Wilma Chan Brokers Deal To Save San Leandro Hospital

Photo credit: Tim Holmes

It was all smiles outside San Leandro Hospital Tuesday afternoon as years of discord came to a happy ending thanks a deal brokered by Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan.

Under its terms, Sutter Health will donate the hospital, plus all its equipment and grounds, to the Alameda County Healthcare System -- along with a $22 million subsidy to help the county take over operation of the facility.

Dr. Vin Sawhney was on hand representing the Eden Township Healthcare District, which had owned the hospital before a long tangle of events ended with its takeover by Sutter Health and a lawsuit that the District lost.

Still unresolved is the amount of financial damages that Eden Township will have to pay Sutter for being on the losing end of that case.

Sawhney told Patch Tuesday that all the players understand that whatever money the District ends up having to pay would go not to Sutter, but to the county as a further subsidy to help San Leandro Hospital get back on its feet.

As the hastily-called press conference broke up, Wright Lassiter III, chief executive of Alameda County Health System, discussed details of the transfer with George Bischalaney, chief executive of San Leandro Hospital and Sutter's local representative.

"We did it because it was the right thing to do," Bischalaney said of the deal.

City officials and activists who had campaigned to keep the hospital open were on hand including Mayor Stephen Cassidy, Vice Mayor Michael Gregory, Councilwoman Diana Souza, Councilman Jim Prola and Mia Ousley of the Committe to Save San Leandro Hospital.

"Wilma Chan's work was extraordinary," Cassidy said. "Our deal was dead, but she persisted, sustained it, and moved it forward."

Lisa Cysewski LeFavre, a nurse at the hospital' called the deal "truly a happy miracle.

The settlement came at the end of literally years of twists and turns that included pressure on the Alameda County Healthcare System to vacate some facilities on Fairmont Drive and relocate to the San Leandro Hospital site, possibly minus its emergency room -- a pressure that State Senator Ellen Corbett, a former San Leandro mayor, relieved with the passage of legislation giving the county more time to maneuver.

"It was an amazing push by the community to will this hospital open," Corbett said Tuesday.

But insiders say it was Chan who kept the negotiations on track and brought the parties together in a deal so good that details began to leak out earlier this week.

For her part Chan cited the constancy of community support and Sutter's willingness to negotiate as the ingredients for success.

"Everybody wanted to get past the rancor," Chan said.

What do you think about the deal?