MODESTO BEE
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

By KEN CARLSON
BEE STAFF WRITER

Last Updated: November 15, 2005, 06:14:28 AM PST

Last month, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors voted to close its Scenic Drive health services complex and sell it. Tonight, staff will ask the board for the option of keeping some services there.
Closing the central Modesto campus — which has been the main medical complex for the county's Health Services Agency — was part of a three-year plan approved last month for slashing the agency's deficits, which have ranged from $6million to nearly $9 million a year.

The county intends to cut its losses through a 20 percent reduction in patient volumes. According to a county report released Friday, the cuts will result in elimination of 20 full-time staff positions in the clinics, ancillary services and administration, plus a "significant reduction" in part-time staff.

The county's chief executive office has been working out details of moving the heavily used services at the Scenic complex to the remaining county clinics. But staff is looking at another way of shrinking the system from seven to six clinic locations.

The staff's proposed plan discusses options for vacating the Scenic campus at County Center II entirely, or keeping some services there while vacating the Medical Arts Building at 17th and G streets.

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