SANTA PAULA : Officials Kick Off $500,000 Funding Drive for Hospital

Officials with Santa Paula Memorial Hospital kicked off a $500,000 fund-raising campaign Friday, saying the amount is enough to assure the hospital’s survival for at least two years.

The campaign follows five years of mounting losses at the 60-bed hospital that provides the only emergency health care in the Santa Clara Valley, said William Ledbetter, who heads the “Crisis Campaign” fund-raising drive.

“I don’t like to be alarmist, but death is a possibility for this hospital if events don’t change,” Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter blamed a combination of factors for the hospital’s fiscal woes, including a rise in bad debts caused by the slow economy, cutbacks in government medical payments and a drop in patient admissions.

The hospital has cut hospital staff during the past two years and frozen salaries over the past 12 months, but still lost $1.1 million in the fiscal year that ended last March and is expected to lose about the same amount for the current fiscal year, he said.

The hospital received $24 million in revenues in the past fiscal year, but was running $1 million below that figure at the end of the current year’s third quarter, said Rulon Barlow, the hospital’s chief executive officer.

Referring to the financial troubles that forced Pleasant Valley Hospital to merge with the larger St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Ledbetter said the hospital’s directors want to raise funds while options still exist.

“We’re starting before the grim reaper is at the door,” he said.

Barlow said the hospital is seeking ways to reduce its costs, including the saving of up to $500,000 over five years by changing its malpractice insurance policy.

The hospital’s three-month fund-raising drive will approach residents of Santa Paula and Fillmore through personal solicitations and direct mail.