Regional Medical Center of San Jose is closing its trauma center services later this year, NBC Bay Area learned Wednesday.
The hospital says it’s because not a lot of people are using it.
The news came as a shock for Melissa Gong, a nurse at Regional Medical Center as she believes losing the trauma center will impact people's lives. She said she found out about the news in an email Tuesday morning.
“If there is a major accident on Highway 101 or Interstate 280, we are the trauma center that patients are going to come to,” she said.
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But after Aug. 12, patients may have to look elsewhere. The closest trauma centers are at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Stanford Hospital.
“Bay Area traffic, we all know how it is. So, this could present a delay in care for some of our patients. It could be life or death,” Gong said.
Dr. Renee Hsia at UCSF also had an immediate reaction to the announcement.
"We know that for time-sensitive conditions, and trauma is the very top one of them, minutes mean saving lives, so this has huge implications,” she said.
Hsia led a study showing that injured patients living near a trauma center that have closed have higher odds of dying when they reach a hospital.
"We found that when you had a trauma center closure, and had to be driven further, your mortality increased by 21%,” she said.
A concern shared by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who said Regional's news caught him by surprise.
"We don't ever wanna see life-saving medical services cut, particularly in our lower income neighborhoods,” he said. “The fact that east side San Jose will have to travel farther to get to a trauma center is concerning."
The hospital also announced it will close its STEMI program.
“So, a STEMI is a 'ST-Elevation M.I.,'" Gong said. "These are basically patients who are having active heart attacks. And these are the patients when they come in, we rush them to the cath lab."
The hospital said it’s decision to close both the trauma center and the STEMI program is because the number of patients needing those services has been on the decline for several years.
On the upswing are the number of patients coming into the emergency room.
Big changes coming to a hospital many in East San Jose depend on and that have many people concerned.
“The patient population that we serve at Regional, it really caters to a certain population in East San Jose. These are patients with low literacy levels, low access to care and difficulty trusting healthcare professionals,” Gong said. "We are going to be fighting like hell to keep these services open to our patients."
Regional Medical Center spokesperson Carmella Gutierrez released the following statement to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday night:
"Regional Medical Center provides high-quality healthcare and improves human life, proudly serving the greater Santa Clara County community as a vital health partner. We continuously evaluate how we can best serve our community, based on the medical needs of our patients and the available healthcare resources in our community so that we can ensure a sustainable future.
After a rigorous assessment, the need for our emergency services has grown beyond our current capacity. Because of that we will invest $10 million this year to expand our Emergency Department increasing capacity to 63 from 43 beds. In addition, we have made the difficult decision to close our Trauma Center and STEMI programs. We’ll be working with the county to transition from comprehensive stroke to a primary stroke offering. This begins a process with required notifications and implementation of a phased operational plan with final closure dates to be determined later.
We are disappointed that we can no longer provide all the services that we had. We fully understand the impact these changes may have, yet they allow us to sustain care that aligns with the needs of our greater Santa Clara County community today and for the future.
We are working closely with all healthcare providers, first-responders and regulatory leaders to assure a smooth transition and that our community receives the care it needs. To be clear, we remain primary stroke ready. Like many Emergency Departments, we will triage, provide care and stabilize for transfer those walk-in patients with trauma, STEMI and stroke-related healthcare needs."
San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz also released the following statement Wednesday:
"The decision to close the Trauma Unit comes as a surprise, seeing that Regional Medical is renowned for its service to trauma victims. For me, it’s also personal as the Trauma Unit acted quickly in the past to save the lives of both of my brothers, and my mother this past year by coming to her aid as she suffered a heart attack. People like my mom would never have had a second chance.
I have deep concerns about how this will impact the residents of East San José, as many of our residents have chronic health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure and likewise struggle to acquire health coverage.
I look forward to working with leadership at Regional Medical, hospital management, impacted staff, and district residents on a positive path forward that prioritizes the well-being of our East Side families.”
