St. Francis Medical Center is a for-profit hospital in

Lynwood, California Lynwood is a city in Los Angeles County, California. At the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 69,772, down from 69,845 at the 2000 census. Lynwood is located near South Gate and Compton in the central portion of the Los Angeles ...

, United States, owned by

Prime Healthcare Services Prime Healthcare Services is a United States privately held healthcare company. It was established in 2001, by chairman and CEO Prem Reddy, MD, and operates 45 hospitals in 14 states. It is affiliated with the nonprofit Prime Healthcare Foundation ...

History

The hospital was founded in 1945 by the

Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity The Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity is a Roman Catholic religious congregation for women. A third order secular group, the sisters are not cloistered nuns but active in the world, having historically been primarily involve ...

. In 1981, it was acquired by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. In January 1996, the hospital's emergency department was designated a

level II trauma center A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergen ...

. After the August 2007 closure of the troubled nearby public hospital,

Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

(King-Harbor), St. Francis' proximity caused it to receive the greater number of former patients. The hospital has since expanded its emergency department by 14 beds and seen an increase in patients to 180 per day (from 155), with the

intensive care unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensi ...

seeing an average rise from 26 patients to 33. As King-Harbor was long a major hospital for the city's sickest and poorest residents, the increase in uninsured and under-insured patients has put stress on the finances of the facility. As the hospital continued to lose money, the

California Medical Association The California Medical Association (CMA) is a professional organization based in California that advocates on behalf of nearly 50,000 physicians in legislative, legal, regulatory, economic, and social issues. The organization was founded in 1856 ...

and the

California Nurses Association The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United, is a trade union labor union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States. Since 2018, CNA/NNOC ha ...

supported Daughters of Charity Health System selling the facility to

, though

Service Employees International Union Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members ...

opposed the sale. Prime Healthcare backed away from sale based on the terms set by Attorney General

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...

. On December 3, 2015, Harris conditionally approved transferring the hospital property to

BlueMountain Capital Assured Investment Management previously BlueMountain Capital Management and Assured Guaranty, is a diversified alternative asset manager founded in 2003 based in the United States'. Company BlueMountain was formed in 2003 with offices in New Yo ...

, which promised $250 million in capital improvements. Daughters of Charity Health System soon became Verity Health System. Verity Health System filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018. In 2019, Verity agreed to sell St. Francis to KPC Group in Riverside for $420 million, but the deal was not completed. On April 9, 2020, Verity announced the sale of St. Francis to

for over $350 million; Prime committed to investing $47 million in capital improvements, the deal was completed in August 2020.

Description

, St. Francis has 384 beds, 375 doctors, and about 20,000 patients a year.

References

External links

St. Francis Medical Center Official Website

This hospital in the CA Healthcare Atlas
A project by OSHPD {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Francis Medical Center (Lynwood) Hospital buildings completed in 1945 Hospitals in Los Angeles County, California Hospitals established in 1945 Lynwood, California 1945 establishments in California Prime Healthcare Services Hospitals in the United States