Modern acute care hospitals like Marin General Hospital that provide trauma centers are very complicated. The hospitals must be kept open and fully staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Sometimes they are very busy, and sometimes they are not, but there are few good ways of predicting the busiest times, or the mix of patients and problems that will present themselves. And this year all hospitals are also trying to figure out how to cope with the H1N1 flu virus, which could be similar to the fairly light flu seasons we saw over the last ten or twenty years – or it could become enormous. For these reasons and many more, running a hospital is a difficult and important job.

And who knows what changes national health care reform will bring? If any.

On June 30, 2010 the management of Marin General Hospital will be transferred from Sutter Health Corporation to the Marin Healthcare District Board. This decision for transfer was made by a court settlement signed by both parties. On July 1, 2010 the hospital will open its doors with a new set of managers. It is hoped that on that day the many highly competent patient care staff members who have worked at Marin General for years and are trusted by the Marin patients who have used the hospital will continue to be there to serve the patients who will need their help.

The Marin Healthcare District Board members are quietly and co-operatively moving ahead on plans for Sutter to transfer all aspects of the management of Marin General Hospital to Healthcare District management and control. They have hired an experienced Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer who both have decades of experience in large hospital organizations. Other management staff will be added as needed during the transition.

To supplement this tiny professional administrative staff the Healthcare District Board members are also working with nationally recognized hospital consulting firms on the many complex changes that will be involved in the transition from one management team to another. Among the multitude of functions that must change are information technology, billing, patient records, all contracts continuing past July 1, 2010, architects, short- and long-term funding during and after the transition period, by-laws and policies for the Board and for the Transition Advisory Committee. That Transition Advisory Committee is an appointed group made up of nine local Marin healthcare experts. After the transition they may become the day-to-day community operating group for the hospital.

The final transfer will take place on June 30, 2010. That date was chosen by Sutter for the turnover of the hospital. It was the latest date possible under the legal Settlement Agreement that the two parties had signed. Sutter chose to remain as long as possible.

Marin General is now running well under Sutter management. And outside the hospital building the District Board members and their small working staff are making steady progress and careful plans. They are moving toward the challenging and complicated June 30, 2010 transfer date, now only nine months away. And they are setting up foundations for successfully managing the hospital into the future.

Marin General Hospital will then become an independent free-standing community hospital operated by the Marin Healthcare District. It will remain in the same place, but under completely different management. Marin General Hospital will continue to serve the people of Marin. It will continue to be a fully staffed acute care hospital with a trauma center, located on Bon Aire Road in Greenbrae. With community support the hospital should survive and flourish – perhaps for another fifty years, or more.