Dispenza, Ledford spar over hospital plan

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press October 11, 2000

By MICHAEL MARESH
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - The rift between Mayor Jim Ledford and City Councilman Mike Dispenza over a the perceived ability of a medi cal group to build a proposed westside hospital widened Tuesday.

At a press conference across from City Hall on Tuesday, Dispenza raised his concerns about reservations he has about the Prospect group's plans for a hospital at Fifth Street West and Palmdale Boulevard.

At present, the city could end up committing more than $5 million in city funds to assist in getting the facility built.

The Palmdale City Council voted 3-0 Sept. 28 to allow the city to continue to work with Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., a Los Angeles based medical group.

Dispenza voted in favor of continuing to work on the project, despite his personal reservations. Those concerns resulted in conditions being placed into the agreement.

Dispenza said after he voiced his concerns to Ledford and Councilman Rod Penner at the Sept. 28 meeting, conditions were placed in the development agreement so he would agree.

All three members of the as-yet three-man council had to give their approval for the project to move forward.

Dispenza said the main condition was to allow Prospect more time to produce financial records that would satisfy the council as a whole. Ledford has been an enthusiastic supporter of the project.

At Tuesday's press conference, Dispenza said he needed to clarify some issues on his stance on the proposed hospital and medical group.

The councilman listed three reasons why he initially could not vote in favor of the hospital:

a city-commissioned report indicated Prospect has never operated a hospital;

a 60-bed hospital was insufficient to meet potential community needs; and

Prospect could not provide financial proof to show ability to build and operate such a hospital.

The report compiled by the Camden consulting group noted that the physicians group was apparently following a business model that led to insolvency for some other physicians groups.

The Prospect physicians group provides service to patient groups that number in the tens of thousands in the Antelope Valley.

In addition, Dispenza said, Prospect Medical did not have a business plan or a plan to recruit physicians.

"I have been given a leadership role in this matter that I take very seriously," he said. "My goal is to ensure that the council is given satisfactory answers before we commit to spending millions of your hardearned tax dollars. The citizens of Palmdale will not be sold out as long as I sit on the council."

If the project comes to fruition, Palmdale would provide $5.2 million in financial assistance to help Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. to build a $60 million facility.

But Prospect, Dispenza said, does not look as if it can deliver what is needed to complete the hospital, he said.

"I don't see this as being viable for us," he said. "Prospect needs to be put under the microscope. They need to answer hard questions."

Dispenza closed his press conference by saying he was going to pose hard questions to Ledford.

The first, he said, was to ask why the council voted before reviewing the city commissioned Camden report to determine whether Prospect could follow through on their proposal. The city paid tens of thousands of dollars for the Camden group's diligence report.

Ledford later responded to Dispenza's objections, saying the council conditioned its approval on what it finds out about Prospect.

Ledford declared his confidence that the city would obtain the information needed from Prospect.

"That has to happen," Ledford said.

Dispenza also asked why Ledford hired the Camden Group if he was going to ignore their recommendations. Camden, Ledford said, was hired to do the analysis, adding that he was surprised Dispenza was upset.

"Mike voted yes," the mayor said. "We both agreed."

On the issue of whether Prospect has more than $50 million in resources, Ledford said that needs to be proved to the City Council.

"They have to provide the money," he said. "We need proof of (their) finances."

Dispenza also wanted to know why an exclusive contract was given to a start-up company as well as the need for the council to vote immediately.

"Everybody in this Valley is saying give them a chance," Ledford responded, adding that the Antelope Valley Hospital District supports the concept of Palmdale's working with Prospect.

"Mike's questioning his own vote," the mayor said, saying the conditions moving ahead with Prospect were always in place.

Ledford also took exception to questions raised about the Prospect deal over whether he favored the west side of Palmdale over the east side because $5 million would be given to the westside group under the hospital proposal and only $1 million was given to fund a partnership with AV Hospital and the County of Los Angeles.

"I am the only member of the council who lives on the eastside," Ledford said.

He added that the same offer that was given to the westside was offered to the eastside, but they declined the offer.

"I campaigned to bring a hospital to Palmdale," Ledford said. "And I continually will work with anybody who will try to bring a hospital to Palmdale.

"Mike voted the same way I did - to move forward."

Ledford said Prospect deserves the opportunity to prove to the city that it does have the capital needed to move forward.

"Mike is dismissing that without giving them a chance," he said.

If Prospect can prove to the city that it has the necessary funds, the medical group would build a twostory, 120,000-square-foot hospital with no fewer than 65 beds. The hospital would open by June 2, 2006.

Six of the 65 beds would be for intensive-care patients and eight would be for labor and delivery.

The facility would offer emergency and surgical procedures, including laboratory, radiology and recovery facilities and respiratory therapy and outpatient care.

The hospital would be built in conjunction with a separate threestory, 50,000-square-foot building for medical offices and outpatient services.