Beginning April 1, Seton Medical Center Coastside in Moss Beach, Calif., will temporarily close while structural repairs caused by storm damage are made.
Seton Medical Center Coastside is a 116-bed skilled nursing facility that operates a five-bed acute care facility and ED. Officials with the facility, which is owned by AHMC Healthcare, told local news outlets it will be closed for six to nine months.
"The decision to temporarily close the facility was made after a thorough assessment of the damages, which revealed the need for extensive repairs to the building's infrastructure," the medical center said in a statement earlier this month. "Seton Medical Center Coastside is working closely with local and state authorities, and construction teams to expedite the repair process and minimize disruption to services."
Throughout the closure, patients in need of emergency and acute care hospital services are being directed to Seton Medical Center in Daly City, about 13 miles north.
While the California Department of Public Health has approved temporary closure of the facility, local officials have raised concerns. On March 25, San Mateo County District Supervisor Ray Mueller called for an investigation into the closure and said that it may violate terms the state's attorney general set when it approved AHMC's purchase of Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside in 2020.
"My office has been denied access to the information that AHMC provided to the State Department of Public Health in support of its request for permission to close the emergency room," Mr. Mueller said in a news release. "This information is essential to understand whether the closure is justified and in light of its impact on our community's access to critical 24-hour emergency healthcare services."
AHMC has said "major repairs" are necessary after storm-related damage, and that it will reopen Seton Medical Center Coastside once all repairs are completed.