Century City Hospital Emergency Department To Be Closed for Renovations
The emergency department of Century City Hospital will be closed for renovations for at least five months, Los Angeles County health officials announced Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports (Hymon, Los Angeles Times, 4/6). Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare in December notified Los Angeles County that it planned to close the hospital on April 30 and would close its ED in 90 days after failing to reach an agreement with the hospital building owner over the lease. However, Beverly Hills-based Salus Surgical Group in February announced that it would lease the building and take over the hospital (California Healthline, 2/2). The hospital will close on April 30. Salus officials said they plan to renovate the building and reopen the hospital and ED in the fall. According to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the hospital's ED treated more than 11,000 patients in 2001, a "fraction" of the 2.8 million ED visits made in the county that year, according to the Times. "Century City isn't a huge player," Carol Gunter, director of the county's Emergency Medical Services Agency, said, adding, "But it's one of those things that, if you just keep adding patients to [EDs] at other hospitals, they could be overwhelmed." Gunter said that in the last 15 years, 20 EDs in Southern California have closed, while only four have opened. According to the Times, demand for emergency services has "surged" during the same period, in part because of an increase in the number of uninsured county residents (Los Angeles Times, 4/6).
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