Hospital Backs Off on Cutback Threat
The emergency room at Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte will remain open to all patients, its board of directors decided Tuesday.
The hospital had warned that it might stop accepting patients brought to the emergency room in ambulances unless state and county officials approved a plan to convert 23 hospital beds to more profitable use in an affiliated nursing home.
The hospital’s proposal was submitted to the county Health Services Department in August. Mike Costello, the hospital’s executive vice president, said that after “a long bureaucratic stalemate,” the Los Angeles Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development approved the change April 13. The Health Services Department must still act on the plan.
Santa Teresita lost $400,000 in operating the emergency room in 1987. Losses climbed to $600,000 last year. Officials say they can cover the losses with money made from the new beds in the nursing home.
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