Doctors Brian and Maria Gilpin have left town, only nine months
after they were encouraged here by $30,000 in incentives from the
Morgan Hill Community Health Foundation and considerably more from
the Daughters of Charity who own Saint Louise Regional Hospital in
Gilroy. The Gilpins had signed a contract in August 2002 to stay in
town for three years.
Doctors Brian and Maria Gilpin have left town, only nine months after they were encouraged here by $30,000 in incentives from the Morgan Hill Community Health Foundation and considerably more from the Daughters of Charity who own Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy. The Gilpins had signed a contract in August 2002 to stay in town for three years.
Councilwoman Hedy Chang said she thought the couple was leaving because they did not have enough patients.
“Unfortunately they didn’t stay long enough to build up their business,” Chang said. “In about a year she (Dr. Maria) would have been very busy.”
The obstetrician/gynechologists came from Phoenix, where they were established physicians, to help reopen the Medical Office Building at the old Saint Louise Hospital at Cochrane Road and Hwy. 101. Their new office was the first positive result of an effort to replenish local medical services that had dwindled after the hospital relocated to Gilroy in 1999.
Many physicians, labs and clinics – including the only acute care in Morgan Hill – left town when the hospital closed.
The $30,000 were city funds provided to the MHCHF in their physician recruitment efforts. On Monday the Gilpin’s office message said the office was closed and would reopen on May 2 in Gilroy. Calls requesting to speak to the doctors were not returned.
Bill Brown, chair of the foundation, an attorney and a former councilman, said Monday that he could not comment on the Gilpins leaving or the possibility of legal action against them. He did say that SLRH gave them “substantially more than we did.”
“We’re excited to be here,” Maria Gilpin said last August when she opened the office with her husband, Brian.
The couple offered a full array of women’s health care from preventive or “well-care” including breast exams, pap smears, colon cancer screening, to gynecologic and laparoscopic surgery – sometimes referred to as “band-aid” surgery for its non-invasive method and quick patient recovery time – infertility and high-risk births.
The couple chose Morgan Hill after a nationwide search through the American College of Obstetrics’ relocation ads. The family includes three children.
Before moving to Morgan Hill, the Gilpins lived in a suburb of Phoenix.
Vivian Smith, information officer at SLRH said the Gilpins gave “appropriate notice” to the hospital, which she said is normally 30 days. The doctors will retain their hospital privileges and will be housed in an office in the medical building adjacent to the hospital.
“Saint Louise did play a (financial) part in their recruitment,” Smith said, but she said she was unable to release how much. The foundation and SLRH have said it takes at least $100,000 to recruit a physician and help them to establish an office.
The hospital still plans to keep the Medical Office Building in the former Saint Louise Hospital open from which the Gilpins were the only physicians operating.
“This won’t deter us from moving forward,” Smith said.
“It’s not going to slow our efforts though, obviously it’s a set back,” said Mayor Dennis Kennedy. “What it will take for the MOB to work is to get a group of physicians to come in. I’m very disappointed that it didn’t work out.”
A dedicated group of volunteers is in the midst of planning a high-profile fundraising dinner dance at CordeValle Country Club on May 31. It plans to raise the $75,000 needed by the foundation to match a similar amount provided by the city to help with physician recruitment.
Chang said she hoped the doctors leaving town would not affect the committee.
“We still need doctors in town,” she said. “The need is still there – as great as ever – even more so,” Chang said.
Councilman Steve Tate was also disappointed with the couple.
“They said they would stay and honor their obligation to the foundation,” he said. But he understood that they didn’t have enough business.
“You can’t force it down people’s throat,” Tate said.
