Hospital Says It Won’t Attend Forum

Ventura County supervisors on Tuesday agreed to hold a countywide health care forum aimed at improving the working relationship between private and public health care providers.

But a representative for Community Memorial Hospital, which is challenging the need for a $28.7-million county hospital improvement project, said the private nonprofit hospital would not attend.

“We’re not going to participate in what is clearly an attempt by the Board of Supervisors to build public support for a project that has already been approved,” said Doug Dowie of the public relations firm of Fleishman Hillard, which represents Community Memorial.

Representatives for Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley Hospital, St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Santa Paula Memorial Hospital and Ojai Valley Community Hospital said they would participate.

The Board of Supervisors did not say when or where the forum would be held. Supervisors John K. Flynn and Frank Schillo said they would like an independent moderator to lead the discussions, but did not elaborate. They said details regarding the forum would be worked out in the next few weeks.

In addition to all area hospitals, the supervisors also invited health insurance companies, medical suppliers and pharmacies to participate in the forum.

The call for the public forum was prompted in part by the supervisors’ recent decision to approve construction of a two-story county hospital building. They said the structure is needed to replace the public hospital’s dilapidated kitchen and medical laboratory, which threaten the hospital’s state license.

Community Memorial officials, however, argue that the project is part of a larger expansion plan that is aimed at drawing its patients away.