Cedars-Sinai Health System last week announced its purchase of Marina Del Rey Hospital, a 145-bed acute-care facility that operates a 24-hour emergency department.

Cedars will retain all 660 employees but will convert the hospital to nonprofit status. Doing so “will result in an enhanced mission to serve the health care needs of the local community, including provision of community benefit programs,” a hospital statement related.

Marina Del Rey Hospital had previously been owned by a partnership led by Westbridge Capital, an investment firm based in Los Angeles. 

Cedars is charting a course that many other large providers – and health insurers – are pursuing. Consolidation gives providers economy of scale to spread expenses over a wider patient base. Growth also lets hospitals take advantage of the growing number of Medicare and Medicaid patients created by the Affordable Care Act.

Nationwide, mergers and acquisitions by health care systems have increased more than 16 percent between 2013 and 2014, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Similar arrangements, like joint ventures and clinical partnerships, are also on the rise.

Across Southern California and elsewhere, hospitals are opening neighborhood urgent care, wellness and outpatient facilities. Each facility can bring new patients, analysts say.

Cedars also recently opened an urgent care and primary care center in Culver City and will debut a similar center in neighboring Playa Vista in 2016.

Marina Del Rey Hospital CEO Sean Fowler, named to the facility’s top spot in 2014, will remain chief executive there, Cedars spokesperson Jane Brust told HASC Briefs.

Contact:
Jaime Garcia
(213) 538-0702
jgarcia@hasc.org