'Absolute gift for our community': Adventist looking to utilize former Fremont Hospital for 'the most vulnerable populations'

Dec. 21—Since its closure in 2017, the former Fremont Hospital site in Yuba City has been dormant.

"In terms of questions from the public, this is probably one of the questions that council gets asked the most: What is gonna happen to the old hospital site? So it's very exciting to have a proposal from Adventist here," Yuba City City Manager Diana Langley said Tuesday night during a Yuba City City Council meeting.

Located on Plumas Street, north of Highway 20, this building owned by Adventist Health and Rideout has dealt with "significant issues with vandalism and individuals breaking into the building," according to the city, and as a result of its non-use, the overall condition of the building is declining.

To help solve this problem, including but not limited to the growing need in the Yuba-Sutter area to provide medical services to people such as those experiencing homelessness, officials with Adventist Health and Rideout want to establish a medical campus for "Project Hope," a program that is intended to "provide medically necessary services to the most vulnerable populations in the Yuba-Sutter community," the city said in a staff report.

On Tuesday, Ashten Phillips, system director for Adventist Health, was seeking a letter of support from the Yuba City City Council for a grant application that the company is preparing.

"Adventist Health and Rideout is proposing Fremont as the location to stand up a project that will provide a campus style suite of medically necessary services to our most vulnerable populations in the Yuba and Sutter community. The site must be able to sustain multiple beds for an array or different programs and service, along with providing space for significant staffing that will offer wrap around supportive services," Adventist Health said in a document submitted to the city. "... This initial build, construction, and outfitting of this campus style suite of medically necessary services will be possible through PATH Community Investment dollars and additional braided funding through BHCIP (Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program)."

Phillips said the project "has been a long time in the making." Partners involved in the project include the Health and Human Services Department for both Yuba and Sutter counties, Sutter Yuba Behavioral Health, the Sutter Yuba Homeless Consortium, managed Medi-Cal plans Anthem and California Health and Wellness, local law enforcement, The Salvation Army, and local health care providers and others.

Adventist Health said Project Hope is an "initiative to develop a one stop shop campus of medically necessary service where vulnerable individuals can come and receive wrap around services that will improve their quality of life."

Phillips described those vulnerable individuals as "seniors, persons with disabilities and those who are homeless." She said the services that would be provided at the former Fremont site also would help alleviate common issues at the main Adventist Health and Rideout Marysville campus.

"This will assist the hospital with wait times, with patient satisfaction and provide the appropriate service to connect individuals to care that they seek and care that they need," Phillips said. "... They will be additive services. Services that don't currently exist in our community but are so desperately needed."

Proposed components for Project Hope include: — Medical Recuperative Care: Short-term residential care for individuals who no longer require hospitalization but still need to heal from an injury/illness, including behavioral health conditions. — Short-Term Post-Hospitalization Housing: Provide members who do not have a residence and who have high medical or behavioral health needs with the opportunity to continue their recovery immediately after exiting an inpatient hospital. — Sobering: An alternative destination for individuals who are found to be publicly intoxicated (due to alcohol and/or other drugs) and would otherwise be transported to the emergency department or jail. — Housing Navigation: Assist Members with obtaining housing, assist with identifying, coordinating, securing housing, and provide tenancy and sustaining services, with a goal of maintaining safe and stable tenancy once housing is secured. — Medically Tailored Meals: Meals tailored to specific chronic conditions and health needs to overall improve the health of the client with support from a registered dietitian. — Day Habilitation: Designed to assist a client with acquiring, retaining, and improving self-help, socialization, and adaptive skills necessary to reside successfully in the person's environment. — Behavioral Health Urgent Care: Outpatient clinic for individuals experiencing behavioral health crisis and need help. Clinic would provide screenings, assessments, crisis intervention, referrals, and short-term treatment. — Crises Stabilization Unit: Provide services lasting less than 24 hours for a condition that requires a timelier response than a regular scheduled visit. Services include but are not limited to assessment, collateral coordination with other treatment providers, and therapy. Individuals experiencing behavioral health crises can stabilize prior to entering either sobering, medical recuperative care, inpatient behavioral health, or other. — Wellness Recovery Center/Temporary Housing: Understanding not all individuals requiring these supportive medical services will qualify or continue to qualify, there will be a component of temporary housing. This will be gender nondiscriminatory, low barrier, and additive to current available shelter beds in the region. These beds will be for those who are most vulnerable and medically unable to return to the streets or to a local shelter due to the need for items such as assisted devices including but not limited to wheelchairs and oxygen. This would be in transition from one of the other services on campus where wrap around services would continue including housing navigation, enhanced care management, and more.

Officials with Adventist Health also described "supporting space" that will be included in the Project Hope pilot program. These spaces include primary care, staff office and private office spaces; an outdoor area; a common area; and a conference room space.

In response, the council offered its letter of support.

"The City of Yuba City is pleased to provide this Letter of Support to Adventist Health and Rideout for the development of Project Hope as well as supports Adventist Health in their efforts to pursue grants such as Projects for Assistance in Transitions from Homelessness (PATH) and Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP). The City acknowledges that, although Adventist Health and Rideout is leading the initiative, Project Hope has broad-support from multiple community agencies and stakeholders," the council's letter states. "Project Hope will provide much needed services to the most vulnerable members of Yuba City and the surrounding community by offering a safe and compassionate place for individuals with social, clinical, or behavioral health conditions to find relief, recuperation, and restoration in a campus environment. A comprehensive suite of direct and wrap-around services will be provided. These services include Safe Sobering, Medical Recuperative Care, Short-Term Post-Hospitalization Housing, and Behavioral Health Urgent Care as well as an overnight Wellness Center, Housing Navigation, Day Habilitation, Enhanced Care Management, Peer support/Navigation, and Social Services."

In its letter of support, the city said the former Fremont Medical Center site located at 970 Plumas St. will "undergo renovations, improvements, and possible demolition of some existing structures on the property."

Phillips said this was the first step to making Project Hope a reality as Adventist does plan to have "additional conversations" with the community and others about what services ultimately can be offered at the site.

"We really support this project. This project that Adventist is proposing, it meets so many gaps," Johnny Burke, executive director of the Sutter Yuba Homeless Consortium, said.

Burke said several of the categories proposed within Project Hope could help hundreds, if not thousands, of homeless or near-homeless individuals each year who are in need of care.

"It's just an absolute gift for our community," Burke said. "It would be a gift for us to be able to provide additional services to those experiencing homelessness that are residents in our area."

The Yuba City City Council unanimously approved the letter of support.