After four years of echoing halls and deteriorating offices, the
old Saint Louise medical office building
– now called DePaul Health Center – is enjoying new life. And
Morgan Hill is enjoying access to doctors, therapists and medical
services lacking for those four years.
After four years of echoing halls and deteriorating offices, the old Saint Louise medical office building – now called DePaul Health Center – is enjoying new life. And Morgan Hill is enjoying access to doctors, therapists and medical services lacking for those four years.
An impressive 70 percent of the available space is occupied or reserved in the medical office building at Cochrane Road and Highway 101. The list of specialties is wide and varied and plans for an urgent care center at the former hospital next door proceed. Also, the community room in the hospital building is again available for public use and there’s a promise of more to come.
This miracle of rebirth is due to the grit and determination of City Council members – especially Hedy Chang and Dennis Kennedy, members of the community who formed the health foundation and, of critical importance, the Daughters of Charity who own the building and who put the professional staff of O’Connor Hospital on the job.
Joe Mueller heads up the Morgan Hill Community Health Foundation, which begged, borrowed and thought about stealing the funds needed to lure doctors and services back to town after the Daughters closed the hospital in 1999 and moved to Gilroy. Most of Morgan Hill’s doctors went with them.
The council endured years of lawsuits by San Jose Christian College, which wanted to install its religious school in the building. Council refused to rezone the property and the college fought – and lost – all the way to the State Supreme Court and the Federal Appeals Court. Just last week the college announced that it was abandoning plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Even local businessmen are willing to give the health center a chance at success. Robert Eves, president of Venture Corp., is developing a medical building in the Morgan Hill Ranch Business Park where doctors and services will own their own space. He had an MRI facility and an out-patient surgical center lined up but put those plans on hold to give DePaul a chance to get them first.
MRI and surgery centers are big money makers in the health industry and DePaul planned for them to underwrite its less remunerative services.
This is a big success, a boon for all Morgan Hill. Now all that needs to happen is for Morgan Hill to pick up the phone and make an appointment.
