Lake View’s Medical Staff Moves All but 8 Patients as Closing Nears

Staff members at Lake View Medical Center discharged or transferred all but eight patients to other hospitals Tuesday as officials moved to close the 145-bed facility.

Hospital administrator Jeff Hausler said more than 40 patients were moved out of the hospital.

He predicted that the remainder will be transferred today, ending all patient care at the 25-year-old hospital.

The nonprofit facility has served a largely low-income clientele from Lake View Terrace and Pacoima since it was founded in November, 1960, as Pacoima Memorial Hospital. The majority of its clients are Medi-Cal patients, hospital officials said.

The hospital has been in financial trouble for several years as competition from the San Fernando Valley’s 27 other hospitals increasingly siphoned off patients.

Chapter 11 Filing

In October, 1984, the hospital filed for protection from its creditors while it reorganized under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Those efforts failed, however, and the hospital’s board of directors voted Monday to cease operations and sell all assets in an effort to pay its debts.

Hausler said that, despite the closure, virtually all employees reported for work Tuesday and “pitched in with tremendous dedication to see that the patients are properly handled.”

He said the hospital has enough cash to pay all employees.

But Robert Tiernan, a spokesman for Local 399 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents most of the hospital’s 150 employees, said he was “not sure at all” that workers would be paid in full.

Union Surprised

He said the union, which represents employees whose jobs range from vocational nurses to housekeepers, was caught by surprise by Monday’s closure vote.

Tiernan said that, since Dallas-based Republic Health Corp. was hired in October, 1984, to manage the hospital, “there was a feeling that they would turn this thing around.”

He said a contract between the hospital and Local 399, signed last October, called for a 5.5% increase in wages the first year.

“But that followed a year in which we had agreed to freeze all wages,” Tiernan said.

Tiernan said the union is looking for jobs for Lake View’s workers at the 35 other hospitals in Los Angeles County where it represents employees. He predicted that many Lake View employees will find work at the new Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills.

Factors in Demise

Hausler said several factors contributed to the hospital’s demise.

“We weren’t getting enough patients,” he said. “We weren’t getting enough of the right kind of patients. The Medicare reimbursement system became too slow for our cash needs. There were troubles everywhere.”

He declined to provide up-to-date financial figures for the hospital.

In interviews a year ago, hospital officials said that the total debt was about $15 million and that the hospital had monthly operating expenses of $150,000.

Shortly after taking over, Republic officials laid off 50 employees to cut costs.