Silicon Valley hospital among best in the U.S. 5%
By Joyce Chu21%
8/6/2026, 8:30:50 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Overconfidence Bias, and Appeal to Emotion, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 8.8% saturation with 70 hits. Analysis detected 289 faulty-reasoning hits from 792 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 13.8% and a BS Rank of 5% (27,446 of 28,846 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 95.10% of the article peer group.
Dan Koski doesn’t know where he would be without the care of doctors, therapists and nurses at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s Rehabilitation Center.
An accident while swimming in the ocean this year caused a spinal injury that left Koski paralyzed in his arms and legs.
By a stroke of luck, he was admitted to the rehabilitation center, where under careful supervision and treatment, he gained movement in his limbs again.
He credits his progress to the skilled rehabilitation center staff at Valley Medical Center (VMC), which has been ranked No. 8 in the nation by U.S.
News & World Report.
It marks three years in a row the rehabilitation center has been in the top 10 best hospitals nationwide, despite deep federal cuts that have crippled some public hospitals.
“Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has been quite remarkable,” Koski, 46, told San José Spotlight.
“The nursing staff has been … so compassionate, like dear friends.”
The federal spending bill passed last summer stripped Medicaid funding, known as Medi-Cal in California, by $1 trillion over the next decade — the largest cut in the program’s history.
The cuts have caused Santa Clara County to lose $1 billion a year , requiring leaders to reduce services and shrink programs .
The rehabilitation center, which is part of the county’s public hospital system, continues to see a growing number of patients and referrals despite belt tightening.
The county hospital system is the only option for Silicon Valley’s low-income and uninsured patients.
Half of the system’s patients pay through Medi-Cal, and one in four of the county’s nearly 2 million residents are Medi-Cal enrollees.
The rest pay through a mix of other means and Medicare, a separate federal program serving patients 65 and older and patients of all ages with certain disabilities.
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Dr.
James Crew, chair of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at the hospital, said federal cuts have not resulted in cutting staff or downsizing the program.
But this year they are seeing more patients on a daily basis.
Last year, 900 patients received care at the center.
“I think we’ve just found ways to become more efficient with the staffing that we have,” Crew told San José Spotlight.
“Our team has done a fabulous job of maintaining quality outcomes while we’ve seen higher volume.”
Crew said it’s possible that the rehab center is seeing more Medi-Cal patients from other regions due to the strain the federal budget has put on hospitals, he said.
The rehabilitation center’s reputation draws patients from across the West Coast with complex injuries.
There are few surrounding counties that provide the same specialized care.
Crew surmises more patients have been referred to the hospital due to the quality of care and the specialty the center offers in treating spinal injuries.
“There just aren’t too many programs in the region that have the expertise within their teams to manage those patients,” Crew said.
“So we do see a lot of out of county referrals, and we really try our best to help those patients.”
The 64-bed rehabilitation center at VMC provides a full suite of services, including treating people with strokes, spinal cord injuries and brain damage.
It has been helping patients recover from neurological injuries since 1970.
The center has a gym with specialized equipment, and even rooms that simulate an apartment so that patients can regain the motor skills to cook and move around.
“The residents of Santa Clara County should be proud that their very own public hospital system has been recognized as having one of the best rehabilitation centers in the nation,” Santa Clara Valley Healthcare CEO Paul Lorenz told San José Spotlight.
“The professionals at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center handle complex and clinically challenging cases every day and deliver exceptional and compassionate care to each and every patient, without exception.”
VMC is one of four hospitals under the county’s healthcare umbrella, alongside Regional Medical Center , O’Connor and St.
Louise Regional hospitals.
Together, the county’s network of 15 clinics and four hospitals make up the second-largest county-owned public health system in the state.
“I don’t think the federal government has dictated to us what we’re going to do and how hard we’re going to try to get the best outcome for every patient,” Crew said.
“I think we’ve done a really good job of just sticking to that as our mission.”
Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.
The post Silicon Valley hospital among best in the U.S. appeared first on San José Spotlight .
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100%flagged-word coveragePaul Lorenz
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