The Tulare Local Healthcare District plans to obtain a request to seek proposals from various healthcare organizations interested in partnering with the district to reopen Tulare (Calif.) Regional Medical Center, which closed last October, according to The Porterville Recorder.
The request for proposals will be on the agenda during district officials' meeting May 23.
The district has been in conversation with Fresno, Calif.-based nonprofit Community Medical Centers about reopening the hospital since October 2017. However, officials are seeking out other potential options, according to the report.
The hospital closed a few weeks after declaring bankruptcy in September 2017. The Tulare Regional Medical Center board of directors — to which members are elected by voters in the district — voted at the time to voluntarily suspend the 112-bed hospital's acute care for one year. The suspension expires in October.
"The disaster that struck the community has been devastating to the hospital's operations and finances, and requires sizeable funds to reopen," said Tulare Regional Medical Center Board President Kevin Northcraft. "On the positive side, a well-researched financial analysis shows that the hospital will be fully self-sustaining with a badly needed financial jump start."
The Porterville Recorder reports the California State Assembly is considering funding the hospital's reopening, and is working on a $22 million grant to give to the hospital as part of the state's fiscal budget. The grant proposal is expected to move out of an assembly subcommittee by the end of the month.
The district's decision to seek proposals from other healthcare organizations comes roughly one month after FBI agents and the Tulare County district attorney's office seized several electronic devices and documents during a raid of the former Tulare Regional Medical Center CEO's home.