Hospital Expansion Faces Additional Suit

Community Memorial Hospital, in a renewed attack on plans by the county hospital to build a major addition, has filed an expanded lawsuit challenging the county’s plan to issue bonds to finance the project.

The supplemental lawsuit, added to Community Memorial’s earlier legal complaint against the Ventura County Medical Center, says a Dec. 13 decision by county supervisors to issue $51 million in bond-like certificates is illegal.

The lawsuit seeks a court order voiding the supervisors’ action.

Community Memorial filed its original lawsuit in July, accusing the medical center of illegally competing for privately insured patients.

The two facilities are about three blocks apart, on Loma Vista Road in Ventura.

Last month, a Superior Court judge refused the county’s request to dismiss most of the Community Memorial lawsuit. Judge Frederick A. Jones said the county hospital must defend itself at trial against charges that it accepts privately insured patients who could be served at other hospitals.

He also said the county facility must answer to charges that it does not treat enough of the county’s patients who are uninsured or unable to pay.

The lawsuit says the county does not have the statutory authority to treat patients who can be served by other private hospitals. The seven private acute-care hospitals in Ventura County currently operate at 50% capacity, the lawsuit says.

A primary concern of Community Memorial is a new policy allowing county employees to go to county facilities for hospitalization and basic treatment.

Officials have said that about 1,000 of the 6,000 employees have chosen the lower-cost option, and that Community Memorial has lost patients as a direct result.