Long Beach City Council takes over turnover of nearby hospital

By Dexter Bercero
Summer Forty-Niner

The Long Beach City Council voted unanimously to oversee the turnover of the Community Medical Center, located five minutes west of Cal State Long Beach, into municipal hands Tuesday night.

Voting took place after residents of east Long Beach, hospital staff members, physicians and union representatives voiced their complaints about Catholic Healthcare West, the hospital's owner.

Lorrie Merrill, a retired hospital worker and a resident of east Long Beach, lives near CSULB and expressed her concern about the proposed closure.

"It is vital to the public safety that we have a hospital, a good hospital on our side of town, because you never know when an emergency is going to come up," Merrill said. "You could be walking on campus and things might happen."

The takeover by the city gives time for the hospital to keep operating until another medical corporation decides to buy it.

Maura Kealey, union representative for Service Employees International Union Local 399, says that the City Council deserves a "thousand cheers" for negotiating with CHW.

"They have done a terrific job of negotiating against a very, very ruthless corporation which was intent on closing the hospital and throwing away the key, so that no one could operate the hospital there," Kealey said. "The workers are strong, the community is strong and the City Council has been terrific!"

Catholic Healthcare West bought Community in October 1998.  Since that time, there have been accusations of money mismanagement, illegal transfer of funds and services transferred to St. Mary Medical Center and Long Beach Memorial Hospital.   CHW planned to close the hospital on Oct. 2.

Kealey said that Catholic Healthcare West may have violated its charitable trust, and California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer may open an investigation into alleged violations of the San Francisco-based management company taking away assets from Community.

Kealey said, "Now we should not only win the battle, but also win the war.

"What could really make the difference in how the hospital could be run by a new operator is if CHW restores the assets that they have stolen or moved out of the hospital," Kealey said.

A closure of the medical center will affect Cal State University Long Beach students who mainly come from out of state or from another country.

Daryl David, an emergency room technician at the medical center, said that many employees have already sacrificed their sick leave to keep the hospital running.  David also says the center has taken care of about a thousand CSULB students from the dorms in the past year.

Despite the City Council's decision to keep the hospital running, Catholic Healthcare West has already started to inventory medical equipment and furniture to sell or move to other hospitals.

"Five people dressed in scrub tops who looked like employees came in and took pictures of equipment and furniture of each room and inventoried each item that they wanted, tagged with a sticker that they intend to take," David said.

Cardiologist James Tran says that Community Medical Center is a great place for CSULB student nurses to learn since it is not that far from campus.

"Long Beach Community Hospital has been responsible for teaching about a thousand student nurses from CSULB for the past 10 to 15 years," Tran said. "It would be a shame if CSULB nurses have to go elsewhere."

"One thing I can say about our hospital as an employee is that we are going down with the ship, we are staying strong and we're not going to give up," Daryl David said. "Even if CHW closes us on October 2nd, we're going to keep on fighting because we are a family."