power to negotiate more favorable reimbursement rates from insurance companies than regional hospitals operations in isolation do.
It is for these reasons that Hazel Hawkins is seeking to join the Insight group of hospitals. Entrance into this group will allow the hospital to survive into the future and continue to serve the needs of our community. The alternative is to reduce services over time instead of expanding them and to continue to raise money through county wide measures which come in the form of taxes which nobody looks forward to.
Our family as well as many others have helped to support the hospital for decades and I would urge you to please support Measure X. For reasons that I don’t understand there is a group with no background or understanding of the complexities of healthcare who oppose the measure. The alternative is bleak and is sadly destined to fail as has been demonstrated throughout the country in the closure of regional hospitals. Please support Measure X.