UCLA to run Burbank health center

By June 1, the UCLA Health System will start running six medical facilities currently operated by the Motion Picture & Television Fund, including a health center in Burbank.

Layoff notices were issued earlier this month to 315 employees, including 71 at the Toluca Lake Health Center in Burbank, as part of their transfer to the UCLA umbrella, following an agreement reached last fall by the university and the fund.

A high percentage of the staff such as doctors, nurses and radiology technicians will keep their positions, said Bob Beitcher, the fund’s president and chief executive officer.

“For example, with very few exceptions, the physicians, clinical staff and registrars in the health centers will all become part of the UCLA Health team providing services at the current Motion Picture & Television health center sites,” Beitcher said.

Many of the physicians will also become clinical educators and assistant professors at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

While UCLA will absorb many of the outpatient services such as lab work and radiology, social service programs such as financial assistance will still be offered by the Motion Picture & Television Fund, according to the organization.

About 60,000 people working in the entertainment industry get treatment at the fund’s medical facilities, which are also located in West Los Angeles, Santa Clarita and the Wasserman campus, a retirement residential community in Woodland Hills that staffs 182 employees.

Dr. Janice Spinner, chief medical officer for the Motion Picture & Television Fund, said she thinks teaming up with UCLA is the right move.

“Aligning ourselves with the UCLA Health System is the best thing we could do today to ensure the long-term continuity for our patients and physicians,” she said in a statement. “Scale will matter more and more in healthcare as the risk for providing care shifts from fee-for-service to larger organizations that will get paid for keeping people healthy.”
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