Community Regional Medical Center Image via CRMC Facebook page

Update: This version clarifies Valley Children’s lease at Community Regional Medical Center.

Both Community Regional Medical Center in Downtown Fresno and Clovis Community Medical Center will begin to sunset specialty pediatric care services over the next six months, according to a statement from Community Health System.

Valley Children’s Hospital has signed a lease on clinic space at Community Regional Medical Center and will begin exploring opportunities to provide pediatric outpatient services downtown early next year. The shift will enable Community Health System to maintain its primary focus on adult services.

Community Health System officials said the continued expansion of Valley Children’s quality pediatric care has allowed both hospitals the opportunity to work closely and coordinate all levels of care for children in the Valley.

Valley Children’s Healthcare is committed to ensuring continued access to pediatric specialty care in the Central Valley, said Valley Children’s Spokesperson Zara Arboleda. 

“We are working closely with impacted families and their primary care physicians who want to move their child’s care to Valley Children’s as Community Health System transitions away from operating its pediatric outpatient clinics,” she said.

Valley Children’s and Community Health System will continue to work with patients and their primary care providers/pediatricians to secure referrals to new facilities for specialty treatment. Many services currently offered by Community Health Systems are available at Valley Children’s Hospital, which operates both tertiary and quaternary level care — it is equipped to handle some of the most serious and rare pediatric cases.

Valley Children’s will work closely with parents of patients who transition their services to the hospital.

The decision for Community Health System to move away from specialty care is due to financial challenges, including federal and state health care spending cuts that have forced the hospital to make difficult decisions, according to the statement.

“We constantly evaluate the mix of individuals we serve, patient care trends, and community health needs to help us determine how we can best invest in high priority healthcare services in our community,” said Danny Davis, division president of hospitals with Community Health System. “Making this decision, although difficult, allows us to better focus our resources in the areas of healthcare that Community is uniquely well suited to provide.”

Davis added that the capacity of other providers in the Valley has enabled the provider to commit to the difficult decision.

“The health of the children of the Central Valley continues to be important to us, but as we considered the healthcare landscape, we saw capacity for other providers to support this patient population,” Davis added.

In addition to affecting patients, Community Health will provide the opportunity for 18 clinicians and 44 team members affected by the sunsetting of the programs to transfer to other providers or other positions within the system, according to ABC30.