Suit Threat Keeps Emergency Room Open at Centinela

Centinela Hospital Medical Center said Wednesday that it will delay a plan to close its emergency room to patients brought in by paramedics until next month in an effort to reach an agreement to treat only obstetric cases that arrive by rescue ambulances.

The Inglewood hospital’s decision came after three public-interest law groups threatened to sue the hospital unless it delayed its decision. The hospital has state approval to stop taking public-ambulance patients as of April 26.

The hospital has said it will continue to provide emergency services to patients who arrive on their own or by private ambulance.

Because Centinela is the only hospital in its area that has an obstetrics unit, its decision has sent county health officials scurrying to find another hospital to treat obstetric patients. The county is negotiating with Marina Hills Hospital in Ladera Hills to provide that service.

Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne, fearing that it could face a large influx of obstetric patients if the county’s negotiations fail, has also filed for state approval to stop treating patients brought by paramedics as of April 26.

Decided After Talks

Russell Stromberg, Centinela’s president, said the hospital decided to delay the planned closure after talking with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles--one of three groups that has threatened to sue it.

Legal aid attorneys told Centinela officials that the hospital may be able to reach an agreement with state and county officials that would allow it to treat only obstetric patients brought in by paramedics and refuse other types of patients, Stromberg said.

That would lessen the financial burden Centinela faces in treating indigent patients of all types, Stromberg said.

“We were under the impression legally that we could not just take obstetric patients,” Stromberg said. “They feel there is a way to structure a contract where we can.”

A spokeswoman for Kennedy said the hospital would “look very favorably” on remaining a paramedic base station if Centinela or any other hospital continues to treat obstetric patients. County and state health officials could not be reached for comment.

Centinela officials cited ballooning debts in winning state approval March 17 to stop accepting patients brought in by paramedics. The hospital said that in fiscal 1988 it carried $8.4 million in unpaid bills and donated services.

The Legal Aid Foundation, as well as the Western Center on Law and Poverty and the National Health Law Program, sent a letter to Centinela on Monday, saying they intended to file a class-action lawsuit against the hospital unless it agreed to postpone its decision.

The groups contended in their letter that the hospital’s decision violates federal law by discriminating against patients based on their ability to pay for medical services.

“They called back and said, ‘What can we do to work this out?’ ” said Byron Gross, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation. “We have agreed we won’t sue them now while they hold off for 30 days.”

Stromberg said Tuesday that he doubts that the groups have any legal grounds to sue the hospital. If the groups are going to sue anyone, he asserted, it should be the government agencies responsible for funding medical care programs for the poor.

“They got the wrong target,” Stromberg said.

In a related development, the Inglewood City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to stop sending injured police and fire personnel to Centinela for treatment.

Instead, council members agreed to send that business--estimated at about $250,000 a year--to neighboring Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital.

Informed of Centinela’s decision Wednesday, Norman Cravens, Inglewood’s assistant city manager, said: “I guess the bottom line is there would be no reason to change what the council did immediately.”

But Cravens said the council could reconsider its action if Centinela’s emergency room remains open to paramedics.

In an earlier interview, Cravens said city employees will be better served by Freeman because the hospital will continue to belong to the county’s paramedic system should Centinela drop out. Hence, radio contact with the city’s rescue ambulances and Freeman can be maintained during emergencies, he said.

Moreover, Cravens said, the city wanted to reward Freeman because it has continued to care for patients brought in by ambulance even though it is losing millions of dollars a year as a result.

“We want to give business to a hospital that keeps its emergency room open to all indigents in Inglewood,” Cravens said.

Stromberg called the council’s action “purely political” and motivated by Centinela’s decision last March to sue the city to prevent the construction of a center for severely mentally ill patients across the street from the hospital. Centinela filed the suit after the council approved construction of the 14-bed facility.

“I think it is just a simple matter of the city administration trying to get back at us,” Stromberg said.

Times Staff Writer Barbara Baird also contributed to this report.