Madera Community Hospital's new CEO lays out vision and goals

MADERA COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- It's a new chapter for the Madera Community Hospital.

Work is being done around the facility to get its doors ready to reopen, from the floors to the paint on the walls and even new concrete outside the building.

"Really, if you can see it or touch it, we're trying to upgrade it and make a new and improved Madera Community Hospital," newly appointed CEO Steve Stark said.

Stark was announced as Madera Community Hospital's new CEO in August. Action News spoke with Stark about his goals and vision is for the hospital.

"We've got a large facility and we do a lot of services. We're bringing on new services, we need to maximize everyone of those services," Stark said. "If it's something we don't do a lot of or don't do really well, that's okay. Let's create partnerships with other area hospitals."

Stark recently served as regional CEO of three hospitals that are also managed by American Advanced Management.

In January of 2023, the hospital shut its doors after the hospital filed for bankruptcy in December 2022.

Now, the focus is to get the empty hospital taking care of patients.

"We're going to support the full-on ER. We used to have over 40,000 visits a year," Stark said. "We expect that volume to quickly get back to that number. We also want to have the ability to admit as many patients who need in-patient care as we can."

Stark adds they want to expand their primary care network and are trying to figure out a way to bring back labor and delivery care.

The hospital is also in the process of hiring staff.

"We want to recruit highly trained professionals that produce very high-quality care, and we want to do it affordably but also create a financial model that will help sustain operations at Madera Community Hospital for the next 50 years," Stark said.

The hospital hopes to reopen before the end of the year.

"There's a lot of weight on this, and I'm excited that we're able to a new and improved Madera Community Hospital that's going to be a real beacon of hope for Madera," Stark said.

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