The City of Santa Clarita’s Transitional Care Unit Task Force, along with Golden State Manor Assisted Living, announced they are looking into an old medical building in Saugus to serve as a transitional care unit for recovering Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital patients.

Closed more than 25 years ago, the Hillside Community Hospital on Golden Triangle Road would be converted into an interim care unit for elderly and infirm patients after hospitalization.

Since September 2006, the task force has been attempting to address alternatives to the planned closure of the nursing facility. 

Twenty-nine of Henry Mayo’s 56 beds were changed to acute care beds two years ago.  Hospital official believe remaining beds need to be converted to better serve the community's acute-care needs.  Acute care includes inpatient surgery, observation and intensive care.

The transitional care unit provides nursing care to patients, often elderly, who no longer need immediate care but are not ready to return home.

The Sylmar-based company, formerly known as Astoria Terrace Retirement Residence, is trying to buy the old Hillside Community Hospital on Golden Triangle Road. 

The soonest the hospital beds could be converted to the new site would be late 2007.  If the company succeeds in purchasing the old medical building, the City would fast-track its permits to accommodate the needs of Newhall Hospital’s transitional care unit patients.

The Task Force is made up of approximately 20 community leaders including representatives from Henry Mayo Hospital, the City of Santa Clarita, the Senior Center, business community and physicians.