Community Hospital Long Beach is hiding secrets that undermine the integrity of our health care system and the success of the City's COVID-19 response.
Three days after the reopening of 1/3 of Community Hospital, signs still posted indicating that the hospital is closed. January 6, 2021 8:30pm.
Ask any health care professional and they'll tell you that the path to getting more of the public to vaccinate must include overcoming misinformation. Misinformation is a big word for lies.
The trouble with a city lying or misleading people during a pandemic is that it breeds mistrust. If our City has any chance of reaching herd immunity from COVID-19, public trust is the last thing we want to see undermined.
Unfortunately the operators of Community Hospital Long Beach didn't get that memo.
Monday, January 4, 2021 reporters buzzed around Community Hospital Long Beach eager to share good news with a City and County devastated by some of the nations worst COVID-19 statistics. Only two days later, the evolving truth about Community Hospital is revealing inconvenient truths about whether residents can trust our City's COVID-19 response.
"What began as good news from Community Hospital is now little more than a trail of little white lies that undermine public trust in a moment we need everyone to rally together"
How we got here
Community Hospital was closed in the early summer of 2018 due, in part, to seismic damage. City council then pledged to reopen the hospital and finally settled on granting a lease agreement to Molina, Wu Network LLC (MWN).
MWN's contract with the City was quite the bargain. Considering that Long Beach has no rent control, at $1 per year, MWN's lease was one of the most affordable in the City. To sweeten the deal the City agreed to chip in up to $25 million to help with repairs. If those terms weren't favorable enough, if at any time MWN decided that operating the hospital was no longer "economically feasible" they could simply walkaway and the City would reimburse them for the money they spent. You're welcome to read the details here.
In other words, MWN has no skin in the game and the City agreed to it. But, as the pandemic strengthened and hospital beds shrunk, questions as to what was holding up Community Hospital's re-opening mounted.
They had promised to re-open the hospital back in 2020 but dropped the ball. The City even went into its own pockets (taxpayer's pockets that is) to bailout MWN with more than $250,000 to help with repairs. Despite the effort, another re-opening deadline was missed.
Then came the Thanksgiving weekend that residents learned that the hospital was moonlighting as a Hollywood set. Questions turned to outrage. Days later, John Molina, one of MWN's owners announced that the operator's license had been approved by the State and would open at the start of 2021.
Most outlets reported Community Hospital's reopening heroically because it was billed by WMN's spokespeople and Mayor Robert Garcia as bringing desperate relief to regional hospitals that serve Long Beach. However, independent media sources and local residents noted that some things didn't add up.
Community Hospital still advertises for
Hollywood filming. January 6, 2021 8:30pm.
Upon closer inspection, what began as good news from Community Hospital is now little more than a trail of little white lies that undermine public trust in a moment we need everyone to rally together.
Little White Lie #1
When Community Hospital told the public that their state license to re-open had been approved there was a collective sigh of relief. However, were it not for the persistent meddling of veteran journalist Bill Pearl - editor of the LB Report - we might never have learned that the approved state license had a shelf-life of four short months. That's right, unless renewed, Community Hospital could be closed again in April.
It is worth noting that a great portion of the City's residents won't be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations for more than four months.
MWN, the hospital's operator, would have been more honest had they told residents that the state had granted the hospital a temporary learners permit.
Little White Lie #2
When MWN CEO, Virg Narbutas, said Community Hospital was "on track to expand services within 90 days" many residents were understanding.They commented that given medical staff shortages, the operator was probably facing hiring challenges.
However, LB Report uncovered that hiring is least among MWN's challenges. The operator failed to disclose that its license is clouded by numerous suspensions that are the root cause of its limited services. Specifically, 60 general acute care beds, 10 coronary care beds, 9 intensive care beds and basic emergency medical services are all suspended until January 3, 2022.
It remains unclear how or whether these new revelations will sway public sentiment.
Little White Lie #3
The day Community Hospital re-opened Mayor Garcia announced, “We expect the hospital reopening to have an immediate impact on local capacity and our ability to save lives.”
Not only did the hospital not receive its first and only patient until the next day at 4:20pm, the transfer did not come from one of the regional hospitals most overwhelmed by COVID-19. As Brandon E. Richardson reported "the first patient was transferred from College Medical Center". Just as two-thirds of Community Hospital Long Beach remains closed, more than two-thirds of College Medical Center consist of psychiatric beds. The other one-third are mainly surgical beds.
If you recall, during Mayor Garcia's frequent COVID-19 briefings he often states that St. Mary's, Long Beach Memorial and Los Altos Medical Center are the regional hospitals that require the most relief. Thus, while Community Hospital's first transfer patient was dubbed "Huge news" it failed to live up to the actual need our City faces in terms of hospital relief.
Why this matters
We are living in a moment in time where our political leaders have broad emergency powers. Our personal health and the health of our family and friends is vulnerable not only to coronavirus but also to misinformation.
From the start of the pandemic the public was misled as to basic facts. We saw first hand how our national political leaders could impact our health based on whether they told the truth or a lie.
The fact is that public safety and health are public goods. City council was elected to enter into a lease with a hospital operator for the public good. As it is nationally, so it is locally. Politics got in the way of the good.
MWN's founder, John Molina, is a powerful man. He is one of the Mayor's oldest and biggest campaign donors who once led one of the leading healthcare companies in the City. He also owns two of the most read newspapers in our City.
When a single individual has power over the news we digest, the healthcare we receive and the officials we elect their little white lies have a snow ball effect. The end result is the lack of public trust.
Already, healthcare workers in Long Beach have opted not to vaccinate. Confusion and misinformation regarding the vaccine is common on local social media threads. But if neither the City nor its chosen health care operator are honest about hospital capacity during the worst pandemic our nation has faced since the Spanish Flu, then how can it expect residents to roll up their sleeves and trust the COVID-19 vaccine?
Editor's Note - Franklin Sims led the effort to recall Mayor Robert Garcia.