Centinela to Extend Emergency Service

Centinela Hospital Medical Center has agreed to continue treating emergency obstetric patients after May 26, although it will refuse to accept other patients brought in by paramedics after that date, officials announced Wednesday.

The agreement between the Inglewood hospital and the county supersedes Centinela’s earlier decision to withdraw completely from the emergency care system and apparently ends fears that it would create a domino effect, prompting other hospitals to follow suit.

After Centinela announced in March it would soon stop taking paramedic patients, Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne announced it had filed for state permission to close its doors to paramedic patients.

The hospital said it feared an increase in obstetric patients that it could not properly treat. Centinela is the only hospital in its immediate area with an obstetrics unit.

“It was a potential disaster just waiting to happen,” Carl Williams, of the county’s Department of Health Services, said Wednesday. “I am pleased we have been able to come to an agreement on this.”