Monopoly Feared : Group Files Suit to Halt Merger of 2 Hospitals in Simi

The proposed merger of Simi Valley’s only two hospitals has triggered complaints from hospital workers and a lawsuit complaining that it will create a health-care monopoly in the area.

A group of physicians, employees and patients at Mountain View Medical Center, angered over the planned takeover of the 70-bed facility by the larger Simi Valley Adventist Hospital, on Thursday sought a temporary restraining order in Ventura County Superior Court to block the sale.

Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele denied the restraining order and scheduled a March 5 preliminary hearing on the group’s suit, which seeks to block the sale, claiming that it would violate state antitrust laws. The sale also is expected to cost many workers their jobs.

“We believe the community is best served by having two hospitals,” said Randy W. Keith, a Northridge attorney representing the group.

The suit alleges that having one company owning the city’s two hospitals will reduce “competition in medical services, price competition for patient admission” and “competition in quality of hospital medical services” while giving the owner “an ability to monopolize the City of Simi Valley and the City of Moorpark.”

Adventist Health System-West, the parent corporation of the 145-bed Adventist hospital on Sycamore Drive, is awaiting the close of escrow on its bid to purchase Mountain View, which is about 2 1/2 miles to the southwest. Details of the sale, including the price, have not been disclosed.

Carolyn Agee, director of planning and marketing for Adventist, said executives of Safecare Co. Inc., Mountain View’s Seattle-based parent company, were contacted late last year by officials at Adventist who said they were interested in a takeover.

Agee said the merger was proposed because both hospitals are under-utilized. Adventist has been operating at a little less than 50% of capacity and Mountain View at 30%, she said.

“There are some significant benefits that can be derived from combining services that are being duplicated,” Agee said.

The changes will have a minimal effect on patient care because 90% of the physicians who use Mountain View also use Adventist, Agee said.

The Adventist administrator said the merger will bring health services to Simi Valley that are not now offered. Under the proposal, Mountain View’s campus-like grounds will be converted into a 35-bed psychiatric facility, the city’s first, she said.

The 15-year-old Mountain View, situated on Erringer Road, will house a drug, alcohol and eating-disorder treatment center now operating in a one-story building across the street from Simi Valley Adventist Hospital. Once that building is vacated, Agee said, the hospital will convert it into a 50-bed nursing home.

Hospital officials have not said how many employees will lose jobs. Of the 145 employees at Mountain View who are not physicians, Agee said, 92 have been interviewed and 78 offered jobs. Four people turned down the offers, she said.

Some of the remaining Mountain View workers, particularly nurses, may be retrained and hired after the state approves Adventist’s license to open the nursing home, she said.

That some workers will lose jobs “is an unfortunate consequence,” Agee said. The hospital will provide counseling services for a minimum of six months “for those employees caught in a transitional anxiety period.”

Employees Taken by Surprise

Mountain View employees said news of the proposed takeover was unexpected. Just last October, they said, the facility’s owners held a ground-breaking ceremony for a three-story wing on the west side of the one-story hospital. Construction has not started.

Administrators at Mountain View refused to discuss the pending sale, saying they were instructed to refer all inquiries to the parent company, Safecare. Executives at Safecare did not return telephone calls from The Times.

Employees at Mountain View said the atmosphere at the hospital is tense.

“The depression and the anxiety is extremely bad,” a nurse said. “This is surprising because we haven’t gotten an official word from anyone. You couldn’t find a more unhappy group of people anywhere.”

A physician who practices at the hospital blamed the plight of Mountain View on Adventist’s desire to “cut down on the competition in an effort to make their hospital busier.”

“Both the patients and the staff are very unhappy,” he said.