Centinela Hospital Changes Hands

CNS - An Inland Empire-based company has purchased the struggling Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, which has seen a sharp rise in emergency patients since Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor hospital closed in August.

Prime Healthcare Services Inc., which now owns nine hospitals in Southern California, bought the 369-bed hospital from Centinela Freeman HealthSystems Holdings Nov. 1, company officials announced.

“It’s a done deal,” said Deborah Ettinger, a spokeswoman at Centinela Freeman. “It closed at 12:01 a.m. this morning.”

The hospital has been struggling financially for several years.

“We are 100 percent committed to delivering a financial shot in the arm to this hospital and providing the very best, most compassionate health care to the people of this community,” Prime Health Services chairman Dr. Prem Reddy said in a statement Oct. 31.

PHS pledged to expand the Emergency Department to relieve overcrowding, according to the statement.

Company officials said they will not make immediate, major structural changes at the hospital, which will continue to operate all departments including the emergency room. Current employees will be re-trained under the new management.

South Los Angeles’ MLK-Harbor hospital closed in August after failing several quality care tests necessary to receive federal funding.

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