Another Emergency Room May Be Shut

A wave of threatened closures of hospital emergency rooms in Inglewood and Hawthorne to patients who are transported by ambulance could spread to another South Bay hospital, this time in Gardena, hospital officials said.

“I’ve tried to hold out as long as possible,” Gardena Memorial Hospital Administrator Phyllis Van Crombrugghe told a recent community forum at Inglewood City Hall. “The problem must be solved, or our hospital will have to downgrade as well.”

Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood and Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne recently announced plans to downgrade their emergency rooms. They will no longer accept patients delivered by paramedics. Both cite major financial losses from treating poor, indigent or uninsured patients.

James D. Grant, director of emergency services at Gardena Memorial, said the small for-profit community hospital has seen a 25% increase in emergency room patients in the last year as other hospitals have closed their doors to paramedics or reached the saturation point.