Palo Alto Medical Foundation is getting local government approvals it needs to move forward on proposed hospital

As Palo Alto Medical Foundation closes in on approval from the City of San Carlos for its proposed hospital, the medical group is in discussions with various affiliates to merge into one company.
After three years of planning, San Carlos city officials are expected to approve PAMF's $325 million hospital in October, said Colette Meunier, PAMF hospital project manager for the City of San Carlos. She indicated anything could happen at a city council meeting that could derail the approval, but all city committees have already given their OK on the plan.
At the same time, the medical foundation is in discussions with its physicians to merge its two affiliates, and bring more than 700 physicians under one company.
Palo Alto Medical Foundation, with the support of Sutter Health, plans to build a 97 bed hospital in San Carlos near Interstate 101, one of the busiest freeways in the area that cuts through the core of Silicon Valley. With medical offices stretching from Santa Cruz to Dublin in the East Bay, officials at PAMF expect to recruit patients from all over the area.
Construction on the hospital is expected to start in 2009, and be completed by 2012. The project will be funded with operating revenue, bonds and philanthropy. The foundation has already raised $50 million for the project, said Ben Drew, spokesman for PAMF.
The medical foundation has two affiliates, Camino Medical Group in Mountain View, and Santa Cruz Medical Foundation. The combined operation has more than 700 physicians, and growing. "We are recruiting 50 to 60 physicians a year," Drew said.
Pulling the employees and physicians under one company will offer a variety of administrative efficiencies and could give the medical group a marketing advantage as one large entity, rather than three smaller organizations, Drew said.
Before anything can happen, the physicians need to approve the merger and that conversation can take a while, Drew said.
In the meantime, Palo Alto Medical Foundation is focused on getting all the government approvals necessary to start construction on its hospital. This will be the second new freestanding hospital in Silicon Valley. Kaiser Permanente opened its new hospital in Cupertino earlier this year.
The foundation still has to get permit approvals from various state departments during the next year. But city and county approvals are necessary before moving to the state level, Drew said.

Troy May is the editor of the Healthcare Journal. You can reach him at tmay@healthcarejournalnorcal.com

--By Troy May