Freeman Hospitals’ Sale Gets Initial OK

The sale of Daniel Freeman Hospitals, the last nonprofit hospitals in Inglewood and Marina del Rey, to Tenet Healthcare Corp. won conditional approval from California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer on Friday.

But the $55-million deal was far from certain, as Santa Barbara-based Tenet expressed “disappointment” with Lockyer.

“We have some very serious reservations about the conditions that the attorney general has attached to this transaction,” said Tenet spokesman Harry Anderson. “These conditions are serious enough to break the deal, but we’re not saying that as yet.”

Tenet will take a few days to review Lockyer’s decision, he said.

The attorney general, who under state law must review every transaction that turns a nonprofit hospital into a for-profit facility, said he would only approve the deal if Tenet agreed to provide charity care at the facilities at a cost of $2 million each year for seven years.

Tenet would also be required to operate the emergency room at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, the Inglewood campus, for five years. The company would have to maintain the emergency room at Inglewood’s Centinela Hospital Medical Center, which it already owns, for the same period.

In addition, Lockyer demanded that Tenet make sure that the ratio of nurses to patients was in keeping with standards being developed under a new state law.

He said that the company, which by agreement with the Catholic health care system that now owns Daniel Freeman will not provide abortions and other birth control services there, must instead offer them at Centinela and Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, which it also owns.

“The attorney general has some very serious concerns about ensuring that quality health care is provided to the people of that community,” said Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin. He “believes that the conditions are necessary in order to ensure that the patients in the community surrounding Daniel Freeman Hospital can continue to receive quality health care.”

Tenet said it would probably make its decision early next week.