FRHD considers land purchase

FALLBROOK – On Dec. 1, the Fallbrook Regional Health District held a special meeting to discuss the purchase of land in the district. The board met in closed session to discuss the matter and had no actions to report out to the public.

“We believe we’ve located a great investment for our community that would help us further address health disparities through preventative medicine and wellness,” said Bobbi Palmer, executive director of the Fallbrook Regional Health District. “Through this purchase, we could offer the community direct services in a variety of areas under one roof.”

In October, FRHD sold the former Fallbrook Hospital to private for-profit Crestwood Behavioral Health Inc. The $4.5 million sale will allow Crestwood to transform the vacant building at 624 East Elder into the Fallbrook Healing Center to deliver behavioral medicine and rehabilitation therapy.

The 50-year-old Fallbrook Hospital closed in November 2014 after soliciting proposals from more than 10 health systems in the region. Several more proposals and offers fell through in the years following as FRHD spent about $200,000 a year on basic maintenance and security of the building.

The Fallbrook Hospital was last managed under a 30-year lease agreement by Tennessee-based Community Health Systems. The company closed the hospital’s labor and delivery department in September 2014 and announced it planned to shutter emergency and intensive care departments in November of that year. CHS reported to shareholders it lost nearly $6 million operating Fallbrook Hospital in 2013 alone.

The project plans to break ground in the coming months and open in 2018.