Hollywood : Hospice Official Resigns

The founder and executive director of an organization that operates Hughes House and two other AIDS hospices, has resigned under pressure, officials of Hospice/Los Angeles-Long Beach said.

Ronald Wolff resigned at the request of the nonprofit organization’s board of directors two weeks ago after dissatisfaction with his handling of the agency’s financial accounts, said an official who did not want to be identified.

Officials have said little about Wolff’s departure beyond a prepared statement last week by board Vice President Marc Berman, who said Wolff was asked to leave “to preserve the agency’s viability and our high standards of care.”

Berman said that Wolff had not been accused of embezzling funds but that the board had decided “his spending priorities were not consistent with the board’s priorities.”

Neither Wolff nor Berman was available for comment.

Besides Hughes House, which has five beds for patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Hospice/Los Angeles-Long Beach operates an 11-bed hospice in Long Beach and a five-bed facility in the San Fernando Valley. The organization was founded in 1987.