Local hospitals easily handle St. John's closure
Healthcare professionals, facilities are not overwhelmed by extra patients
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

Oxnard resident Carlos Anaya waited with a handful of people in the quiet emergency room at Camarillo's St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital last week.

Anaya's wife needed an outpatient procedure performed there because St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard had been closed for two weeks.

Despite the closure of one of the largest hospitals in Ventura County, Anaya said, the Camarillo ER wasn't busy. His wife was called in right away for her 9:30 appointment.

"They've been doing a pretty good job getting people right in," Anaya, 40, said.

St. John's was closed on Aug. 8 for mold fumigation. State regulators gave the go-ahead to reopen the 265-bed hospital last Friday.

Area hospital administrators said that planning and constant collaboration helped them meet patients' needs.

To keep their finger on the pulse of needs versus availability, administrators and emergency responders throughout the county met every week and were in continuous discussions every day throughout the closure.

Jerry Conway, president of St. John's Pleasant Valley, said that they saw an average of 125 patients a day, about 40 more than usual, since the closure. The Camarillo hospital prepared for an increase by opening a second eight-bed intensive care unit and additional outpatient and surgical rooms, he said.

"It's been very rewarding to see our plan work," Conway said. "The patients are very well cared for. They've always been."

Mike Ellingson, spokesperson for Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, said they added more admissions and emergency room doctors to accommodate the 30 to 40 more patients they've seen in the ER and in labor and delivery.

"Everything has been running very smoothly for us," Ellingson said.

At Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, however, president Jim Sherman said the closure had no impact on their patient load.

Located about 25 miles east of St. John's in Oxnard, the 265bed Los Robles prepared for a possible boost in patients, nonetheless, by having a pool of medical staff, including an extra emergency room physician, on standby, Sherman said.

"But the reality is we did not need to bring them in," Sherman said.