Cuts coming to two South Bay hospitals

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- In Santa Clara County, employees at two hospitals are devastated after learning about planned cuts to patient services.

It's a tale of two medical facilities.

Both operated by the Daughters of Charity Health. Hospital officials tell ABC7 News this was the right move to make to keep the doors open for now.

Natalie Garza works in the ER at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose.

"It's really sad that people are going to lose their jobs here, you know, I have many friends here, that we work very closely together, you know, and we've worked hard to be where we're at," said Garza.

Hospital officials plan to cut the neonatal intensive care unit, and the physical therapy department, as well as reconfigure the pediatrics wing.

But the biggest impact, could come farther south at Saint Louise Regional in Gilroy where labor and delivery services will be phased out in the next three months. That will force families to drive to Hollister or San Jose to have their babies.

President and Chief Operating Officer James Dover points out that only two or three deliveries happen each day at Saint Louise, and that 60 percent of families in the area already go up to San Jose for these services.

Millions of dollars will be saved, but nurses will likely be on the chopping block, in addition to management layoffs.

"The goal is to get us back to financial breakeven. we need to be at financial breakeven, we can't continue to subsidize areas, at a time when we're getting ready to go through another round of bidding," said Dover.

The decision to cut back on services comes after a sale of the hospital chain fell through.

New prospective buyers are now waiting for their bids to be reviewed.