The state-funded Los Angeles Surge Hospital, which has seen relatively few patients since it opened five weeks ago to treat an anticipated overflow of COVID-19 cases, will close at the end of June, a source in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said Tuesday.
The hospital, located on the grounds of the shuttered St. Vincent Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles, was set up to handle as many as 270 patients a day. But the hospital has never had more than 25 patients at a time, officials said.
When the coronavirus crisis began and officials feared hospitals would be overrun by patients, the state signed a six-month, $16-million lease with Verity Health System, which owned St. Vincent and had declared bankruptcy.
The state also paid healthcare companies Kaiser Permanente and Dignity Health a monthly management fee of $500,000 each to oversee the Los Angeles hospital.
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“At the beginning of this crisis, we didn’t know what the challenges would be,” said Dr. Jamie Taylor, who ran the surge hospital’s intensive care unit. “So creating this hospital was something that had to be done. But now the smart thing to do is to adapt, based on what the community needs.”
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns The Times, purchased St. Vincent for $135 million in a deal that was finalized in early April. His global health firm NantWorks is a creditor in Verity’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The state’s lease was transferred to Soon-Shiong, but he was not involved in the operation of the surge hospital.
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The state had initially anticipated needing 50,000 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. Hospitals began to execute “surge plans” that would add 30,000 beds to their count. The rest would come from medical centers like St. Vincent and Seton Medical Center in the Bay Area, as well as field medical stations set up at convention centers and fairgrounds, and the U.S. Navy’s Mercy hospital ship. After two months docked in San Pedro, the Mercy returned to its home port of San Diego last week.
At its peak, the Los Angeles Surge Hospital employed nearly 500 personnel, from doctors and nurses to administrators and support staff. Many worked at the hospital while continuing to serve patients in other facilities throughout Southern California.
Soon-Shiong said at the time he purchased St. Vincent Medical Center that he planned to use buildings on the 10-acre campus for COVID-19 research.
Seton Medical Center, which has been exclusively treating COVID-19 patients, is also ending its agreement with the state.
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Times staff writer Taryn Luna, in Sacramento, contributed to this report.
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