DOWNEY: AG Reviewing Hospital’s Financial Management
A state attorney general's probe of Downey Community Hospital "could lead to a full-scale investigation" of the facility's financial management procedures, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports. The audit -- the second of its kind in two years -- comes after area residents and former hospital employees charged that the hospital is rife with financial mismanagement and "no longer provides quality health care." Hospital CEO Don Miller said he was eager to clear the hospital's name with a state audit. "I've felt the attorney general's investigation is a blessing in disguise because it does give us one more opportunity to show that everything's fine. They're going through everything," Miller said. The Press-Telegram reports that Downey passed a similar investigation in 1996, ordered by now-retired Dr. Verner Waite, a Downey resident. In an in-house newsletter, Miller claimed Waite is behind the current probe, charging that the doctor "has bonded with bitter former hospital board members and their sympathetic friends." But Waite and other critics of the hospital administration "declined to take credit" for the attorney general's review (Douglas, 6/11).
This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.