Group Hopes to Save Emergency Room

Employees and community members worried about the expected closure Wednesday of the Westlake Medical Center emergency room plan to rally to save what they say is a vital service.

“The community leaders are hoping that, if we get enough support on the day the hospital changes hands, they’ll keep it open,” said Dr. Frank Gillingham, medical director of the emergency room.

The rally is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the day the hospital is expected to become a specialty care facility.

Gillingham said ambulance service will be discontinued to the emergency room beginning today in anticipation of the closure.

Representatives of Salick Health Care, which specializes in cancer care, said they were barred from discussing the matter until negotiations with the current owner, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., are complete.

Les Bell, executive vice president of Salick, said he would comment as soon as the deal is settled, adding that he understands the community’s position.

“We have the same concern,” Bell said. “And on Wednesday, when the deed is transferred, we’ll be able to explain to them if there will be emergency treatment and, if not, the reasons there will not be.”

Bell said his company, though primarily a nonemergency care facility, favors having an emergency room.

Should the emergency room be closed when Salick takes over the 24-year-old Westlake Village hospital, critical-care patients would need to be transported to one of two other Columbia hospitals, Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks or Columbia West Hills Medical Center.

“You’re looking at another several minutes each way,” Gillingham said. “The implication is that lives will be in danger. People who are having heart attacks or having difficulty breathing have a potential of not making it.”