Watsonville Community Hospital has been up and running under its new leadership—the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District (PVHD)—since Sept. 1.
It has been business as usual since then.
On Monday, however, a group of state and local elected officials, along with the PVHD board and a sizable contingent of nurses and doctors, gathered in the hospital’s parking lot for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to ring in the new era of South County health care.
And to be sure, getting from looming bankruptcy and possible closure one year ago to new ownership and leadership was an accomplishment worthy of ceremony, said Board Secretary Jasmine Nájera.
“To see everyone be able to come together and work together across different sectors, across different communities, to see folks come together to support saving the hospital has been incredibly refreshing, and it gives me a ton of optimism and hope for our ability moving forward to ensure that we do have the right services in our Pajaro Valley for the community,” she said...
But that required forming a healthcare district, a process that takes state intervention and the approval of legislators in both the Assembly and Senate.
That came from Sen. John Laird, who authored Senate Bill 418, which made its way through the byzantine legislative process in a breakneck three weeks, when most bills can take seven months or more.
Find the full article here: https://pajaronian.com/failure-was-not-an-option-ceremony-rings-in-new-…