Ojai Valley Hospital Sold for $4 Million to Oregon Group : Health care: When the deal is completed, the company will become the third owner for the financially troubled facility since 1988.

Ojai Valley Community Hospital was sold to an Oregon-based health-care company for a little more than $4 million, the company announced Friday.

Brim Inc. of Portland said the deal will be completed at the end of the year.

This will be the hospital’s third owner since 1988. The last owner, Affiliated Medical Enterprises of Orange, left many hospital staff members suspicious of corporate ownership after the company declared bankruptcy in 1991, leaving the fate of the hospital up in the air.

Doctors and hospital administrators welcomed the new owners and expressed hope that the Brim deal will bring security to the financially troubled institution.

“The purchase of this hospital brings health care security to Ojai,” said Dr. Raymond Sims, president of the hospital’s board of trustees. “I’m very pleased that the sale is finally settled. Brim is a strong and stable company.”

Earlier this year, physicians at the hospital tried to organize a consortium of doctors to purchase the facility, but failed to meet the asking price.

Dr. Scott Davis, one of the physicians who tried to organize the consortium, said the doctors were acting out of fear the hospital might shut down. Davis said they did not like the idea of a physician-owned hospital, but made the bid because they could not get other parties interested.

“Our concern was that the hospital might close, leaving 300 people without jobs and Ojai without a hospital,” Davis said.

Davis said doctors and administrators at the hospital were concerned about the hospital being bought by another distant corporate owner.

“The mismanagement (by Allied) degraded the hospital and the public’s opinion of the hospital,” Davis said. “We’re more alert about big corporate owners now.”

Davis said that during the negotiations of the sale, Brim company President Steven Taylor was forthcoming and open to the concerns of doctors. Offering innovative new ideas and a solid reputation, Davis said he was impressed by Taylor and the company.

Taylor said he tried to assure the doctors by asking them to speak with physicians at the four other hospitals Brim owns and manages.

“All I can go on is our track record,” Taylor said. “I assured them by telling them to talk with their counterparts at our hospitals.”

In addition to owning four hospitals in the western United States, Brim manages 81 rural hospitals and retirement homes nationwide. Taylor said the company, which is projected to earn $89 million in 1993, saw potential profit in the Ojai facility.

Recently, the hospital converted some of its beds into a convalescent facility for seniors, increasing profits for the facility, according to hospital director James Van Dusen. Van Dusen said Brim was looking at the possibility of future expansion of senior services at the hospital.

“We are only using half of the nine acres that we own,” Van Dusen said. “When we expanded our convalescent facility it filled up in less than 30 days. The county is already at 97% of capacity for convalescent beds, so yes we have discussed the possibility of future expansion.”

Taylor declined to comment on specific ideas that Brim had for the hospital. But he said the company would not have bought the facility if there was not potential for profit.

“Ojai Valley Community Hospital fits nicely with what we are,” Taylor said. “The basic health care they provide will never go out of style.”

Davis said doctors and administrators are eager to cooperate.

“There reputation is impeccable,” Davis said. “We’ll see what happens next.”