Sale of ‘financially distressed’ Madera hospital to Saint Agnes’ operator OK’d. What’s next

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday announced he conditionally approved the sale of “financially distressed” Madera Community Hospital to the Trinity Health Corporation, which operates Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno.

In February, Saint Agnes confirmed to The Bee it was exploring a potential affiliation with the Madera hospital. Saint Agnes is a member of Trinity Health, a not-for-profit Catholic health system that operates 92 hospitals in 22 states. Saint Agnes’ footprint in the Fresno region includes the main hospital and 21 primary, specialty and urgent care clinics, as well joint ventures with Fresno Surgical Hospital, Summit Surgery and Renaissance Surgery Center.

Madera Community Hospital is a general acute care, private, not-for-profit hospital with 106 inpatient beds. The hospital has expanded since its opening in 1971 and offers a wide range of health care services, according to its website.

The hospital in Madera provides vital medical services to more than 150,000 residents in the city and surrounding communities, according to the Attorney General’s announcement.

The approval, according to the announcement, will ensure Madera residents continue to have access to critical emergency and surgical services.

“When it comes to accessing emergency healthcare, every minute counts,” Bonta said in the announcement. “Having a hospital in the neighborhood can make the difference between life and death for a patient. Maintaining access to critical healthcare for our communities is always our top priority.”

Saint Agnes officials said they just received the report of the sale, and once they were done reviewing it, they would be able to provide a comment to The Bee.

Trinity has committed to making certain investments under the terms of the sale. Those investments, according to the announcement, include $45 million for a new medical records system and seismic upgrades to the hospital facilities.

Trinity has also committed to spending $3 million per year on needed hospital investments, such as equipment upgrades.

Under the sale terms, Bonta has other requirements that include maintaining the hospital for five years, accepting price caps to ensure affordable care for Madera residents, ensuring continued certification of the hospital as a Medi-Cal and Medicare facility, providing charity care and financial assistance to patients, as well as, community benefits.

The hospital must also comply with nondiscriminatory rules, and provide emergency reproductive healthcare services, notice and information to the public about nonemergency reproductive healthcare not provided, as well as information about alternative licensed providers and transportation options, according to the announcement.

Madera residents are mostly low-income Latino families who live in rural areas, and many don’t have access to transportation to make the 30-minute drive to Fresno County, which is the next nearest area with access to care, according to the announcement.

The Madera hospital, the announcement says, also provides preventative and primary care services, treatment to chronic conditions and women’s and maternal health services.