REEDLEY – As small hospitals across California struggle to stay open, Sierra Kings Health Care District and Adventist Health Reedley want to assure the community that their local hospital is not going anywhere.
At a lunchtime town hall on Sept. 23, Sierra Kings Health Care District (SKHCD) hosted representatives from Adventist Health for a discussion on the status and future of Reedley Hospital. District CEO Chinayera Black Hardaman said the event was purely proactive — nothing is wrong with the district or hospital — and was meant to keep people talking about the hospital’s critical role in the community.
“Reedley Hospital is important to the community; Sierra Kings understands that,” Black Hardaman said in an interview with the Mid Valley Times. “Today we just wanted to bring Adventist Health face-to-face with the community so the community can say to Adventist, ‘You guys are critical, and we want to sustain this,’ and Adventist can hear from our community and understand the commitment we’re looking for them to make.”
Adventist Health is, in fact, fully committed to sustaining its presence in the Reedley community, Operations Executive Tim Haydock told those at the town hall.
Commitment to Reedley
Haydock began his remarks by once again dispelling rumors that Adventist Health Reedley is at risk of closure. These concerns came from the facility’s inclusion on a list of rural hospitals that could be in jeopardy if changes to Medicaid passed, due to the hospitals either having three consecutive years of a negative profit margin or serving a high percentage of Medicaid beneficiaries.
The only data point that applies to the Reedley Hospital is that it serves a high percentage of Medicaid beneficiaries, Haydock said.
“Reedley does not lose money,” he said. “We’ve never been close to losing money in Reedley — it’s one of our strongest entities across all of Adventist Health, which is one of the largest health systems on the West Coast.”
Reedley Hospital Director of Nursing Jessica Gomez shared some of the ways in which Reedley is the highest performing hospital out of all 28 hospitals in the Adventist Health network. Reedley is in the top 10%, also referred to as the top decile, for multiple performance indicators, including patient experience, length of stay, readmission rates and mortality rates.
Gomez said Reedley is also working its way toward a goal of being in the top decile for safety. With a smaller population, even just one case of something like a fall in the hospital can impact the hospital’s safety indicator, she said, but Reedley should hit the top decile mark by the beginning of next year.
“We’re working really hard to make sure that we are providing the care that the people in our community and our surrounding communities deserve,” Gomez said.
Although Adventist Health has operated the Reedley Hospital since 2012, taking over from SKHCD, the health care district still owns the building and leases it to Adventist Health. The current lease is set to expire in 2029, and Adventist Health had the option to end it early in 2026.
Haydock said Adventist Health is so committed to Reedley it has waived its option to end its lease early — a statement that received a round of applause at the event. Further, Adventist Health and SKHCD are working together to enter into another long-term lease, keeping the hospital in Reedley for at least another 15 years, Black Hardaman said.
Black Hardaman also shared that state law requires the health care district to get voter approval of long-term leases, so SKHCD is looking to place an initiative on the ballot for the 2026 midterm elections. Black Hardaman said she wants to make it clear that the district is not asking for a tax increase or a bond measure; the initiative will solely be related to extending the lease with Adventist Health.
Earthquake-proofing Reedley Hospital
Alongside hosting an open discussion on the state of Reedley Hospital, Black Hardaman said SKHCD wanted to update the community on the work the district has to do to meet seismic compliance standards as mandated by Senate Bill 1953. Even though Reedley is in an area with low seismic activity, the hospital still has to ensure by 2030 that it can continue to operate in the event of an earthquake.
To meet these requirements, SKHCD has brought on consultant Amy Ford of A Ford Project Development, LLC, to work with the district and identify what exactly needs to be done to the hospital.
Ford explained that there are two categories of seismic compliance: one relating to the structural performance of the building itself, and one relating to non-structural elements, such as essential equipment and systems that allow the hospital to run. There are certain standards Reedley will have to meet for each of these, but Ford noted that they are less stringent than they would be for hospitals in areas with higher seismic activity like San Francisco and Los Angeles.
SKHCD is still in the beginning phases of reaching seismic compliance, and Ford said she is currently working to understand the hospital building better and analyze how much retrofitting will be required. Some areas of the hospital are already in compliance, and Ford said she hopes the retrofit will be minimal.
Ford said the ultimate goal of seismic compliance is to make sure that if there is a “little rumble” of an earthquake, the hospital stays in place and continues to operate.
“It’s not to be burdensome, it’s to make sure if there’s a major incident in this area, the hospital can continue to do what it does so well and provide care in the community,” Ford said.
Although the total scope of the project is not yet known to SKHCD, Black Hardaman said the SKHCD Board of Directors, under the leadership of former Board Chair Kathy Omachi, has been setting aside money in anticipation of this project. Unlike some district hospitals in the state, Black Hardaman said the Reedley Hospital is well-positioned to remain open past Dec. 31, 2029, the deadline for seismic compliance.
