Frequently Asked Questions
Regional Medical Center (RMC) is a 258-bed acute care hospital located in East San José at North Jackson Avenue and McKee Road. Bringing RMC into the County’s Santa Clara Valley Healthcare system will allow the County to ensure minimal disruption to trauma and other critical health services for residents of East San José; help the County avoid substantial added costs, pressure, and access challenges at the County’s other hospitals; and enable the County to better serve the entire community by integrating care at RMC with its existing comprehensive network of hospitals and clinics.
Earlier this month, HCA Healthcare, which owns RMC, downgraded the level of trauma, comprehensive stroke, and certain cardiac services at the hospital. These changes took effect on August 12, 2024. RMC is the only hospital in East San José, one of the highest need areas in our region. RMC has historically served about 2,450 trauma patients per year, which accounts for roughly one quarter of all trauma cases in Santa Clara County.
These service level changes at RMC are already creating a significant surge in trauma patient volume at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, the County’s Level I trauma center. This left the County with only two paths to ensure residents of East San José and throughout the broader county continue to have access to the emergency medical care they need: (1) making significant investments to expand care at our three current hospitals, including the costly construction of new and expanded facilities, or (2) purchasing RMC, to keep these services at their current location where the services are critically needed.
RMC serves a geographic area that includes some of the county’s most socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, with higher rates of chronic disease, trauma, and poverty. Residents living in the five zip codes immediately surrounding RMC are nearly twice as likely to lack health insurance compared with County residents overall.
The area around RMC is also one of the most diverse communities in our county. More than half of residents are Latino, 33% are Asian American, 11% are White, and 2.4% are African American. Seventy percent speak a language other than English at home.
Incorporating RMC into Santa Clara Valley Healthcare is directly aligned with the County’s mission of providing safety-net services for the entire community and expanding access to affordable health care. RMC will join a health system that includes three other local hospitals and 14 clinics, improving care coordination and streamlining access to the specialty and primary care services RMC patients need.
Key benefits of the County’s purchase of RMC include:
- Maintaining and expanding critical service lines for the benefit of the community, including Level II trauma, comprehensive stroke, and cardiac care, as well as ultimately bringing back labor and delivery services.
- Enhancing access for community members with the greatest need by integrating services with the County’s award-winning public hospital system.
- Maintaining excellent jobs and livelihoods for the highly valued healthcare providers and employees at RMC, their families, and the many businesses that work with the hospital.
- Avoiding significant costs the County would otherwise incur, including very costly facility expansions at our current hospitals to meet community need and “outside medical costs” paid to RMC for patients for whom the County pays for healthcare costs.
The County has been successful recently in obtaining approvals from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to receive reimbursement for the County’s response efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, largely based on services delivered to our community through Santa Clara Valley Healthcare. These one-time funds, anticipated to be received in the next few months, are appropriate to utilize to invest in acquiring RMC without negatively impacting the rest of the County budget. Additionally, the County is able to issue lease revenue bonds to finance the purchase of RMC, using RMC itself as the pledged collateral. The County Administration anticipates a combination of these two sources will be brought to the Board of Supervisors for approval to cover the purchase price without any negative impact on the County’s current budget or capital plan.
It is also important to understand that there is significant financial cost and risk to the County in not purchasing RMC. Recent changes in service lines at RMC would require surrounding hospitals, particularly Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC), to increase staffing and capacity to serve additional patients.
For example, SCVMC—the only other trauma center within 15 miles of RMC—has been experiencing a significant increase in trauma cases in recent months. For the period from February 2024 (when RMC first announced its plans to reduce trauma services) through July 2024, the number of trauma patients at SCVMC increased 25% compared with the same period from the prior year. In the first week after services were reduced at RMC in August 2024, the number of trauma patients at SCVMC jumped nearly 50% compared with an average week from the prior August.
Thus, if the County did not purchase RMC and restore services at that location, the County would need to invest in staffing, facility, and service expansions at SCVMC and elsewhere to care for the additional patient volumes, while patients in East San José would still face longer ambulance transport times and patients in hospitals throughout the county would face longer ER wait-times. By purchasing RMC, the County can avoid these impacts, while maintaining important services at RMC in East San José and build on the very significant facility investments that have been made at RMC in the last decade.
The County intends to ensure continuation of all services at RMC, including providing Level II Trauma services, stroke care, and specialized heart attack services (STEMI care). The County also plans to ultimately restore obstetrics, labor and delivery, and newborn care services, which were closed at RMC in 2020. As soon as the acquisition is complete and the County assumes operations at RMC (anticipated for the first quarter of 2025), the County will begin restoring services, although the exact timeline cannot be determined until the acquisition has been completed.
In the short term, nothing will change for RMC’s patients and the more than 1,600 employees who care for them, as they would continue to be employed by HCA while the purchase of the hospital by the County is finalized. Over the next several months, the County and HCA will work together to ensure a smooth and well-organized transition, including for current RMC staff. The County has committed to offering employment to all eligible employees at RMC, and because the County is a well-regarded and stable employer offering very competitive wages and benefits, we anticipate that most current RMC staff will decide to continue to work at RMC when it is operated by the County.
The County and HCA are now in the process of negotiating a purchase agreement, completing the “due diligence” process of the acquisition, and taking the steps necessary to obtain appropriate approvals to move forward with the transaction, which will take several months. The County hopes to be able to complete the transaction and assume operations at RMC in the first quarter of 2025. In the meantime, the County and HCA will work together to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption to health services for both community members and hospital employees.
Yes. The community’s input is critical to the County, and we look forward to community involvement throughout this transition. Just as with any significant County decision, several steps in the acquisition of RMC require formal Board approval at public Board meetings and there will be opportunity for residents to provide input to be considered during the Board’s public approval process.