After a rush to get staff, equipment and supplies in the beginning months of the coronavirus pandemic, Community Hospital continues to languish without patients because its operators are waiting for a final inspection and licensing from the state health department.
Community plans to start accepting patients later this year, pending approval of all state licensing.
The hospital, which received 27,000 visits per year, will help the city address the homelessness crisis, officials said.
The state recently approved a seismic compliance plan for Community Hospital. The next step is getting the staff and equipment in place for an inspection from the California Department of Public Health in the coming weeks.
The 95-year-old Community Hospital could soon be ready to reopen once it receives its state permits.
The new operator said that the open date for the hospital has been pushed back from July as originally announced, but that it could still be sometime this year.
If state regulators sign off on construction plans and permits the hospital which closed in 2018 could be open as soon as July.
With an interim lease agreement, the hospital is one step closer to reopening, hopefully by this summer, said John Molina, a partner for Molina, Wu, Network, Community’s new operator.
The plan with the new operator Molina, Wu, Network comes after months of negotiations on a lease agreement for the 94-year-old East Long Beach facility, which closed last summer due to seismic compliance issues, shuttering the area’s only emergency room.
The talks to re-open Community Hospital come as the deadline looms for new operator Molina, Wu, Network, to reopen the hospital take over its license before it expires on April 28.
