(Dec. 31, 2020) -- In a New Years Eve release, the City of Long Beach says the City-owened Community Hospital, leased to a private for profit operator (Molina, Wu, Network (MWN Community Hospital, LLC with John Molina's Pacific6 as one of the LLC's component partners) has received a CA Dept. of Public Health license to reopen with up to 158 beds...although the operator plans to reopen on Monday Jan, 4 with 11 ICU beds and space for 40 other patients. The City release says Commuaity Hospital won't accept COVID-19 patients. Instead, it will be used for rearranged physician direct transfers of patients from local hospitals and nursing facilities (with an ability to add additional caopacity at some currently uynslecified date later in 2021.) On April 14, 2020, the LB City Council approved advancing $250,000 in LB taxpayer funds to perform city-staff conducted repairs including but not limited to the faciity's elevtors, although MWN's lease with the City required MWN to pay for such iteems. The Council action, which was effectively an advance of LB taxopayer resources offered by 4th district Councilman Daryl Supernaw from his Council district's budgeted funds, includes no provisions to repay LB taxpayers for the quarter million dollar sum and today's (Dedc. 31) City press release makes no menrton of it or any future repayment... Responding to an inquiry from LBREPORT.com, Brandon Dowling, Pacific6 Communications Director said in a Dec 23 email: "The $250,000 in elevator repairs were paid by the City of Long Beach and invoiced to the City of Long Beach. No money was ever 'given’ to MWN and we were never invoiced for the services." The City's Dec. 31 release quotes John Molina, partner at MWN Community Hospital LLC as saying "Community Hospital reopens today thanks to the vision of many who didn’t want to let this piece of Long Beach’s history disappear...We’re proud to have supported the endeavor to reopen the hospital -- his is just the beginning of the renewed CHLB." In October 2019, the Council (on motion by Councilman Spernaw) approved entering a lease with MWN that requires LB taxoayers to pay roughly $1 million-$2 million each year for seismic repairs AND cover all suns advanced by MWN toward the hospital if for any reason MWN chooses to no longer operate the hospital as an acute care facility. At that point, the City would be required to reimburse MWN for its expended sums to date, an outcome that city staff warned Councilmembers (in the item's Oct. 2019 agendizing memo) was so costly that it could result in the City losing Community Hospital (with MWN given the ability to buy the facility.) . The City release says that "over the past 18 months, more than $6 million has been put toward the reopening of the hospital including deferred maintenance, replacement of equipment, supplies, utility systems and refurbishments to both the exterior façade and interior rooms." |
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