Tenet Agrees to Keep Open Fitness Facility at Inglewood Hospital

A fitness center used by patients, including cardiac patients, at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood will remain open for now under an agreement reached Friday with community activists and Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns the hospital.

In an internal memo issued in November, Santa Barbara-based Tenet revealed plans to close the heart rehabilitation clinics at Daniel Freeman effective Friday. The plan caused concern among community leaders, who called a town hall meeting Wednesday.

But after a meeting Friday, hospital officials agreed to keep a fitness center open but to close the cardiac rehabilitation service and enroll a dozen affected patients at a center in Tenet’s nearby Centinela Hospital.

“We’ve agreed to keep the fitness center open for an indefinite period to allow others to seek alternative funding sources,” said Harris Koenig, chief executive at Daniel Freeman.

The U.S. attorney’s office is looking into whether unnecessary heart surgeries were performed at three Tenet medical centers in Southern California, including Daniel Freeman.

Tenet officials said plans to close the center were part of a plan to consolidate cardiac services at Centinela Hospital.