Westlake Medical Center Due to Reopen as an Urgent Care Facility

Owners of Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks have announced plans to partly reopen Westlake Medical Center on Dec. 1 as an urgent-care facility.

The move, which would strengthen hospital giant Columbia/HCA’s hold on the regional market, was generally welcomed by local residents. But it left several unanswered questions about the facility’s future.

“I’m pleased they’re going to reopen it,” said Patricia Croner, a former member of the Westlake hospital’s community advisory board. “But we wanted an emergency room badly.”

Los Angeles County Fire Department officials also said the reopening may do little to address the needs in the area.

“That’s not going to really help us at all,” Capt. Lon Myers said. “We can’t send [ambulance] patients to an urgent-care center.”

Myers said the Westlake Medical Center emergency room, which had been in place since the 1970s but was closed by Columbia in 1996, was vital to the safety of the community.

Robert Shaw, chief executive of Los Robles in Thousand Oaks, addressed some of those criticisms at a public meeting Friday.

The company’s resources are limited, Shaw said, so he believes concentrating services at Los Robles is the best way to provide acute care. The company will spend $2.5 million to refurbish a portion of the hospital.

USC health economist Jeff McCombs agreed.

“I think the way they are approaching this is probably a good thing,” he said. “It’s not going to be wasting society’s resources on an unneeded facility.”

Run by doctors until 1981, the hospital on Lakeview Canyon Road functioned as an acute-care hospital until Columbia, now the country’s largest for-profit health-care provider, purchased it in 1995.

Columbia later moved several hospital programs--including emergency room, maternity room and radiology department--to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, a Thousand Oaks facility that Columbia also owns, triggering widespread community outrage.

Salick Health Care then purchased the site for $8 million, but after a bitter lawsuit with Columbia over what operations would be allowed at the site, Salick sold the facility back to Columbia for an undisclosed sum last year.

Salick shut the facility down before the sale, and the center’s doors have been closed since then. But much of the equipment needed to run the facility--including gurneys, lights and some medical equipment--remain in the building.

Shaw said hours and staffing levels will be based on need. “It’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility that we will keep this open 24 hours,” he said.

The initial staff is expected to consist of one doctor, one nurse and one clerk.

The urgent-care center may eventually be expanded to offer other services, though a return to a full-service hospital is unlikely. Shaw said the idea was not among options examined by the company.

Los Robles spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman--who also is mayor of Westlake Village--said the urgent-care center was just a beginning.

“Of course we wanted a hospital. Who doesn’t?” Carraway-Bowman said. “But we need to start somewhere.”

The center also could hurt any effort by Tenet Healthcare Corp., Columbia’s largest rival, to gain a foothold in the local market. Columbia already owns two hospitals--Los Robles and West Hills Medical Center--and a smaller center in the area.

Tenet officials had previously announced plans to open a medical facility in the region, but company spokesman Brandon Edwards said Tenet scrapped those plans several weeks ago.

J. B. Wilmeth, medical director for the hyperbaric unit at Los Robles, said the decision to reopen the center could prevent a future bid by Tenet or another company.

Although Columbia is the only company in the area, he said, “they might not be the only ones if they don’t respond” to local concerns.

The reopening of the center shows that the company is responding, Wilmeth said. “I think that’s a good thing. I think they realize they have to perform.”