NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL EVENT

Impact Napa

Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 8-10:45 a.m., Napa Valley Marriott, Napa

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Petaluma surgeons suspending plans for surgery center

PETALUMA – The South Sonoma County Medical Group has suspended plans indefinitely for an ambulatory surgery center, the victim of the tightening credit environment, according to group President Bob Ostroff.

The ambulatory center “has been put on hold indefinitely due to tight credit,” he said in an e-mail. “The doctors who bought shares in the [project] received their money back with interest this week. We hope to resurrect this project when venture money becomes available again.”

The doctors announced plans to develop the ambulatory surgery center last year, forging a rift between the medical group and health care district officials who asked if the community had enough business to support both. Petaluma Health Care District board members pointed out that only about 110,000 people live in the district, and of those 40 percent to 45 percent are Kaiser members.

When the surgeons first proposed the plan, they asked the district’s Petaluma Valley Hospital to work collaboratively on a facility. But an agreement could not be reached. Texas-based Cirrus Health has worked with the doctors group on a location for the surgery center since August when officials said the business would open in less than a year.

Cirrus submitted a use-permit application for a site on Southpoint Boulevard near the hospital last fall but later suspended those plans for another location on North McDowell Boulevard near the Kohl’s shopping center.

The medical group is comprised of surgeons and specialists from Petaluma, Sebastopol, Sonoma and Marin County, of which about 20 or 30 participated in the ambulatory center project.

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