Daniel Freeman Hospital: Battle may be won but war is far from over
By Theresa
Hulme
The Marina’s Daniel Freeman
Hospital announcement that it will remain open is a huge victory for local
activists and community members.
The good news came in April that the Daniel
Freeman Medical Center will remain open for an unspecified amount of time. The
Marina hospital provides much needed emergency and non-emergency services to the
rapidly growing areas of the Del Ray, Santa Monica, Venice, and Westchester
communities. The Medical Center found itself suddenly gasping for air and
fighting for its life as it was nearly bulldozed to the ground to make room for
yet another hotel and parking lot in its place.
The Daniel Freeman Hospital is owned
by the second largest hospital chain in the nation, Tenet Healthcare
Corporation. The scandal-ridden Tenet purchased the hospital in December 2001
from an order of Catholic nuns who operated the facility as a non-profit entity.
The for profit Tenet, a Fortune 500 Company and favorite on Wall Street, has a
pattern of buying up hospitals all over the U.S., trimming costs then shutting
them down.
Thanks to a committed group
of local activists and volunteers, a community organization called SOMH (Save
our Marina Hospital), the closure has been staved off indefinitely. SOMH leader
and Playa del Rey resident, Julie Inouye was instrumental in the battle to keep
the hospital open. Tenet first announced it had no plans to close the Marina
hospital but within weeks the property was put up for sale. Community members
concluded Tenet to be as untrustworthy as their stock price. Inouye immediately
formed SOMH with help from friends and neighbors and even summoned the powers of
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer onto the scene. Lockyer declared that Tenet
had not fulfilled the requirements of a hospital operator seeking to shut down a
hospital and filed a lawsuit. The Attorney General stated that Tenet had not
fulfilled its obligation to the community to allow for an open forum of debate
regarding the closure. Lockyer ordered Tenet to keep the hospital
open.
A little research on the part of
SOMH peeled back the layers of fraud and lawsuits the hospital chain has plagued
itself with for many years. Echoing the corporate gangsterism that has typified
the U.S. economy in the last few years, Tenet was recently sued by the U.S.
Justice Department for allegedly over billing Medicare to inflate its revenues
from 1992-1998. The government said Tenet overcharged Medicare for certain
procedures by using improper diagnosis codes for hospital stays. Also, federal
authorities raided a Tenet owned hospital in Redding where doctors were
knowingly performing unnecessary heart surgeries and engaging in other bill
padding techniques.
A Tenet hospital
in San Diego was also raided by authorities for doctors reportedly recruiting
patients into the hospital. These allegations are only the beginning of a
recently “restructured” corporation. In 1995, National Medical
Enterprises changed its name to Tenet, hoping to erase the sordid history of
scandal and fraud that shook the company a few years earlier. The name change
dramatically increased bottom line profits and a successful turn around strategy
was born thus setting off the trend of buying and selling hospitals around the
nation. NME posted a $425 million loss in 1994 to a $302 million profit by 2000.
Corporate CEOs and shareholders know the public has a short-term memory,
unfortunately.
Claims of doctor
deception and insurance fraud once again shed light on the company that chose
its new name because officials said it represented integrity and shared values:
Tenet Healthcare Corporation.
Headquartered
in Santa Barbara, Tenet executives compensated by bottom line profits and
shareholder revenues were taken by surprise as the small hospital in Marina del
Rey fought back and survived its own near-death experience. Thanks again to the
efforts of local citizens who realize that a hospital closure could mean many
lives lost to the benefit of a CEO’s yearly bonus.
Once again, the powers of a committed
citizenry derail the soulless corporate agenda of shareholder profit at the
expense of human interest. As Margaret Mead once said “Never doubt that a
group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing
that ever has.”
For more
information on getting involved with Save our Marina Hospital visit the website
at <www.somh.org>.
Posted: Sun - June 1, 2003 at 03:08 PM