Tri-City Medical Center directors are set to undertake one of the most important decisions on the facility’s history Thursday as they consider partnership proposals from Sharp HealthCare and UC San Diego Health.
Struggling with financial losses that have plagued many health care providers, the Oceanside hospital recently suspended its labor and delivery department and requested proposals from integrated health care systems able to help it regain stability and find a sustainable path toward future growth.
Both proposals, which members of the public can read in the Oct. 26 board agenda file posted at tricitymed.org, would transfer district assets to a new legal entity that would also assume millions in existing debt.
Sharp’s proposal is for a 30-year lease similar to the one it already has with the Grossmont Healthcare District to operate Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa. UC San Diego proposes creating a joint powers authority with Tri-City rather than pursuing a lease.
Jeff Scott, an attorney for Tri-City who specializes in health care district law, said that a particular section of California Health and Safety Code governs leases with private nonprofit companies such as Sharp, but “in looking at a transaction with another public agency,” such as UC San Diego, a joint powers agreement is a better fit.
A Tri-City official confirmed Tuesday that a lease such as is proposed by Sharp would require a majority vote of residents in the organization’s three-city health care district to move forward while creating a joint powers agreement with the University of California would not.
Both proposals commit to operating Tri-City’s as a full-service hospital, to keeping existing workforce in place as much as possible and to investing in new capital projects.
Sharp indicates that it would undertake a master site plan with the input of the Tri-City board to determine how future upgrades to the hospital should unfold. UCSD says it would pursue existing plans to decommission the two oldest patient towers at the hospital and replace them with a “modern South Tower as the face of the medical center,” facing nearby highway 78.
Sharp and UCSD also mention using the Tri-City district’s ability to levy general obligation bonds to help pay for future improvements.
Both organizations also say they would create new governing boards for Tri-City with a majority of appointed members but also with some membership from the elected board that runs the Tri-City Healthcare District.
Sharp declined to say more about its proposal Tuesday, indicating that its presentation to the Tri-City board Thursday would be the public’s first chance to learn deeper particulars.
Patricia Maysent, UC San Diego Health’s chief executive, said in a recent interview that she believes the proposal represents a significant opportunity for both organizations.
“We believe that, with the right kinds of investments that we can create, it will be a huge service to the community and will serve everybody,” Maysent said, adding that she is committed to bringing back labor and delivery as quickly as possible.
Already, she said, many patients are traveling from coastal North County to UCSD Jacobs Medical Center in La Jolla. There are opportunities, she said, to convince many who now travel that they can go to Tri-City instead.
Sharp is the larger of the two organizations, operating hospitals in San Diego, Chula Vista, Coronado and La Mesa in addition to Sharp Health Plan which, according to its presentation, has more than 148,000 members including its own employees.
UC San Diego operates the region’s only NCI-designated cancer center and engages in academic medicine, which includes the training of doctors educated at the UCSD School of Medicine.
Both organizations have affiliated doctors working in North County, though both have thus far concentrated the bulk of their resources further south in metro San Diego.
The public is encouraged to comment at Thursday’s meeting, at which the Tri-City board may pick a partner or decide that it needs more time to come to a decision. Proceedings start at 3:30 p.m. in the hospital’s lower-level assembly rooms, 4002 Vista Way. The meeting will also be available by Zoom video conference with a link listed in the meeting agenda.
