NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

August 9, 2002

CONTACT:

Lark Galloway-Gilliam, Community Health Councils, Inc., (323) 295-9372

Patrick Burns, West Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance, (323) 789-7920

Julie Inouye, Save Our Marina Hospital Coalition, (310) 306-1487

Terry Conner, Villa Marina Council, Inc. of Marina del Rey, (310) 820-2461

Maura Kealey, Service Employees International Union, (818) 785-7220

Nancy Solomon, California Women’s Law Center, (213) 637-9900

Leslie Bennett, Consumers Union, (415) 431-6747

COMMUNITY GROUPS AND ADVOCATES FILE AMICUS BRIEF

IN ATTORNEY GENERAL’s case against tenet TO STAY CLOSURE OF

DANIEL FREEMAN MARINA DEL REY HOSPITAL

Community Says Tenet Failed To Conduct Comprehensive Planning Process to Address Community Health Needs After Purchasing Hospitals.

LOS ANGELES, CA – Community and consumer advocates today filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in Los Angeles Superior Court, supporting Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s motion for an injunction against Tenet Healthcare Corporation to stay its planned closure of Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital. The Attorney General filed the injunction on July 16, 2002 on the grounds that Tenet failed to comply with conditions imposed on the sale Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood and Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey completed in December 2001.

As part of the purchase agreement, Tenet was required to initiate a “comprehensive assessment and planning process to determine the operating and capital needs of the hospitals” within 90 days of the sale. That process was supposed to include “at a minimum” representation from “medical staffs, community leaders and elected officials.” Tenet was supposed to initiate the process before March 8, 2002, but the community groups charge that it failed to do so.

Instead, Tenet announced on May 29, 2002 that it was going to stop taking elective admissions and procedures the next day and would close the Marina Hospital on or before August 26, 2002. One week later, Tenet changed that closure schedule and announced that it would accept only emergency room admissions and surgeries from July 4, 2002 until August 26, 2002. Then on June 18, 2002, Tenet announced that the emergency room would close on July 22, 2002.

Tenet told the Attorney General’s office that it had reviewed the “long-term viability” of Marina Hospital when deciding to close it. “I just can’t believe that Tenet thinks that there will not be enough people to use this hospital,” said Terry Conner, member of the Villa Marina Council, Inc. of Marina del Rey. “When the Playa Vista development is fully occupied there are going to be an estimated 43,000 more people living less than a mile and a half from the hospital. To close the hospital now is completely irresponsible.” Consumers Union’s West Coast Regional Office Staff Attorney Leslie Bennett added, “According to the data we obtained from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the Marina Hospital has shown increases in the number of patients, outpatient visits and emergency room visits from 1995 to 2000.”

“Tenet promised us repeatedly throughout this transaction that it would provide opportunity for public input in the planning process and we relied on those promises,” said Lark Galloway-Gilliam, Executive Director of Community Health Councils, Inc. “Tenet said that it would give the communities a chance to participate in the decision-making, but the decision to close the Marina Hospital was made behind closed doors.”

At public hearings in October and November 2001 held by the Attorney General, there was testimony from community groups and others about the concern that Tenet would close the Marina Hospital. “We suspected that the Marina Hospital was just a piece of real estate to Tenet,” said Patrick Burns, Organizing Coordinator of West Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance, “it is outrageous that Tenet could tell the Attorney General and the communities one thing and then 6 months later go back on its word.”

At a public hearing on July 17, 2002, the L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Commission heard from a standing-room only crowd and dozens of people waved Save Our Marina Hospital flyers. SOMH-Coalition was formed when Tenet first announced that Marina Hospital would close. It has a website, www.somh.org, providing information to the public and is made up of a variety of community groups including Vista del Mar Neighbors Association of Playa del Rey, Playa del Rey Network, Grassroots Venice Neighborhood Council, Del Rey Neighborhood Council, Mar Vista Neighborhood Council, Marina del Rey Sierra Club, and Hispanic American Allergy and Asthma Association. SOMH-Coalition Leader and Playa del Rey resident Julie Inouye said “Our members support the Attorney General holding Tenet to the promised conditions. The community simply wants Tenet to do what it said it would do.”

The matter is scheduled to be heard by Judge Dzintra Janavs on August 13th at 9:30 a.m. at the Los Angeles Superior Court at 111 North Hill Street.

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