Struggling Hospital to Keep Its Equipment
Long Beach Community Medical Center will get to keep about $10 million in medical equipment that was moved to a second hospital, officials said.
Equipment purchased by the hospital’s fund-raising foundation will remain, and heart and neonatal equipment already transferred to St. Mary Medical Center will be returned, it was announced this week.
“It’s very encouraging,” Suzanne Nosworthy, board chairwoman of the Long Beach Community Medical Center Foundation, said Wednesday.
Both hospitals are owned by Catholic Healthcare West. In June, the company announced that it planned to close Long Beach Community Medical Center by Oct. 2 because it was losing about $12 million per year.
The city, however, threatened to sue, claiming a deed required the property to remain open as a nonprofit hospital.
The city and Catholic Healthcare West have been meeting to reach an agreement on a plan that would give the property to the city, which would in turn find a new operator.
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