Residents provided their wish list of services they hope to see when Community Hospital Long Beach is projected to reopen early next year during a public-input meeting Oct. 16.
Nearly filled to capacity, the Recreation Park 18-Hole Golf Course Clubhouse, 5001 Deukmejian Dr., housed Signal Hill and Long Beach neighbors who were quick to chime in with concerns and hopes for Community.
Daryl Supernaw, 4th District councilmember; Ray Burton, chair of the nonprofit Community Hospital Long Beach Foundation; and John Molina, founder of Pacific 6 Enterprises and partner of new hospital operator Molina, Wu, Network, LLC., moderated the event.
“When I took over the board this year, I started our meetings with a quote,” Burton told the public, referencing the yearlong convening of the Community Hospital Task Force. “One of the first quotes I used was, ‘There is no greater joy than in doing something that people said cannot be done.’ So, we want you to enjoy with us the opportunity of reopening the hospital.”
The meeting’s objective was to allow the public to steer the direction of the conversation, as opposed to Task Force events, in which city and hospital officials informed residents about the medical facility’s progress. Regardless, representatives did briefly share some status updates about the hospital.
Virg Narbutas, CEO of Community Hospital Long Beach, said physical inventory for equipment has concluded, allowing staff to be aware of the resources available and needed. He added that hospital personnel are interviewing managers for different departments, engineering specialists have been hired and the licensing is still being processed but is “on time.”
Molina explained to the public that the plan for the hospital is to scale down the acute-care portion of the site.
“In order to keep the emergency room open, we have to have a full, acute-care hospital,” he said. “We need to get the part of the hospital that can be seismically retrofitted as an acute-care hospital, but that doesn’t mean that services at the rest of the buildings can’t be useful. So, part of what we want to solve tonight is, ‘What else can we do? What are those services that you and your neighbors think will be valuable here, realizing that there will be some limitations?’”
Public suggestion at the meeting included, but was not limited to:
- Public-affairs department to promote all of Community Hospital’s endeavors
- Emergency room, complete with beds and necessary equipment
- Health lectures to promote education and illness prevention
- Transportation services
- Daycare center for mental-ill patients, such as those with Alzheimer’s disease
- Behavioral-health services
- Addiction services
- All types of therapy, whether it be massage, physical or occupational
- Pediatric services
- Diabetes services
- Recreational lounge for staff and patients
- Medical services for staff and volunteers, so that “we are taking care of the people who are taking care of the people,” according to one 4th-district resident
- Gratuitous services for those who cannot afford medical aid
- Sleep laboratory
- Gastrointestinal laboratory
- Coffee shop
- Outpatient clinics, such as a fatigue center, to streamline efficiency and recommend patients to a specific location
Narbutas and Molina clarified that the site’s intensive-care unit (ICU) will remain, and there are about 40 to 50 acute-care beds that will be utilized for an emergency room.
Narbutas also confirmed there will be MRI- and CT-scan services available at the hospital, in response to resident Helen Najar’s concern.
Matthew Faulkner, executive director of the nonprofit Community Hospital Long Beach Foundation, provided his input as a resident about Community Hospital’s potential services at a public-input meeting Oct. 16 at the Recreation Park 18-Hole Golf Course Clubhouse.
Gary Dudley, a Signal Hill resident, suggested that the hospital look into offering medical marijuana. Molina said, although the facility couldn’t function as a dispensary, it would be the “personal business” of doctors and patients if the former prescribes marijuana to the latter.
Local doctor Mike Vasilomanolakis stated that “there is something to be said about signage,” adding how it seems that people are aware that “Community is there, but at the same time, they don’t.”
“Something that kind of catches your eye,” he said. “Maybe something that’s bright or LED.”
Molina transitioned from Vasilomanolakis’s suggestion and polled the audience about possibly changing the hospital’s name altogether. He posed two options– keeping the original name, “Community Hospital Long Beach,” or renaming it to “Long Beach Community Hospital.”
A list of some of the ideas residents provided for Community Hospital Long Beach Oct. 16 at the Recreation Park 18-Hole Golf Course Clubhouse.
Others seemed indifferent to the idea of changing the name.
“This is an expensive endeavor,” Molina said. “It is more expensive than building an apartment building or office building. […] The new operators of the hospital, MWN, we are a for-profit organization. […] For us, it’s about the ability to get the capital that we need to pull in to improve this and get the hospital reopened.”
Residents can provide their input about Community Hospital Long Beach via the “contact” tab located at the top of the chlbfoundation.org webpage. Hospital officials said all suggestions received at the meeting will be posted to the website sometime this week.
