The Argonaut – September 5, 2002
Tenet reconsidering closure of Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital

BY CINDY FRAZIER

Community efforts to keep Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital from closing down may have led to saving the local hospital from closure.

After being ordered not to close the hospital as planned Monday, August 26th, hospital owner Tenet Healthcare Corporation has restored the hospital to full operational status and is "reassessing" its earlier decision to close the hospital, according to hospital chief executive officer Harris Koenig.

"We are conducting a reassessment of the closure and the decision to close," Koenig said Tuesday, September 3rd.

"We are getting other perspectives and looking at alternatives we didn't look at before."

The hospital is again admitting elective patients. The hospital turned such patients away after Wednesday, July 3rd, after beginning the shutdown process, Koenig said.

In addition, the hospital emergency room (ER) is again functioning without interruption, Koenig said.

Since the closure was announced in May, the hospital ER had been closing down intermittently due to staffing shortages.

The closure announcement led local activists to mount a lobbying campaign, including picketing and pressing local elected officials to act.

'RE-EVALUATING' -- Koenig added that Tenet officials are re-evaluating whether the aging hospital needs to be torn down and replaced in order to meet healthcare demands or whether the hospital can be maintained in its current form.

Koenig claims that 87 percent of the people in the Marina area who use hospitals have been going elsewhere for health care services.

"We are reassessing whether an upgrade of the Marina hospital would keep those people in the Marina," Koenig said.

'CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC' -- In addition, the healthcare firm is planning to hold two public meetings in the next month to solicit community comment about health care needs in the area and "how Tenet could participate" in meeting those needs, Koenig said.

"We are cautiously optimistic [about the hospital's future]," said Terry Conner, a Villa Marina area community leader who lives across Mindanao Way from the hospital and who has spearheaded efforts to halt the closure..

Conner said a recent meeting between his neighborhood group and Tenet was "encouraging."

The hospital was forced to remain open by attorney general Bill Lockyer, who filed suit to block the closure, alleging that Tenet had not complied with requirements for community input on the closure.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs granted Lockyer's request for a preliminary injunction Tuesday, August 13th, ordering the hospital to be restored to full staffing levels and to comply with Lockyer's requirements for community input.

Meanwhile, Tenet ‹ a Fortune 500 company ‹ has announced a $1 billion company-wide expansion plan, including upgrades of facilities the company owns in Southern California.

The firm said it would spend $7 million on upgrades at Daniel Freeman Memorial hospital in Inglewood, sister hospital to the Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital.

Both hospitals were purchased by Tenet in December and Tenet announced the closure of the Marina facility in May.

Under Lockyer's requirements, Tenet had agreed to keep the Inglewood facility open for five years, but there was no such agreement for the Marina area hospital.