Motion picture fund in talks with Providence and UCLA to run hospital and nursing home

Seeking to end to a nearly two-year-long saga over the fate of its nursing home and hospital, the Motion Picture and Television Fund is in advanced talks with hospital chain Providence Health & Services and UCLA Health System to turn over the operations of the money-losing facilities.

The talks center on a proposed agreement that would allow those organizations to take full financial responsibility for the nursing home and hospital in Woodland Hills that serves workers in the entertainment industry, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.

The plan is preliminary, the source said, with many details yet to be worked out. It would have to be approved by the fund’s board and by state regulators before it could take effect, likely early next year.

Still, if finalized, the plan would appear to be a compromise, giving something to both sides in the standoff: Residents would get their wish of keeping the facilities open, albeit under a different set of conditions, while the fund would no longer be on the hook for operations that have been a financial drain on the charity.

Representatives of UCLA Health and Providence declined to comment.

Under the proposed plan, the charity would still own the facilities but lease them to the two not-for-profit organizations, which would staff and manage them. The facilities would offer guaranteed placements for 38 residents in the nursing home and would also serve other residents in the 44-acre community, but would also be open to people outside the entertainment industry. That’s a departure from the charity’s long-standing mandate and could spark some concern from the home’s supporters, who worry that there would not be enough beds available.

But in a meeting last month with residents, Bob Beitcher, the fund’s interim chief executive, said that the fund had made headway in talks with two organizations about running the nursing home and that the fund would continue to give priority to residents already on the campus, a person who attended the meeting said.

The nursing home would also admit short-term-care Medicare patients — for example, those recovering from surgery who don’t need long-term care. Medicare pays higher rates for such patients, making them attractive to nursing homes.

To handle the additional resident load, the nursing home, which is licensed for 250 beds, could double the current capacity.

“We are thrilled to hear that progress has been made,” said Nancy Biederman, co-founder of the group Savings the Lives of Our Own, which has fought the nursing home’s closure. “As always, the devil is in the details and we look forward to reviewing the details of the plans.”

The fund’s charitable mandate would fit with the mission of Providence, a Roman Catholic health services provider that operates hospitals, including St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, and healthcare clinics and nursing homes mainly on the West Coast. UCLA operates the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood and has many patients on the Westside who could be served by the nursing home.

The fund’s board had announced in January 2009 that it planned to close the hospital and nursing home, saying they were losing millions of dollars each year.

Residents fought the decision, saying comparable facilities were not available elsewhere and the fund was giving up on its mandate of “taking care of our own.” Residents hired an attorney to block their eviction and mounted a campaign to keep the facilities open.

The nursing home has cut most of its staff, prompting criticism from residents and their families that the quality of care has suffered. In May, state regulators fined the fund $7,500 for failing to prevent a serious head injury sustained by an 87-year-old resident of the home. This week the California Department of Public Health said it was investigating a complaint about the death of a patient who fell down a stairwell. The fund has declined to comment on the investigation but has denied claims that care has suffered.

Interim CEO Beitcher has pushed to consider alternatives to shutting the facilities down since he was tapped to replace the fund’s former head, David Tillman, who resigned in February after coming under fire over his handling of the closure announcement and its aftermath.

richard.verrier@latimes.com