CAMARILLO : Decision on Hospital Will Be Appealed

The Camarillo Health Care District board plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court this week to delay the merger of Pleasant Valley Hospital with an Oxnard medical center.

Health care district officials will ask the court to review a Ventura County Superior Court judge’s ruling against delaying the planned consolidation of the Camarillo hospital with St. John’s Regional Medical Center. The deal is scheduled to close Thursday.

The state Court of Appeal has refused to hear the health care district’s appeal of the decision by Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones. “To go to a higher court before you’ve even had a trial is unusual,” health care district board member Jim Jeffers said. “But we think we have a very sound basis for it because there would be irreparable damage to the community if this merger goes through.”

Pleasant Valley Hospital is the first hospital founded by one of the state’s taxpayer-funded health care districts that has proposed to merge with a private hospital, board members said.

“It’s never arisen before so it’s something we thought the Supreme Court should look at,” board member Gary Norris said.

Pleasant Valley Hospital, which is Camarillo’s only medical center, was founded by the health care district in 1974 and transferred to a newly formed nonprofit corporation in 1983.