A special community meeting where residents can give input on the kinds of services they’d like to see at the new Community Hospital is set for Tuesday, Oct. 16 at Recreation Park.
The meeting will supplant the regularly scheduled Long Beach City Council meeting as progress toward re-opening the recently shuttered hospital progresses. The hospital was closed in July after months of negotiations to keep its state license from lapsing resulted in the Molina-Wu Network agreeing to take over operations.
The hospital’s former operator, Memorial Healthcare System, opted to close Community Hospital because of what it said were seismic issues that were not feasible to fix. A survey of the area showed that a portion of the hospital sat on top of a fault line which put it out of compliance with state building codes governing hospitals and where acute care facilities can exist.
Memorial’s decision to suspend its license rather than let it lapse allowed for the Molina, Wu group to take over and work toward reopening the hospital in 2019.
(John Molina is part of the Molina, Wu, Network’s bid. He is also a founding partner in Pacific6, the parent company of the Long Beach Post.)
The new Community Hospital CEO Virg Narbutas pledged to have the hospital back up and operating by the start of 2019 and all signs have pointed toward that happening. A team from Molina, Wu is expected to be on hand to give a presentation to attendees and to gather their input.
Incoming Community Hospital CEO says he wants to reopen ER by January
While a smaller emergency room will be among one of the first elements to open with the new hospital, organizers want the public’s input on what other types of services could be incorporated into the revived space.
The meeting is scheduled to being at 6:30 p.m. at the Recreation Park clubhouse located at 5001 Deukmejian Drive.