Monterey, CA : Can Hospitals Really Go Bankrupt?

by Richard Kuehn on 03/28/12

Monterey, CA : Can Hospitals Really Go Bankrupt?  View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

 

I've been writing recently on my blog about the financial woes at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital (SVMH) and the government audit at Natividad Medical Center which found myriad problems which could have caused them to lose their Medical and Medi-Cal certification, a financially devastating prospect.  It made me think, can hospitals go bankrupt?  I've never seen it happen before but I just read an article about one in New York that did.  Crain's New York reported that Peninsula Hospital went into bankruptcy and the court failed to approve efforts to revive the hospital and ordered it closed for good.   Revival Home Health Care took over the hospital last year and put an executive who had no experience running a hospital, Todd Miller, in charge of the facility as CEO.  Under his watch, the state Department of Health had shut down the facility's laboratory on February 23, which many felt would be the last chapter in the hospital's sordid history.  The hospital had already been told in December that deficiencies were so serious in the laboratory that the hospital could be shut down at any moment.  Despite that warning, things were still bleak in February.  The February lab closure triggered a series of dramatic events in the weeks that followed. The federal official overseeing the bankruptcy, the Office of the U.S. Trustee, requested the appointment of a new operator after making the case that the lab closure was evidence of Peninsula's mismanagement. That's a shame.  Natividad, on the other hand, appears to be making rapid progress in addressing the concerns of the investigators which found many health issues at its facility.  We hope the government will sign off on the improvements and they can move on with their business.  With only three hospitals on the Monterey Peninsula, we don't need issues taking away management's attention at two of them.