Agreement on Area Hospital Merger May Have Stalled

An agreement by the company that owns Thousand Oaks’ largest hospital to purchase its smaller competitor may have stalled, administrators of the two hospitals said Thursday.

The administrators said corporate officials on the East Coast were in charge of the deal, announced in December. But they said a deadline expired Jan. 31 without anyone informing them of a change of ownership.

Officials at Westlake Medical Center said they were told last Friday to expect a visit Tuesday from officials of Columbia/HCA, which also owns Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

Officials of Westlake’s parent company, however, called back an hour later to notify Westlake officials that the visit was off.

“One minute we’re told that it’s on, one minute we’re told that it’s off. We’re totally in the dark,” Westlake Marketing Director Kris Carroway said.

Los Robles administrators said they also were uncertain of the deal’s status.

“We still haven’t heard anything final,” Los Robles Marketing Director Jill Donahue said.

The purchase was announced in early December, and hospital officials said at the time that they expected it would be completed in 30 days.

A spokeswoman at Columbia/HCA headquarters in Kentucky said as far as she knows, the purchase is still in the “due diligence” stage, with the buyer examining the financial health of the hospital to be purchased.

She had no explanation for the delay in closing the deal.

Officials from Universal Health Services, which owns Westlake Medical Center, did not return repeated phone calls.

When the acquisition was announced, Columbia/HCA officials said the merger would create an efficient health network that would lower costs and pass on the savings to patients.

They said they had no immediate plans to close Westlake Medical Center after buying the hospital.

But Westlake employees feared that a new Conejo Valley medical monopoly might cost them their jobs.

Los Robles, with 204 beds, had been engaged in a costly battle for patients with the 126-bed rival just across the Los Angeles County line in Westlake Village.

Separately, Columbia/HCA named a new chief executive officer to manage Los Robles.

Ron Phelps, who had been the chief administrator at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, will begin work Monday, Jill Donahue said.

He replaces Robert Quist, who was ousted in November.

“His leadership is greatly anticipated,” said Donahue, who said Phelps was hired after a series of interviews with the hospital’s board of trustees, medical staff members and Columbia/HCA officials.