Ven-Mar Neighborhood Association

Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital to remain Open! (4-8-03)

Article in April 8, 2003, LA Times

Company to Keep Hospital Open

By Lisa Richardson, LA Times Staff Writer

Tenet Healthcare Corp. reversed its decision to close Daniel Freeman
Marina Hospital today, acknowledging that widespread community
support for the facility had convinced officials to keep it open.

Although the hospital has long been underused -- an average of 44
beds out of 169 are occupied daily -- Daniel Freeman Chief Executive
Harris Koenig said he hopes the keen opposition to the closing will
develop into higher use of the hospital. Tenet has made an open-ended
commitment to running the hospital, which is on Lincoln Boulevard
next to Marina del Rey.

Tenet bought the Freeman Marina Hospital and the larger Freeman
Memorial Hospital in Inglewood from Carondelet Health System in St.
Louis in December 2001. Six months later, the company announced that
it would close the Marina hospital, noting that it was losing $2
million a month.

The decision was met with outrage. Community groups, local health
officials, labor leaders and elected officials charged that Tenet had
made the decision without seeking widespread public input, as was
required by the conditions of its purchase of the hospitals.

A lawsuit by the state attorney general's office blocked Tenet from
closing the hospital until it launched an extensive community
outreach program. That suit was settled last week, with Tenet
agreeing to pay $100,000 to the state for the cost of the suit and
donating $400,000 to charity.

The last eight months of public meetings and outreach allowed Tenet
to rethink the decision, Koenig said.

"Having some more time to look at this and include the input was
helpful," he said. "I think the circumstances that we were faced with
were dire and we needed to make decisions that weren't accepted well.
But having some additional time means we're in a position now to move
forward."

Some advocates who fought to keep the hospital open greeted Tenet's
decision with a muted sense of victory. "I'm very pleased that they
have listened carefully to the many voices in the community that are
concerned about the future of the hospital. I only hope they will
keep it open," said Leslie Bennett, staff attorney for Consumers
Union. Bennett said there could be questions about whether Tenet had
sought community input in good faith before announcing the hospital
would close, "but I suppose some might say that's water under the
bridge."
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Footnote by AU:
Our thanks and congratulations go out to community activist Julie Inouye who organized a coalition to keep the hospital open. Without her work, the hospital would have been closed last year.