FAIRFIELD — Solano County’s health care system continues to grow.
NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield in June unveiled a new $6.2 million operating room. Neurological surgeon Jeffrey Dembner recently joined the hospital and is performing surgeries on the brain and spine in this special operating room.
Meanwhile, Kaiser’s Vacaville hospital over the past year opened a helipad able to accept military-sized helicopters and completed some $10 million in improvements. Its Vacaville Medical Center was certified as a primary stroke center by The Joint Commission.
Both NorthBay and Kaiser Vacaville since late 2011 have been Level III trauma centers. That means they can treat the type of accident and violence victims who previously were taken by helicopter to out-of-county hospitals.
Solano County in October could award Level II trauma center status to one local hospital. NorthBay and Kaiser Permanente Vacaville are competing. Whichever hospital wins will be able to treat trauma victims with serious head injuries, who must currently be transported to other counties.
County Health and Social Services made its own recent contribution to changes in the local medical scene. In September 2012, it opened its $19 million William J. Carroll Government Center in Vacaville. The 36,864-square-foot building is designed to be a “one-stop” location for north county residents to get health and social services ranging from primary care to dental care.
Medical care in Solano County has come a long way since one the area’ s first hospitals opened in 1876 in the Tolenas area in a two-story, wooden building with barns, a water tower and wind mill nearby.
NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield has its origins in the late 1950s, when local doctors worked to establish the 32-bed Intercommunity Memorial Hospital. Fairfield was previously served by the 12-bed Bunny Hospital, which had become inadequate for a community enjoying a post-World War II growth boom.
Today, Intercommunity Memorial Hospital has become NorthBay Medical Center, with a 120-bed facility on B. Gale Wilson Boulevard. The NorthBay website says the center delivers more than 1,500 babies a year and has the most sophisticated service for premature or ill newborns within 50 miles.
In 1987, NorthBay opened a 50-bed VacaValley Hospital that since 2007 has included a $13 million emergency department and outpatient surgery center. The center in October 2012 celebrated its 25th anniversary. It also announced plans to build a “health village” with a fitness center, diabetes and endocrinology center and imaging center and a small conference center.
Kaiser Permanente has hospitals in Vacaville and Vallejo and medical offices in Fairfield and Vacaville. The Vallejo hospital was renovated in 2010 and has 267 beds. Kaiser in 2009 opened a 65-bed, $500 million Vacaville hospital, with room to keep adding beds and services.
Sutter Solano Medical Center has its roots in the Vallejo General Hospital, built in 1921. The hospital moved to its present location with 102 beds in 1969 and became affiliated with Sutter Health in 1984. Sutter also operates the Sutter Cancer Center in Vallejo. Sutter Regional Medical Foundation offices serve Fairfield, Vallejo, Vacaville and Rio Vista.
David Grant Medical Center opened in 1943 at Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base Hospital, which today is called Travis Air Force Base. The center in 1988 opened a $193 million facility that has 350 inpatient and 75 aeromedical staging flight beds. The Travis Air Force Base website calls the hospital “the Air Force Medical Service’s flagship medical treatment facility in the United States.”
Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646, ext. 232, or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beberlingdr.
