Watsonville (Calif.) Community Hospital is looking for a health system partner, with a recent cyberattack contributing to its financial challenges, Lookout Santa Cruz (Calif.) reported.
The 106-bed hospital has been talking to organizations including Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health, Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health and San Francisco-based UCSF Health after tapping into its emergency fund because of the late 2024 IT outage caused by hackers, according to the Dec. 2 story. The cyberattack delayed claims processing for a hospital already struggling with Medicaid cuts and an increase in “no-shows” attributed to immigration fears.
“You … need a ‘rainy day’ fund or some emergency cash, and if you don’t have it, you have to just fund operations with debt,” hospital CEO Stephen Gray told the news outlet. “That’s what we’ve been dealing with over the last 12 months.”
Half of Watson Community’s hospitalists also quit after the cyberattack, causing the organization to lean on physicians from Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente for help, the publication reported.
