Hospital Critics Force Meeting to Elect Board

Dissident members of the community corporation that owns financially troubled San Pedro Peninsula Hospital have succeeded in forcing a special meeting April 18, where they will attempt to replace most of the directors.

Under the corporation’s bylaws, the current board of directors had no choice but to call the election after hospital attorneys concluded that a petition filed by the dissidents on March 10 was valid.

The bylaws state that 5% of the 350 corporation members may call a special meeting for a specific purpose. The petition had the signatures of 22 members, four more than necessary.

The corporation’s only function is to elect the hospital board, which in turn chooses administrators to run the hospital.

Hospital spokesman John A. Calderone said corporation members have been sent letters informing them of the April 18 meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. at the hospital.

Calling themselves the Committee to Save San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, the dissidents contend that the board has failed for several years to solve the hospital’s problems. Losses since 1987 are expected to exceed $7 million.

“We refuse to stand by and watch our community’s only hospital go bankrupt or end up controlled by some outside profit-making hospital chain,” the group said in an earlier statement.

Hospital officials have declined to comment on criticism leveled by the dissidents. But in earlier interviews, board and staff members contended that changes in hospital procedures will begin cutting costs and improving revenue within six months.

A study by the Ernst & Whinney accounting firm, which cost the hospital $50,000, concluded that through major internal changes, the hospital “can turn itself around.”

But the same study also said the hospital “has suffered from mismanagement,” is overstaffed and lacks strong services.

The accounting firm has recommended a restructuring of the hospital and is conducting a $200,000 department-by-department study.

Although the dissident committee wanted the corporation election meeting to be open to the press and public, Calderone said only corporation members may attend.

Committee Chairman Robert L. Hansen acknowledged that there is nothing in the bylaws to compel an open meeting.

He said a slate of 15 new board members, which he said will include “two or three” current members, will be put together this week.

Hansen said two public meetings will be held at the San Pedro Peninsula YMCA to garner public support for the committee’s assault on the hospital board. They are scheduled for April 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. and April 16 from 2 to 4 p.m.