Seven months after filing for bankruptcy protection, the 85-year-old Brotman Medical Center is stumbling through yet another death-bed experience.
Poised at the ledge of a cliff with a fatal dropoff, the question of most concern to Culver City residents is:
Will the only hospital in the immediate area beat death again?
Mayor Alan Corlin told the newspaper believes an attempt will be made, shortly, to shut down the heavily criticized hospital.
Financially flailing Brotman, the longest dying patient, commercial or human, in the history of Culver City, faces its next grave deadline — emphasis on the first syllable — one week from this morning.
Living day-to-day at the mercy of a controversial hospital management company in Victorville that has grown at a lighting rate, Brotman and its emergency landlord will meet in a courtroom.
At issue is whether a judge will rule that the company, Prime Healthcare Services Inc., must continue doling out a weekly operating allowance to the desperate Brotman executives.
Without the allowance, the hospital indicated its day-to-day operations would have to end.
Getting Into Position
The Los Angeles Times reported today that hungry Prime Healthcare — which has acquired 5 of its 9 smallish hospitals in the last year and a half — positioned itself this month, by dint of a shrewd maneuver, to take over Brotman.
Prime bought a slice of Brotman’s loans, $18 million worth, from Brotman’s main source of lending.
But the hospital, financially handcuffed, had to go to court to force Prime Healthcare to provide weekly funding.
In the meantime, Brotman, which has lots of experience, is putting on its by now familiar good face.
CEO Stan Otake told the Times, “We’re starting to turn things around.” A series of hospital executives have spoken the same words on numerous private and public occasions during the past decade.
Sunny Side up
Just as invariably, Brotman leaders have maintained throughout these recurring crises that an attractive rival suitor is standing nearby to rescue them.
Considering itself powerless to act, City Hall, hands at its sides, is closely watching developments.
The city will be plunged into a healthcare crisis and a financial pinch of its own if the Brotman situation noticeably worsens, officials said.
Mr. Corlin said that the city’s three ambulance fleet — soon to grow to four — delivers patients to Brotman’s emergency room only in about half of cases.
The E.R. may be full, the patient may insist on going elsewhere or Brotman’s facility may be inadequate, the mayor said.
Reddy at the Ready
The man in the middle of this liquid scenario is a cardiologist, Dr. Prem Reddy, the CEO of Prime Healthcare, a native of India.
From his desert headquarters, Dr. Reddy has battled the Times and factions within the healthcare industry over his method of acquisition and operation as he strives to bulk up his niche empire.
Prime’s strategy is to acquire small hospitals in need of improvements. “Our goal is to invest in the infrastructure,” Dr. Reddy said, and “keep them alive.”
Prime purchased its first hospital in 1994, its second in September of ’05, and seven more in rapid succession, over the past 26 months.
