The end of a decade-long partnership could be at hand for one of Orange County’s hospitals.
Memorial Health Services Inc. said late last month that it’s considering a sale of its 224-bed Anaheim Memorial Medical Center.
Memorial Health said it has invested $85 million in the Anaheim hospital since it became part of its system in late 1995.
While the hospital’s financial picture has improved in the past decade, Memorial Health said the hospital has been losing $2.5 million to $3.3 million annually for the past five years.
The health system is going to “work with Anaheim’s community leaders and other interested healthcare organizations in seeking the best options for this facility,” said Lisa Scheer, a Memorial Health senior vice president.
Options include an outright sale or finding a financial partner.
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Anaheim Memorial: 224-bed hospital |
Anaheim Memorial ranked No. 9 on the Business Journal’s most recent hospital list, with net patient revenue of $153 million for the 12 months through September.
It reported about 1,000 employees at the time.
Memorial Health said that Anaheim Memorial faces costs that could exceed $100 million to meet California’s hospital earthquake safety law.
Anaheim Memorial is one of four hospitals the Long Beach-based nonprofit owns in Orange County.
The hospital operator also runs Saddleback Memorial Medical Centers in Laguna Hills and San Clemente, and Fountain Valley’s Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center.
Anaheim Memorial opened in 1958 and was a free-standing facility for most of its existence.
In the mid-1990s, though, it started combination discussions with six potential partners before going with Memorial Health.
The combination was part of Anaheim Memorial’s bid to make itself more attractive to health maintenance organizations, which were an emerging power for healthcare coverage at the time.
Hospitals band together to cut costs. By providing a larger base of hospitals to treat patients, the groups negotiate with HMOs from a stronger position.
Other suitors included St. Joseph Health System, the Orange-based Catholic health system with three local hospitals, and HCA Inc., then known as Columbia/HCA.
Beckman Loses Dispute
Digene Corp., a Gaithersburg, Md.-based maker of genetic tests, said last week that an arbitration panel ruled in its favor in a dispute over Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc.’s sale of some intellectual property to Tucson-based Ventana Medical Systems.
Digene said the American Arbitration Association’s panel ruled that Beckman Coulter violated terms of a cross-licensing agreement between Digene and Institut Pasteur when it sold its human papilloma virus business and assets to Ventana in 2002.
Beckman acquired the HPV business in 1991 from the institute.
Beckman, in a statement, said the arbitration panel ruled that it was permitted to assign the HPV licenses as part of the sale to Ventana, but that the panel did find it was improper to sell certain technology prior to the close of the sale in September 2002.
The medical device maker also said a supply deal between it and Ventana was found to be improper. The deal, which allowed Beckman to be a Ventana customer for the HPV materials, will be nixed.
The arbitration panel voided the sale, Digene said.
Digene sued Ventana in November 2001 over alleged infringement of a patent covering HPV technology. It later added Beckman to the complaint after the sale of similar technology to Ventana.
The complaint moved to arbitration in 2004, according to Digene.
Bits and Pieces:
F. Michael Ball, president of Allergan Inc., Irvine, recently was named a director at IntraLase Corp., an Irvine-based eye laser device maker. Ball replaces Mark Lortz, who resigned … I-Flow Corp., Lake Forest, said it signed deals with San Diego-based Three Rivers Provider Network, Austin, Texas-based USA Managed Care Organization and an unnamed East Coast health plan to reimburse the cost of using its On-Q pain management system for surgeries in outpatient surgical centers. The deals cover 6 million people, according to I-Flow … Talbert Medical Center in Costa Mesa now is offering teen clinic services addressing birth control management, eating disorders, STD screening and gynecology … Sleepnostics Sleep Labs opened at Barranca Surgery Center in Irvine. Sleepnostics specializes in diagnosing and treating sleep-related disorders, including narcolepsy and parasomnias … Next Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is just across the county line in Carlsbad, said it provided a compound used in a study on cultured prostate cancer cells. Researchers found the compound, derived from the Amur cork tree, killed a high percentage of such cells.
