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Progressive Urgent Care Now Open in Sebastopol 7 days a week

Sonoma Specialty Hospital and Progressive Urgent Care invite you to join us in celebrating our Urgent Care facility which is now open, offering the same compassionate, personal, no-wait patient service the County’s only acute care hospital west of HWY 101 has long been known for.

Urgent Care will handle about 90% of past Emergency Room visits and accepts most insurance. A visit to this Urgent Care facility is much less expensive than a visit to an Emergency Room.

Progressive Urgent Care is enhanced by its access to traditional services offered by Sonoma Specialty’s acute care facility including:

Sonoma Specialty plans to open the first ever Long Term Acute Care in Sonoma County (one of only 5 in Northern California) once the certification is complete later this Spring.

Join us for a Grand Opening Reception Tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 13th 4PM - 7PM in the conference room atSonoma Specialty Hospital, 501 Petaluma Avenue in Sebastopol.

PLEASE VOTE! Curious about the March 5th special election? Palm Drive Health Care District has negotiated a lease/sale to AAMG* and now it is time for public to decide whether to approve it.

Town Hall Meetings

2/13/19 from 6-8PM: Sebastopol Community Center,390 Morris St. Sebastopol

2/18/19 from 6-8PM: Bodega Bay Grange,1370 Highway One, Bodega Bay

* DETAILS OF THE CONTRACT

Under the current management agreement, the District pays American Advanced Medical Group (AAMG) $100,000 a month to run Sebastopol’s hospital. AAMG has a 10-year management contract and the exclusive right to buy the hospital any time during that period.

The new contract approved by the Board on February 4 gives AAMG a two-year lease with option to buy the hospital, now named Sonoma Specialty Hospital. The lease can be renewed twice for two years each time, for a total of six years.

Instead of making lease payments to the District, worth an estimated $275,000 a month, AAMG will plow that money back into hospital maintenance, including deferred maintenance and day-to-day maintenance.

Under the lease part of the contract, AAMG assumes full responsibility for the hospital, and the District no longer has any responsibility to maintain it, buy new equipment or pay management fees to AAMG. The hospital license will be transferred to AAMG.

If AAMG buys the hospital within the first two years of the lease, as anticipated, it will pay $5.2 million for the hospital-- $4 million in cash and $1.2 million in a promissory note due at the end of 10 years.

If AAMG does not buy the hospital within the first two years of its lease, a new appraisal and a new sales price will be determined.

If AAMG keeps the hospital and an urgent care center open during the 10-year period of the promissory note, the note will be forgiven and AAMG does not have to pay the $1.2 million.

If AAMG closes the hospital or sells it within the 10-year period, the $1.2 million plus interest is immediately due and payable.

Assuming the hospital is sold within the first two years of the lease, the District will use the $4 million to pay off the General Obligation bonds issued in 2002 and secured by the hospital building and property.

That’s the smaller of the two taxes that are levied by the District and appear on property tax bills. That tax vanishes when the General Obligation bonds are paid off.

The remaining $15.2 million in outstanding hospital bonds would be refinanced, according to William Arnone, the District’s attorney. These bonds were sold to investors as tax-free because the hospital was a non-profit. Since AAMG is a for-profit company, the bonds must be refinanced as taxable bonds, Arnone said.

These bonds are represented by the $155 parcel tax that appears on property tax bills. That amount will not change with the sale of the hospital.

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