Chain Acquiring Westlake Hospital : Medicine: Company already owns largest facility in Thousand Oaks. Some warn of a monopoly.

An international hospital conglomerate that already owns Thousand Oaks’ largest hospital has announced the purchase of its rival, Westlake Medical Center, prompting employees of the smaller Westlake facility to fear for their jobs.

Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation of Kentucky, the nation’s largest hospital chain and owner of Los Robles Regional Medical Center, said it had signed a letter of intent to acquire Westlake Medical Center from Universal Health Services of Pennsylvania.

Columbia/HCA officials said the purchase would create an efficient health network that can lower health costs and pass on the savings to patients.

But Westlake Medical Center staff members warned Friday of a Conejo Valley medical monopoly that could cost them their jobs.

Just six miles away across the Los Angeles County line, Westlake has consistently competed with Los Robles for the same pool of patients.

Westlake Medical Center administrators, shocked by the pending sale, said they heard about it in a phone call from Pennsylvania headquarters Thursday morning.

“They were informed of the sale at the appropriate time,” said Richard Wright, vice president of development for Universal. “These are sensitive topics.”

Terms of the deal were not fully disclosed, but Wright said the Westlake hospital was swapped for Columbia/HCA hospitals in Aiken, S.C., and Dallas. He said Universal unloaded the hospital because it was having difficulty competing with Columbia/HCA’s two hospitals nearby, Los Robles and West Hills Regional Medical Center.

“We were only one hospital among many there,” he said.

Columbia/HCA officials said Friday that they would not disclose their plans for Westlake Medical Center until the purchase is completed early next year.

But rumors quickly swept through the staff this week that the 126-bed hospital would be closed or turned into a nursing home, said Charles Feijoo, 28, a surgical technician at Westlake.

“We don’t know anything,” said Feijoo. The Simi Valley man, who said he was laid off from other area hospitals in 1989 and 1991, said he fully expected to be laid off again.

“I’m kind of tired of it,” he said of the wave of mergers and closings in the health care industry.

Columbia/HCA has closed 14 hospitals since the company was started by a Dallas lawyer in 1987.

Jill Donahue, director of marketing at 204-bed Los Robles, said her hospital would see no immediate changes as a result of the purchase. She said that although Columbia/HCA owns a hospital in nearby West Hills, the two sites are “pretty autonomous.”

Betty DeSantis, a volunteer at Westlake Medical Center, said she hopes it survives.

“It’s got a lot of strengths, and I hope they continue to be used,” DeSantis said.

Westlake and Los Robles had been engaged in a costly battle for patients. Westlake added a high-tech cancer center, and Los Robles just opened an intensive care unit for babies.

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A Columbia/HCA spokeswoman said that by sharing resources and computer systems and getting discounts on supplies purchased in bulk, the two hospitals could work together to cut costs.

“The addition of Westlake will allow us to expand our mission of providing cost-effective quality health care services,” Columbia/HCA Chief Executive officer Richard L. Scott said in a statement.

Columbia/HCA operates 195 hospitals and 125 outpatient centers in 34 states, England and Switzerland. It will complete a merger early next year with HealthTrust Inc., creating a 311-hospital, 60,000-bed chain.