Future of Medicine in Castro Valley Discussion This Weekend

Eden Medical Center CEO Shannon Thomas

With an estimated population of 199,000 people in Alameda County who are 65 and older, healthcare has been at the forefront of county and city planners' minds.

Eden Medical Center CEO Shannon Thomas is one of those focused on the future of health and medicine. She’ll be the guest speaker at the Castro Valley Library on Sunday, October 20, at 2 p.m. The talk is one in a series sponsored by CastroValleyCity.com. The cohort is a group of like-minded residents who hope to encourage others to support transforming Castro Valley from an unincorporated town in Alameda County into a full-fledged city. 

Ms. Thomas is scheduled to talk about the opportunities and needs of the medical community. Eden Medical Center (operated by Sutter Health) is the largest employer in Castro Valley.

“I’ll give an update on what Sutter Health is doing for the community and share some of our plans,” Thomas told the Forum. “We have a pretty robust growth plan for our entire system that covers pretty much all of Northern California, but I will get into what areas we’re going to be growing in in the Castro Valley area.” 

The Eden complex spans nearly 19 acres and includes the 130-bed hospital, nearby urgent care, and two doctor and outpatient offices that face each other on Lake Chabot Road. Thomas says the healthcare provider will soon invest in renovating those two offices in anticipation of a growing population in the next ten years. 

“There's going to be a bigger need in the future for medical care and for facilities to care for patients,” Thomas said. “As we plan for the future, we look at Castro Valley from a lens of how we are going to care for our patients and how we can ensure that we have easy access for them.” 

The hospital itself is a level 2 trauma center, something Thomas wants to maintain. 

“So, as we look at how the population shifts in our area, we are making sure that emergency crews on the street and in the air have access to our facility so they can get patients to our medical staff quickly,” she said.

As for weighing in on Castro Valley’s future as either a city or an unincorporated town, Thomas says Sutter and Eden Medical Center have no preference other than to ensure the residents in and around Castro Valley are provided with quality medical care. 

For more information on the speaker series, visit CastroValleyCity.com.