Century City Doctors Hospital begins shutting down
The facility, whose emergency room will close Saturday, has filed for liquidation.
Financially troubled Century City Doctors Hospital has begun shutting down and officially will close next Friday, according to hospital executives.
The hospital will close its emergency room Saturday and begin transferring about 25 patients being treated at the hospital to nearby facilities beginning this weekend.
Today the hospital filed for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Employees said they didn't get paid today, and top hospital executives said the facility did not have the money to pay them.
The 176-bed facility, in the Century City Medical Plaza, has tried for months to get in better financial shape but has struggled to pay its growing debt, which the hospital estimated in a recent interview with The Times at more $60 million.
The hospital opened in October 2005 and featured cutting-edge technology including an all-digital medical records system and top-flight amenities such as wireless Internet in each room, gourmet meals that patients could order any time and movies on demand.
But the facility has struggled financially from the start. The largest problem has been a lack of patient volume, administrators said. It has recently been averaging about 60 beds filled each day -- far fewer than what's needed financially
daniel.costello@latimes.com
