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About the Story: Over the past five years, 11 hospitals have closed In L.A. County. Now, one is bucking the trend with plans to expand. So what’s holding things up? Sam Louie goes to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the northeast San Fernando Valley to find out. (TRT: 7:58)

Hospital Expansion Battle

Publish date: November 20, 2007
Last updated: September 6, 2008

Reporter's NOTES

Sam Louie
The rapid loss of hospitals in Southern California cannot be underestimated. I did not realize the impact it had on the healthcare industry until my recent visit to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, Calif.

No one in the San Fernando Valley argues that this is a crisis that needs to be addressed, but there are concerns on how to best proceed with expansion while taking into account the community’s needs. Some community groups want to ensure that the expansion project of Holy Cross comes with an environmental impact report (the city does not require this) as a token of goodwill to the neighboring communities. There are even threats of lawsuit if the plans continue as is without one.

Insider Viewpoints

Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion at Providence Holy Cross (CARE) is a coalition of local residents, nonprofit community organizations, hospital workers, unions and religious leaders that have come together to work toward a responsible hospital expansion at Providence Holy Cross Hospital, located in Mission Hills, Calif. We support improved healthcare facilities for the people who are living in the San Fernando Valley and believe that the best way to achieve this goal is to guarantee that the expansion of Providence Holy Cross is carried out in a responsible manner. Before the proposed development proceeds, CARE is seeking to ensure that Providence addresses the project's full environmental impact on the surrounding communities and demonstrates that the expansion will meet the real needs of residents.

--Excerpt taken from the CARE Website

The $143 million, 101-bed expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the North San Fernando Valley will enable the medical center to better serve the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley residents who rely on this hospital daily for care. This project will also provide relief to existing hospitals that have experienced a surge in emergency room visits and admissions as a result of recent hospital closures in Van Nuys, Calif., and Granada Hills, Calif.

The 101-bed expansion is scheduled to open in 2010 and will make Providence Holy Cross the second largest hospital in the valley with 355 beds. The expansion includes a Women’s Pavilion, featuring labor and delivery suites and a new, 12-bed neonatal intensive care unit, an expanded intensive care unit, surgery suites and a GI lab.

The project has been recognized by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Grand Building Rating System, which is the nationally accepted benchmark for environmentally conscious design. Providence Holy Cross will be the first LEED-certified hospital in California and only the fifth nationwide.

Dan Boyle
Media Relations Manager
Providence Health & Service San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys Service Area

COMMUNITY VIEWPOINTS

01.26.2008 | 7:14 pm
Please give me more seminars in the hospital and contact me anytime for any concerns. I need this information for tax purposes.

My mother would like to take some time out and take the volunteer program and apply for a medical code position. Thank you.

Release Your Fears - Pasadena, California

12.19.2007 | 4:52 pm
In response to M.T. of Burbank, Calif.: The Providence organization, although originally a beneficiency and Catholic organization with a cross as its logo, is actually nothing more than a business now. It has turned pretty evil to its employees.

In fact, SEIU-organized employees at St. Joseph in Burbank were summarily FIRED within 30 days of voting, when they dared to organize and voted for SEIU. Providence-SJ spent millions in expansion, and just like a spoiled and selfish housewife who is getting a new house, they wanted absolutely everything new.

Even though expensive medical equipment, furniture and all other equipment were in perfect condition. Instead of easing into the new hospital wing within the next few years, they went happy-go-lucky and overspent.

Almost 100 employees were fired (”laid off” [permanently] as the administrator put it). Then, they were given a severance pay of a miserly $100 per year of service.

Some of them gave their entire working life, and at 29 years of service and on the brink of retirement, they were summarily FIRED! Community activists challenged the VP with the fact that most companies, if they need to terminate someone for their own reasons, always pay $1,000 per year of service.

The VP responded that, because Providence was a nonprofit, they could not pay the usual amount. The VP, then, was queried if it was through HIS OWN salary, it was $4 million a YEAR!

The VP responded that he would not comment on that for personal reasons. He was, then, reminded that nonprofits, in order to maintain a nonprofit TAX-exempt status, must maintain an “open-book policy” to ANYONE in the community.

That’s the law. He was, then, asked to surrender an entire list of salaries for the entire administration, charging that–if the VP makes $4 million–then the president must make even more. And since they came together from other hospitals, like Glendale Presbytarian–where they also destroyed employees’ lives–along with their minions in tow, they need to show accountability.

They roundly refused to disclose! All SEIU employees lost their jobs and were cheated of fair severance pay and an invested work life (most of those people will not be hired by anyone based on age).

Allowing for that expansion at Holy Cross will only incur the same, exact thing to happen, and lots of employees will lose their jobs and invested life. In fact, “It is shameful that *organized labor* places (REPLACE Providence organization instead of “Organized labor” here) its own narrow priorities above those of entire communities.”

Let us remember that it wasn’t “almost 100 employees” who were affected at S.J., but ALMOST 100 ENTIRE FAMILIES! Now, they will do it again at Holy Cross.

That’s one heck of an environmental impact! We cannot let it happen again!

Before a single brick is moved, Providence has to account for and hold every penny to be spent without affecting the employees and the community, and they need to stipulate (in writing) that no employees will be affected–no matter what the outcome! Holy cross must find the financial solution elsewhere should they run into problems.

At the expense of being dismissed as “cynical,” it is not cynical to say that the Providence-SJ Fiasco was a very clever play by very crooked “hired gun” administrators. They killed two birds with one stone!

1) They, as the spoiled housewife in a new house demanding full replacements of the home contents, got all they wanted and then fired the employees to control the expense.

2) It was also a perfect excuse to cry “financial troubles” as the excuse to fire the employees who dared to organize by voting in the SEIU Labor Union, even though the support organization “Providence Foundation,” which does nothing but raise funds, generated over $300,000 in the golf tournament just a few days later after the firing, reducing the balance of the deficit to $600,000–an amount that could have been easily handled if the president and VP would have taken a pay cut of $300,000 each (even in installments) from the $4 million per year pay for the VP and, perhaps, $5 million for the President (they never disclosed the salaries, a violation of IRS rules for tax-exempt organizations).

JJ - San Fernando, California

11.25.2007 | 9:38 pm
There is absolutely no question that more hospital beds in a quality facility in the northern San Fernando Valley has been needed for years. I thank Providence Holy Cross for stepping up to the plate to commit millions of dollars to make this happen and I fully support their efforts.

The hospital administration has the needs of the community in mind, both from the perspective of considering environmental needs from the point of design–as well as the very real need of providing expanded medical services to the people of this and surrounding communities. Any further “study” will only serve to delay creating services that are already in short supply.

As a physician on staff at the hospital, I am constantly amazed at the efficiency and organizational skills and processes displayed daily at Holy Cross in order to care for the number of patients who are being squeezed into this facility. Unfortunately, no matter how efficient, it is not unusual for my patients to be routed elsewhere during 911 transport because Holy Cross has no available space to add just one more patient. I am very hopeful that the expansion will be permitted to proceed without delay.

MN MD - Mission Hills, California

11.21.2007 | 11:38 pm
This hospital has been a shining star in health care. It is surrounded by the busiest highways in the nation, and its present location could easily accomodate the needed expansion.

The plan is thoughtful and considerate of the community’s needs in the near future. In lieu of an expansion of the hospital, the community could opt to expand the nearby San Fernando Mission Cemetery and Eden Memorial Park facilities. Now, that’s an attractive alternative!

N.T. - Valencia, California

11.21.2007 | 2:23 pm
Support for Providence Holy Cross Medical Center’s Expansion—Northeast Valley Health Corporation (NEVHC) is a nonprofit, community health center with 10 licensed and JCAHO-accredited facilities throughout the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys. Our mission is to serve the low-income, uninsured and medically underserved residents of our communities.

We currently have a patient base of approximately 45,000 children, men and women. Northeast Valley Health Corporation applauds the city council’s actions to uphold the planning commission’s decision to move forward with the hospital’s construction with the MND!

Additional beds are critical to us as a safety-net healthcare provider in the community. A major part of our practice is children and pregnant women–keeping them healthy and out of the hospital.

Providence Holy Cross has and continues to be a major strategic partner for NEVHC. Prenatal patients usually have the option to deliver their baby at the local hospital nearest their homes.

Many of our patients hope to select Providence Holy Cross for their delivery. However, because of the shortage of beds at Holy Cross, our patients are referred to other hospitals–including the very busy County Olive View Medical Center. NEVHC urges all members of our communities to please continue to support Providence Holy Cross and their expansion efforts for the health and well-being of all our residents!

H.A. - San Fernando, California

11.21.2007 | 2:22 pm
Thank goodness that the L.A. City Council approved the much-needed expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. It is astounding to me that anyone gave any credence to organized labor’s self-serving “opposition” to this project.

If Providence Holy Cross Medical Center was an SEIU-organized facility, they would have given their unreserved endorsement of this project. PHCMC is running more than 90% occupancy, and two nearby hospitals closed–taking away vital capacity. It is shameful that organized labor places its own narrow priorities above those of entire communities.

M.T. - Burbank, California

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