Centinela Will Keep Emergency Room Open to Obstetric Patients

Centinela Hospital Medical Center has agreed to continue treating emergency obstetric patients after May 26, although it will refuse to accept other patients brought in by paramedics after that date, hospital and county officials announced Wednesday.

The agreement between the Inglewood hospital and the county supersedes Centinela’s earlier decision to withdraw completely from the emergency care system and apparently lays to rest fears that it would create a domino effect, prompting other hospitals to follow suit.

After Centinela announced in March it would soon stop taking paramedic patients, Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne announced it had filed for state permission to close its doors to paramedic patients.

The hospital said it feared an increase in obstetric patients that it could not properly treat. Centinela is the only hospital in its immediate area with an obstetrics unit.

“It was a potential disaster just waiting to happen,” Carl Williams, director of hospital services for the county’s Department of Health Services, said Wednesday.

“I am really tickled on behalf of the community,” Williams added. “I am pleased we have been able to come to an agreement on this.”

A Kennedy spokeswoman said the hospital had not yet formally withdrawn its application to stop taking paramedic patients. However, the hospital will “look favorably” toward doing so, she said.

The one-year agreement, which is expected to be approved by the county Board of Supervisors next week, calls for the county to give Centinela access to a Medi-Cal eligibility worker. The worker will help the hospital file the sometimes burdensome and time-consuming paper work necessary to prove to state officials that a patient qualifies for Medi-Cal.

Also, the county will pay Centinela the amount the county would typically receive for a Medi-Cal patient, should a patient fail to qualify for the state assistance. That amounts to about $800 a day. In addition, the county will also pay Centinela a flat $5,000 a month.

As for physicians, the county will pay them what they would typically receive for caring for a Medi-Cal patient, and then bill the state, according to Eric Tuckman, Centinela’s general counsel. At present, doctors receive $450 from Medi-Cal for a normal delivery.

Under the agreement, doctors will also be covered by the county’s own insurance against malpractice suits. Centinela has maintained that many obstetric patients brought to the hospital by rescue ambulance are high-risk patients who pose a greater liability threat to doctors.

Centinela, which cited ballooning debts in obtaining state permission to close its emergency room doors to paramedic patients, had originally planned to stop taking the patients on April 26. However, it delayed its decision after a trio of public interest law groups threatened to sue unless the hospital attempted to negotiate with the county to find a way to treat obstetric patients.

Despite the agreement, Centinela officials said the facility will still lose money treating the 30 or so obstetric patients that are typically brought to the hospital each month by paramedics.

Nevertheless, Centinela President Russell Stromberg said he was glad negotiations proved fruitful. “We are pleased we have been able to work it out,” he said. “It avoids a current crisis.”