It has been just over two years since the Pajaro Valley Health Care District acquired Watsonville Community Hospital and returned it to public ownership for the first time in decades. But that didn’t happen by accident and in many ways, it’s a miracle the hospital is still operating at all.
In 2021, the hospital’s then-private ownership group declared bankruptcy after years of financial hardship, raising the very real possibility that the South County health care hub could fold for good and reduce the number of hospital’s in a county of 270,000 residents to just one.
A grassroots fundraising campaign was quickly organized and in less than six months, it collected $65.5 million dollars from more than 450 donors that was used to purchase the hospital and save it from dissolution. This happened in conjunction with an effort from lawmakers in Sacramento who fast-tracked legislation establishing the health care district so it could ultimately assume ownership of the hospital after the purchase had been made.
Two years on from what local officials called “the largest community fundraising campaign in the history of Santa Cruz County” Talk of the Bay Host PK Hattis was joined in-studio by Tony Nunez, chair of the health care district’s board, and Watsonville Hospital CEO Steven Grey.
Together they reflected on the historic fundraising effort that saved the hospital, talked about what the hospital needs to become financially sustainable and discussed the important role it plays in bringing a measure of health care equity to a county that has plenty of room for improvement
