Glendale Memorial Hospital closes pool

Glendale Memorial Hospital closed its pool and aquatic physical therapy program on Friday, sending some patients out to search for alternatives or opt to transition to more terra firma forms of therapy.

The pool is located on the first floor of a medical office building at 222 W. Eulalia St. on the hospital’s campus. However, the building is owned and managed by Health Care REIT Inc., which leases space to tenants, according to a spokeswoman for the property management company.

One of the patients who used the aquatic therapy program was circulating a petition asking the hospital to keep the pool open.

“We love it. We’re all in tears about it, all of us,” said Leah Sdoucos, who has participated in the program for about six years. “We felt the only thing we could do was go out in the community and say, ‘help.’”

But once it became apparent the pool was going to close, she stopped her petition campaign.

Jack Ivie, president of Glendale Memorial Hospital, said in a letter to patients that the decision to close the pool and aquatic physical therapy program was made after “months of review and thought.”

The hospital released a statement Wednesday explaining that finances played a factor.

“The financial landscape in healthcare is changing and that requires us to operate differently,” according to the statement.

Sdoucos, a Silver Lake resident, said she and several others who used the Glendale Memorial pool have signed up for the aquatic physical therapy program at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

While Glendale Adventist required her to undergo a new $200 evaluation exam, the medical center gave her 34 free visits, which basically evened out the cost, she added.

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Follow Mark Kellam on Twitter: @LAMarkKellam.