Hospital Will Quit Medical Alert Program : Camarillo: Pleasant Valley’s action follows pledges that it would not reduce services after its recent merger.

Less than three weeks after merging with an Oxnard medical center, St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo has announced that it will no longer participate in a Lifeline emergency service used by 140 mostly elderly people.

The cutback is the first since the hospital merged with St. John’s Regional Medical Center, and it comes despite pledges that the consolidation would not lead to a reduction in services at Pleasant Valley.

Officials at the Camarillo hospital said they decided to withdraw from the emergency response service June 1 because they do not have enough staff to monitor Lifeline distress calls.

“Even if there wasn’t a merger, we’d still be doing this,” hospital Administrator Joe Harrington said.

But some Camarillo residents who depend on the emergency service--which allows them to call for help by pushing a button--said they feel betrayed by their local hospital.

“We placed our trust in them and now it’s gone,” said Mildred Pomerantz, a resident of the Leisure Village retirement community.

The Camarillo Health Care District, a public agency that sponsors the Lifeline network in the city, said the hospital’s withdrawal from the program will increase the cost to subscribers by up to $10 per month, to about $28.

Formerly known as Pleasant Valley Hospital, the Camarillo medical center began offering Lifeline in 1981 when it was still owned and operated by the health care district.

In 1984, after the hospital had been spun off into a private nonprofit corporation, the health care district purchased the hospital’s Lifeline equipment and took over sponsorship of the program. As a free public service, the hospital staff has continued monitoring Lifeline distress calls through a computer set up in the emergency room.

An incident in December, however, alarmed hospital officials, Harrington said.

An elderly woman complained that she had fallen and pressed her Lifeline button but got no return call for about 15 minutes, apparently because hospital staff members were busy with patients, Harrington said. The usual response time is one to two minutes, according to the district’s staff.

Although the lapse was not life-threatening, hospital officials decided to drop the program rather than face the possibility of lawsuits if such problems recurred, Harrington said.

Faced with the hospital’s withdrawal, health care district officials plan to contract with Lifeline Systems Inc., the equipment manufacturer, to monitor calls through the firm’s response center in Watertown, Mass.

Lifeline company officials said their staff will follow the same response procedures as the local hospital staff, despite the increased distance.

After receiving a distress call, which travels by telephone lines, Lifeline staff members first try to call the subscriber to make sure that it is not a false alarm. They then call an ambulance service or designated neighbor or friend of the subscriber to go into the person’s home.

Although the new monitoring service will be the same, use of the Massachusetts firm and the long-distance phone lines will add costs amounting to about $10 per subscriber per month, said Darlene Benz, who coordinates the program for the district.

Officials of the district, which receives tax money, said their board will consider next week whether the district may be able to absorb some of the cost. But customers will have to bear a part of the burden, they said.

Pomerantz, a widow who subsists on her husband’s pension and Social Security, said the higher charges may force her to cancel her Lifeline service. She began subscribing to Lifeline 1 1/2 years ago after she inexplicably lost consciousness and banged her head against a wall.

“For weeks, I was black and blue,” she said.

Pomerantz has never had to use Lifeline. However, she said, “it was a great comfort because I knew somebody else cared. I knew somebody would be there in case I needed it.”

Pomerantz wears the Lifeline button around her neck when she is at home or in her yard; by pushing it, she activates a gadget in her home that dials the response center.

Not all Camarillo residents affected by the hospital’s decision are elderly.

Linda Cloughen, 49, suffers from severe arthritis that forces her to wear leg braces and use a walker. She began subscribing to Lifeline in 1987.

“I fall every now and then,” said Cloughen, who lives alone. Although she has never had to use the service, she said, “it’s been a big help for me to have it because I don’t have any relatives who live right around here.”

Because Cloughen’s sole income comes from government disability payments, the health care district rents her the Lifeline equipment at a reduced rate of $5.45 per month. Most subscribers pay about $18 per month.

But Cloughen said she may not be able to afford the service if her monthly charges increase.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “My condition keeps getting worse.”

Officials at the health care district, which has sued the former directors of the Camarillo hospital over the merger, said withdrawal from the Lifeline program signals the community’s loss of the hospital.

“They promised there wouldn’t be any reduction in services,” board member Jim Prosser said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.

“What else did the people of Camarillo expect?”

But Rita Schumacher, spokeswoman for St. John’s, said the change will benefit everyone. Lifeline customers will be ensured of a quick response, while emergency room patients will get the hospital staff’s full attention, she said.