Voters’ support of bringing nonprofit Sharp HealthCare in to manage North San Diego County’s Tri-City Medical Center marks a new chapter in the Oceanside-based public medical district’s story.
As of June 4, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters reported that about 92% of voters supported Measure H to place the medical center under Sharp’s management. But how receptive were voters to the creation of what is today’s Tri-City Healthcare District in the first place?
According to reporting in the Encinitas Coast Dispatch published Dec. 26, 1957, just under 85% of participating voters in Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista approved creation of the district. Here is the full story:
Ballot Favors Hospital Unit Establishment
The Tri-City Hospital district, designed to serve an area including Carlsbad, Vista and Oceanside, was created by action of a strong majority of voters last week.
The vote was 5765 affirmative and 1044 negative, more than a 5-to-1 margin. Since there were 15,351 eligible voters, the turnout was light.
The action authorizes establishment of a hospital district with assessed valuation of 57 million dollars. Another election will be necessary to approve a bond issue for construction of a hospital and establishment of a tax rate.
Construction of a 100-bed hospital is proposed on a site between Oceanside-Carlsbad and Vista adjacent to State Highway 78.
The new Tri-City Hospital District is the fourth hospital district in the county.
Several months later, voters approved a bond for the building of Tri-City Hospital by nearly 94%, a rate similar to early returns for June 2’s transfer of management to Sharp HealthCare. Below is Coast Dispatch reporting published Aug. 21, 1958:
Tri-City Hospital Bond Issue Gets Big Support
Voters in the Tri-City Hospital district Tuesday approved by an overwhelming vote, 8467 to 558, a bond issue of $690,000 for construction of a hospital.
The election was called to approve a bond issue of $690,000 for construction of a 98-bed hospital to serve the Tri-City Hospital district incorporating Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista. The district was created at an earlier election.
The State Hospital Advisory council meeting in San Francisco two weeks ago approved a state and federal grant of $1,241,386 for participation in the hospital’s construction under the Burton-Hill Act. This district was placed second on the state’s priority list for aid funds when a 105-bed shortage in hospital facilities in the area was declared by the State Department of Public Health.
Voting was conducted in 22 polling places and about 18,500 residents were qualified to vote.
The district’s board of directors has negotiated with Sonja Henie, skating star, for a site on Highway 78 near Lomita Drive which would be less than a ten-minute drive from the most distant point in the district according to Gene Geil, board chairman.
Sixty-two civic and fraternal organizations endorsed the hospital plan and a vigorous campaign for approval of the bond issue was carried on.
Plans recently disclosed call for a three-story reinforced concrete building which would include modern medical and surgical departments, a 16-bed maternity ward, a nursery, laboratory facilities and an isolation ward. Construction would require 18 months.
The hospital opened June 30, 1961, according to the July 6, 1961, edition of the Coast Dispatch:
Tri-City Hospital Opened Formally
Four hundred persons attended exercises formally opening the Tri-City Hospital east of Oceanside last Friday.
The speaker was Dr. Omer Wheeler of Riverside, president-elect of the California Medical association, who said the hospital was the most modern in the state.
In celebration of the Encinitas Coast Dispatch’s 101st anniversary, the North Coast Current will occasionally share tidbits of local history from its pages. The North Coast Current is working to digitize the Coast Dispatch’s 1978-1998 archives through newspapers.com.
