Movie Industry Hospital and Nursing Home To Close

Movie Industry Hospital and Nursing Home To Close

The Motion Picture & Television Fund says financial problems will force it to shut facilities for aging entertainers in Woodland Hills by year's end.

By Lisa Girion and Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:31 PM PST, January 14, 2009

The Motion Picture & Television Fund said today that financial problems would force the industry charity to close a hospital and nursing home it operates in Woodland Hills for aging entertainers by year's end.

The fund said it would expand its existing network of community-based care and would relocate about 100 patients to area nursing homes. The fund said 290 workers would lose jobs in the closures.

The decision "reflects some sobering economic realities that are affecting healthcare institutions nationwide," David Tillman, fund chief executive, said in a statement. "With costs skyrocketing and government reimbursement declining, operating our own acute-care and long-term-care facility is draining our resources at an alarming rate."

DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation Board, said the organization had no choice.

"Although we are in good shape today," he said, "the acute-care hospital and long-term-care facility are generating operating deficits that could bankrupt MPTF in a very few years."

The organization said the nursing home transfers would begin in 60 days. The hospital will operate until later this year, the fund said.

The closures will not affect about 185 residents of fund independent-living and assisted-living facilities and six area health centers that serve about 60,000 industry workers.

The fund said that the hospital and nursing home had been running an operating deficit of $10 million a year and projected that to rise in coming years.

Today's announcement comes as hospitals across the state and nation are struggling with economic and financial problems. Dozens of hospitals in California have shut down in the last decade, and hospital industry experts say more are likely.

While the Hollywood elites are busy climbing all over themselves trying to get choice tickets to The Messiah's Inauguration events next week, an important asset to the community is falling by the wayside. Instead of worrying about being at The Messiah's shindig, going to Europe or the Bahamas, the Hollywood elites should chip in and keep the hospital going. They may need it themselves someday.