Cassandra Lacondeguy vividly recalls the time when she first worked at Stockton’s Dameron Hospital. On some of those days in late 2019, she says, the patient population at Dameron was as low as 12, a tiny fraction of the hospital’s capacity of just more than 200.
“It was kind of like a ghost town,” recalled Lacondeguy, Dameron’s chief nursing officer.
Much more recently, though, there have been days when the hospital’s population has swelled to 100 or more patients in its three-story facility, Lacondeguy said.
But that was hardly the case at the end of 2024.
According to the hospital’s new operator, Modesto-based American Advanced Management, Dameron was in danger of shutting down after more than a century serving Stockton. If it had closed, the city and its more than 300,000 residents would have been left with only two hospitals.
But AAM had other ideas, and staff members say they have noticed significant improvements since the new operator’s arrival and began the process in December, 2024.
“When this company came in and took over the management aspect, I saw they were really trying to invest back into the hospital and the community,” said Amber Torres, a registered nurse who coordinates Dameron’s care for stroke patients. “This community really needs this hospital. That was very special to me. (American Advanced Management’s) vision really aligned with my values as far as wanting to take care of the community.”
Staff is benefiting, as well, according to Torres.
“I’m seeing there’s a lot more staff development, a lot more trying to grow the staff as far as giving educational opportunities,” Torres said. “Say you’re a telemetry nurse but you really want to learn about the (catheterization) lab, there’s a lot of opportunity here and a lot of encouragement.”
The goal, Torres said, is to create an environment that makes staff members want to remain at Dameron Hospital rather than looking elsewhere for new opportunities.
“They’re turning the staff from renters to owners,” Torres added. “If you invest in your employees, they will then invest into the patients and the families and the people around them.”
Dameron, located north of downtown Stockton, also put an emphasis on its Emergency Room services.
“The faster you’re seen by a provider, the faster you can get treatment,” Lacondeguy said.
Patients from rural areas also are benefiting from improvements at Dameron, said Amy Micheli, American Advanced Management’s chief operating officer.
“One of the issues with rural health now – the hospitals I run are in rural areas – is that no hospital is obligated to take your patients in transfer when they’re in rural care,” Micheli said. “So, a lot of times things that are advanced — like cardio-thoracic surgery, spinal surgery, those type of things — are out of touch for rural people.”
AAM operates 14 hospitals, nine of them in California. In its mission statement, the organization says that it seeks to preserve access to care in rural and urban communities by “revitalizing struggling hospitals.” At present, according to AAM officials, Dameron is the organization’s primary focus.
“Dameron is the one that’s most important to us right now,” Micheli said. “This is going to be our flagship hospital. It has the most services, it’s the one we are the most proud of, and actually one of the big reasons why we wanted a larger facility is because we can help more people.
Lacondeguy added, “Dameron is a hidden gem in the community. We have a lot invested in continuing to get better.”
