Foundation leaders work to avoid complete closure of Community Medical Center Long Beach

Despite repeated assertions by hospital officials that the facility will be forced to close in 2019, one hospital foundation leader contends there is a "better than 50 percent chance of keeping Community Medical Center Long Beach (Calif.) open," the Press-Telegram reports.

Matthew Faulkner, paid executive director of Community Medical Center Long Beach Foundation, told the Press-Telegram the hospital's emergency room must stay open even if the full spectrum of hospital services cannot be preserved.

The hospital foundation, along with the city government, have reportedly initiated a process to keep the hospital and its ER open, according to the report.

CMCLB officials announced the hospital's impending closure earlier this month, after the facility failed to meet the state's updated seismic standards. A seismic study and subsequent peer review, issued by MemorialCare Health System, a six-hospital system in Fountain Valley, Calif., which owns and operates CMCLB, revealed the east hospital is located along a large fault line experts consider to be active, according to the report.

MemorialCare will likely phase out acute and ER services at CMCLB before the hospital's scheduled July 2019 closure, the report states. However, Mr. Faulkner contends officials will find a way to keep some services at CMCLB. The foundation reportedly agreed to spend $100,000 on its own study to assess local residents' views on the necessity of maintaining emergency room services, the report states.

"The basic premise is we don't need a 300-bed hospital on the east side," Mr. Faulkner told the Press-Telegram. "We do need the emergency care services and some beds."

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