An agreement for the sale of the Regional Medical Center in Santa Clara County has been reached following months of concern about the area losing important trauma services.  

On Monday, the county announced an agreement to purchase Regional Medical Center from HCA Healthcare for $150 million. The acquisition will integrate RMC into the Santa Clara Valley Healthcare system. The deal, pending regulatory approvals, is expected to close on April 1 when the county will assume operations.

Once under County management, the hospital will restore Level II trauma care, which had been downgraded by HCA Healthcare in 2024. Level II trauma care includes 24-hour coverage by surgeons and specialists, according to the American Trauma Society. There will also be a phased reintroduction of cardiac and comprehensive stroke services. Labor and delivery services, which were discontinued in 2020, will also be reinstated at a future date. 

Regional Medical Center, a 258-bed facility, has served East San Jose for sixty years. Established in 1965, Regional Medical Center of San Jose provides a comprehensive range of medical services, including emergency, cardiovascular, neuroscience, and orthopedic care. Its care team includes over 1,000 employees and 500 physicians across 21 medical specialties. 

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.