Courtesy Gary Lenhart

Alameda Hospital lies tight along the Bay Shore in this circa 1950 photograph.

Last week, Alameda Hospital received word from Kaiser Permanente that the medical group will no longer provide operating-room services at the hospital.

Since 2003, Kaiser has been contracted to provide surgical services at Alameda Hospital while it has been expanding its own surgical facilities in the East Bay. Now that the expansions are complete, Kaiser has decided to discontinue its operations at Alameda Hospital. While the expansion was underway, Kaiser teamed up with Alameda Hospital to offer surgical services.

Kaiser has opened new facilities in Richmond and Oakland, completing three new operating rooms at its Richmond facility and opening a new medical office building in Oakland.

"Kaiser Permanente has advised us that they will be able to accommodate some outpatient surgery in the new facility on Broadway in Oakland. Other surgical cases will be accommodated at the Richmond and Oakland campuses." Alameda Hospital CEO, Deborah Stebbins said in a press release regarding Kaiser's departure.

Alameda Hospital will continue to treat Kaiser Permanente members in its emergency room and inpatient units. Though Kaiser's announcement does present financial and operational difficulties for the hospital, Stebbins says that she believes that Alameda Hospital is better positioned than ever to respond to this change in operations."

Kaiser will end its surgical procedures at Alameda Hospital on March 31, 2010, according to the release.

Alameda Hospital predates Kaiser, which is a child of the 1940s. Registered nurse Kate Creedon founded Alameda Hospital in 1894 as the Alameda Sanitarium. She converted a small house into a six-bed facility with an operating room - something that many considered a novelty.

Before Creedon's bold move, Alameda had no medical facility of any kind.

Over the years the hospital expanded into today's comprehensive, state-of-the-art, 135-bed facility that Alamedans use today.