Doctors Medical Center

Doctors Medical Center San Pablo Campus
Hospital (From Vale Road)
Geography
Location	2000 Vale Road, San Pablo, California, United States
History
Founded	1954
Links
Website	doctorsmedicalcenter.org
Lists	Hospitals in California

Doctors Medical Center (originally Brookside Hospital) was an eight-story creekside hospital in San Pablo, California. It was the only cardiac/STEMI, stroke, and cancer center in Contra Costa County. The health facility once employed 1,100 people. The hospital has been described as the "backbone" of the community of 250,000 people between that is bordered by Vallejo to the north and Berkeley to the south. The West Contra Costa Healthcare District board voted on 26 March 2015 to close the facility in April. The hospital closed on April 21, 2015.

The hospital opened in 1948 when the community voted to create a special government district around the concept of building a modern hospital known as the West Contra Costa Healthcare District. In 1954 Brookside Hospital opened its doors and at a later time Tenet HealthSystems took over administration from the district. In 1997 the hospital was forced to receive nearly all the ambulance arrival emergency patients for west county as a result of a federal shut down of Kaiser Richmond. In 2004 Tenet dropped their contract and the hospital began to suffer from financial woes.

The hospital was bailed out through several state loan, county funding, and ballot measure schemes throughout the 2000s decade as it struggled to remain open. The hospital is also struggling to secure funding necessary to retrofit and modernize to meet the state's strict earthquake proofing building standards.

In 2006 the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved $20 million of funds to be handed over to the hospital. This deal came with the condition of heightened county scrutiny over the medical center's bookkeeping. Half came from the county's emergency reserves and half from county administered federal Medicaid funds. This deal permitted the center to continue ambulance services.

In 2011, a mail-only special election ballot measure, measure J was approved by 74% of the voters and will cost $47 per parcel annually as long as the facility remains open. The measure was supported by the local chambers of commerce and the local tax payer's advocate group even abstained from having a position on the matter. It is projected to raise approximately $5 million annually.