Santa Clara County on Tuesday officially took over operations of San Jose’s Regional Medical Center. County leaders finalized a plan to purchase the center in early January at a cost of $150 million. The hospital and its prior operator HCA Healthcare endured drastic cutbacks over the years t o stay afloat and recently downgraded the hospital’s trauma care level. But many expressed that a top priority is to restore the trauma, stroke and heart attack services as soon as possible. “It’s a very densely populated area, and the downgrading of the Level II trauma center would have been a death sentence for the residents of East San Jose,” county Supervisor Betty Duong said in January. During a news conference Tuesday, the county announced it has returned the hospital’s status as a Level II trauma center and brought back vital stroke and STEMI care. It also announced labor and delivery care will return in the future. The county has been working to onboard the hospital’s employees to the county system, and has said it expects a smooth transition. Santa Clara County also operates Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, O’Connor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy. ...read more read less