Westlake Medical Center Puts 283 Workers on Notice

Employees who have been on tenterhooks for months about the future of their jobs at Westlake Medical Center received notice Thursday that their contracts are being terminated as of July 1.

Whether the 283 employees who staff the hospital will find themselves out on the street that day hinges on negotiations underway between current owner Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. and a potential buyer, Salick Health Care.

“Everyone has a hope that there will be jobs if Salick takes over,” said one Westlake medical technician who asked not to be identified.

A spokesman for Los Angeles-based Salick, which currently leases space at the Westlake hospital for a cancer outpatient center, declined to comment on the negotiations Thursday.

But Salick officials have said they would like to purchase the 24-year-old hospital to expand its operations. The two corporations have not been able to agree on a price, although Columbia spokeswoman Kris Carraway said the hope is that negotiations will be completed and that the sale will happen by July 1.

Columbia is also hoping to lease back space for emergency services at the hospital, which lies on the Ventura-Los Angeles county line, she said.

In the meantime, she said, job counseling is being provided for the 172 part-time and full-time staff members. Another 111 people who work on a freelance, daily basis, could also find themselves in the job market. In addition, there are 175 volunteers who work regularly at the hospital.

Employees said the atmosphere at Westlake has been strained since Columbia, a Kentucky-based conglomerate that also owns Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, announced that it was buying Westlake Medical Center in December 1994.

In the medical community, Columbia has developed a reputation for buying neighboring hospitals and consolidating operations, so Westlake staff members assumed their days were numbered.

“There has been quite a bit of tension for a year,” said one Westlake employee who was recently laid off. “It has been a terrible thing to live with. But I guess we all felt lucky that we lasted a year. Some of us thought it would just be a few months.”

Last August, Columbia reduced some services at Westlake, closing the obstetrics ward and beginning to convert some space into an 18-bed rehabilitation center. But the company said then that it planned to keep the 126-bed hospital open.

That plan took a radical turn in January, when Columbia announced that dwindling profits were forcing Westlake’s closure. The company set a July deadline to shut the inpatient services and emergency room.

So Thursday’s announcement did not come as a surprise to employees, Carraway said.

“My feeling is that they are finally relieved,” Carraway said. “They always had such a tentative feeling, not really knowing what would happen.”

Dr. Frank Gillingham, medical director of the emergency room, agreed.

“No one is really surprised,” Gillingham said. “Most people that are still here are counting on the fact that the new owners will keep enough services so that the majority of employees will be able to stay. The real uncertainty is what the new owners are going to do.”

According to Carraway, Columbia hopes to maintain some presence at Westlake after the facility is closed. She said Columbia hopes to lease space from Salick to carry on with emergency services. She said it might not be certified as a full-fledged emergency room but could still provide basic services such as X-rays, lab work, same-day surgeries and occupational health care.

“We made a commitment to the residents of Westlake and Agoura that we will absolutely have some kind of emergency services for them,” Carraway said. “They have become very comfortable and secure with having us a minute down the road.”

Although Los Robles’ emergency room is just minutes away, Gillingham said there is still a medical need for emergency services in the Westlake Village area. After January’s announcement, the average number of daily visits to his emergency room dropped from 40 to about 25. In March and April those numbers rebounded to about 35, he said.

One former employee raised questions Thursday over whether Salick would agree to lease to Columbia if the sale is finalized.

“I doubt very much that Salick will get into a contract with them,” the former employee said. “I don’t think Salick wants anything to do with Columbia.”

A Salick spokesman declined comment.