Owner of 2 Valley Hospitals Defaults : Medical: Facilities in Sherman Oaks and Canoga Park are affected. The action jeopardizes the area’s only burn center.

Hurt by surplus hospital beds and other competitive pressures, the owner of two San Fernando Valley hospitals has defaulted on a $167-million state-guaranteed bond, raising concerns about the future of the Valley’s only burn center.

The Sherman Oaks Hospital, where the renowned burn center was used extensively to treat victims of the recent fires, and the smaller West Valley Hospital in Canoga Park are owned by Triad Healthcare Inc., a nonprofit company in Encino. Triad bought the two hospitals in 1991 from Nu-Med Inc., with bonds guaranteed by the state under a program to help development of health-care facilities.

But beginning in July, Triad failed to meet its monthly interest payment of $833,000, and is now behind more than $2.5 million. Officials at Cal-Mortgage Loan Insurance Division, the state agency that runs the bond insurance program, said there was no immediate threat to the people who bought those state bonds because Cal-Mortgage has reserve funds to cover Triad’s bond payments for at least a year.

Nonetheless, Triad is Cal-Mortgage’s single biggest customer, and the possibility of a long-term default on its bonds has raised serious concerns at the state agency. Earlier this month, Cal-Mortgage prompted Triad’s board to bring in a rescue specialist to turn around the hospitals, forcing the resignation of Triad’s founder and president, Stuart Marylander.

“There is need for some stronger management at Triad,” said Dr. David Werdegar, director of the state’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, which oversees Cal-Mortgage. “Is the patient in the intensive care unit?” Werdegar asked. No, he said in an interview Friday. “But the patient is in the operating room.”

Douglas Drumwright, a partner at Santa Ana-based Alpha Partners, was named Triad’s new president and chief executive officer. Drumwright, a turnaround expert, offered no immediate prescription for the ailing hospitals. But he said management would try to contain costs and limit the strenuous pressures afflicting the health-care industry.

Both of Triad’s hospitals are struggling from too many vacant beds, reduced medical reimbursements from the government and aggressive cost-cutting by medical insurers. These conditions have forced the shutdown and consolidation of many hospitals in Southern California, and the strains have been felt especially by smaller hospitals and those in the Valley, where a surplus of hospital beds is a major problem.

This week, the occupancy rate at the 156-bed Sherman Oaks Hospital is 34%, and it is 20% at West Valley Hospital, which has 139 beds. Collectively, the two dozen hospitals in the Valley have an average occupancy rate of about 45%, according to the Hospital Council of Southern California.

“All of us are struggling and will continue to do so until some of the capacity in the system is reduced,” said Hal Wurtzel, a vice president at Valley Presbyterian Hospital.

At Triad, problems were compounded by heavy company debts. For the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, Triad’s two hospitals posted a combined loss of $12 million on revenue of $84 million, Triad said. And in its latest filings with the state, for the quarter ended June 30, Triad reported that Sherman Oaks lost $1.8 million, while West Valley lost $3.4 million.

Analysts were unsure whether Triad could survive in the current hospital environment, but they agreed that the odds were better for Sherman Oaks Hospital because of its specialty as a burn center.

“The burn unit is a plus for them,” said Jeff Flocken, president and chief executive officer of Northridge Hospital Medical Center.