Meet the Bidders

by Bruce Robinson

Both groups wanting to buy the hospital are large corporations

The two companies bidding to take over Santa Rosa's Community Hospital have more differences than similarities, but they are both major players on the health care scene in Northern California. Sutter Heath Systems, based in Sacramento, is a 72-year old not-for-profit corporation that owns 17 hospitals and 19 outpatient clinics in northern California. They also are the majority partner in Omni Healthcare, a health insurance provider, and are affiliated with seven large physicians groups including the 250 member North Coast Faculty Medical Group in Santa Rosa. A pending merger with California Healthcare System will make Sutter the second largest HMO in Northern California, after Kaiser Permanente. Although they do not currently control a facility in Sonoma County, Sutter already owns Novato Community Hospital and Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport. Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is not just the biggest hospital owner in the country, they are also the tenth largest employer in the United States. Nor is it limited to this country; Columbia also includes facilities in England and Switzerland among the 327 hospitals and 115 outpatient centers it operates. Those totals include two of Sonoma County's smallest hospitals, Palm Drive in Sebastopol, and Healdsburg General. Columbia recently acquired the four-hospital Good Samaritan Health Systems group in Santa Clara County, and is reportedly interested in Sonoma Valley and Petaluma Valley Hospitals in Sonoma County, where it must compete with local interests opposed to the large corporation. Just five years old, Columbia was launched in Texas in 1990 by Richard Scott, a lawyer with a background in corporate mergers and acquisitions, and has leapfrogged to the top of the heap in record time. A third potential suitor for Community Hospital, cross-town rival Memorial Hospital, which is owned by the Catholic non-profit Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange Corporation, dropped out of the bidding at the eleventh hour. Their letter of withdrawal to the county said only that Memorial was "unable to comply with the requirements" of the county's Request for Proposals. Some hospital observers believe it was the fiscal requirements that forced Memorial to drop out, leaving the field open to the two remaining, much larger contenders.

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