Redwood Coast / North Bay

CENTRAL VALLEY: San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties are cutting services due to budget constraints. San Luis Obispo’s 2025-26 budget cuts crisis intervention services, and Santa Barbara County’s cuts clinic and specialty care clinic services for people with unsatisfactory immigration status. Hospitals in San Luis Obispo are already seeing additional pressure to compensate, as patients’ needs remain constant even if funding is no longer...

CENTRAL VALLEY: In mid-September, Hospital Council convened community benefit leaders from hospitals in Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings counties to explore the potential enhanced collective impact of coordinating grant-making efforts around access to health care and food, with a focus on reducing food insecurity in the region. The group will meet again in late October...

CENTRAL VALLEY: Hospitals are working collaboratively with the Kern County Public Health Department to address the region’s ambulance patient offload time (APOT), which was 50:32 according to the Emergency Medical Services Authority’s (EMSA’s) latest report. To help reduce APOTs, hospitals with emergency departments are encouraged to register for EMSA’s “APOT Audit Tool” and begin conducting...

CENTRAL VALLEY: In late August, Hospital Council met with Rep. Adam Gray (D-Merced) to discuss hospitals and health care in the Central Valley, including the ongoing Central Valley Health Care Landscape Analysis. Rep. Gray expressed a desire to host follow-up meetings with state health leaders focusing specifically on the Central Valley’s health needs.