West Los Angeles Welcomes new HealthSystem

November 22, 2004

The Beach Communities, Inglewood, Marina del Rey and West L.A.
Welcome
Centinela Hospital Medical Center

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – November 19, 2004 – Today, people in the beach communities, from south Santa Monica, Inglewood, Marina del Rey and West Los Angeles officially welcomed a new community health care partner – Centinela Freeman HealthSystem.

Centinela Freeman HealthSystem includes Centinela Hospital Medical Center – Centinela Campus, Memorial Campus, and Marina Campus – and the Centinela Hospital Airport Medical Clinic.  Centinela Freeman has been serving the beach communities from south Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, and Inglewood to north Redondo Beach for 80 years.  Centinela Freeman’s campuses are located next to Los Angeles International Airport, the 405 Freeway, and the Marina del Rey Freeway. 

“Every week, we are inundated with bad news about the health care system in Southern California,” said Mike Finnigan, chairman of the board for Centinela Freeman HealthSystem.  “Hospitals are closing and emergency rooms are shutting down, but we have some good news about health care in the South Bay and West L.A.  We’ve returned these hospitals to local ownership.”

Centinela Freeman announced that it will continue operating the 24/7 emergency departments at all three hospitals.  In addition, new services will be added, and care will be better coordinated among the three hospitals, and the Centinela Freeman HealthSystem hospitals will remain open for the community now and into the future.

For example, the Airport Clinic has just recently been approved to accept paramedic ambulances to help improve access to care and thereby reduce the burden on hospital emergency rooms.  In addition, plans are already underway to update the emergency departments at the Marina and Memorial Campuses, and to refurbish the emergency room at the Centinela Campus.

Additionally, the obstetrics and delivery services at the Centinela Campus will be expanded, and four new neonatal intensive care beds will be added at the Memorial Campus.  Over the next year, Centinela Freeman will be exploring an expansion of the neonatal intensive care unit at the Memorial Campus, to help improve the health of women and their newborns.

Centinela Freeman is the cornerstone of health care in this area, providing care every year for 97,000 emergency room patients and 28,000 inpatients at all three hospitals; performing 125,0000 outpatient procedures annually; and delivering 4,000 babies each year.

Centinela continues to be a leader in sports medicine, and remains the official hospital of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers, Sparks, Clippers and Avengers.  Additionally, Centinela Freeman will continue to partner with area non-profit organizations to provide greater access to health information, community seminars, prevention and health screening.  Over the next few weeks and months, Centinela Freeman will announce additional services that will improve health care quality and access for the community. 

“By returning Centinela Freeman to local ownership, we are returning health care to a simpler time,” said Finnigan.  “It’s a return to a time when local business owners, community leaders, and physicians joined together to provide strong local hospitals.  It’s a return to a simpler time when Main Street’s needs were more important than Wall Street’s.”

Centinela Freeman employs 2,800 people, providing paychecks and benefits for thousands of families, and has 760 physicians on staff, including many second and third generation physicians across the three hospitals.  In fact, along with Westridge Capital, a Los Angeles based private investment firm, more than 200 physicians have joined the Centinela Freeman investor group – one of the largest physician ownership groups in the nation.

Centinela Freeman HealthSystem is ready to serve the people of the beach communities from south Santa Monica, Inglewood, Marina del Rey and West Los Angeles for years to come.

About Centinela Freeman HealthSystem

Centinela Freeman HealthSystem is an 894 bed, three-hospital campus provider of health care services to the communities of West Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Inglewood and the South Bay. Centinela Freeman offers comprehensive health care services including OB and neonatal intensive care, pediatrics, advanced orthopedics, state of the art cardiac care, neurosurgery, oncology, rehabilitation and emergency services.  Centinela Freeman’s three campuses are located next to Los Angeles International Airport, the 405 Freeway, and the Marina del Rey Freeway.