Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center

Financially troubled Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles will complete its merger with nearby Queen of Angels Medical Center on Jan. 27, a spokeswoman for the medical centers said Wednesday. On that day, Queen of Angels will close its aging 404-bed facility overlooking the Hollywood Freeway and move its doctors, patients and administrative personnel a few miles north to Hollywood Presbyterian's more modern 395-bed facility on Vermont Avenue in Hollywood.

Automated external defibrillators, which allow a layman to shock a person back to life after a heart attack, can nearly double the chances of survival for heart attacks suffered in airports, casinos and other places where there are bystanders able to help. But in hospitals, it's a different story, researchers said Monday. There, the devices — which have become widely used in recent years — not only provide little benefit but actually increase the risk of patients dying, a team of investigators reported at a Chicago meeting of the American Heart Assn.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said it completed the previously announced sales of five acute-care hospitals in three states, including Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Hollywood Presbyterian was sold to CHA Medical Group. Tenet estimated net after-tax proceeds of that single sale to be $71 million. The other transactions involved hospitals in Louisiana and Massachusetts. The five hospitals are among 27 that Tenet announced it was divesting last January.

State health officials fined Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center $25,000 after nurses on Oct. 28 gave a patient blood intended for another person, causing the patient to die. The patient who died had type O positive blood and was not supposed to receive a transfusion. But two licensed nurses mistakenly gave the patient A positive blood from a transfusion bag intended for another patient. The nurses failed to make sure that the name on the blood bag matched the name of the patient receiving the transfusion.

Richard W. Lambert has been appointed senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Newport Beach office of Brakeley, John Price Jones Inc., managers and consultants for institutional fund raising and public relations. He succeeds Jack H. Brown, who was named senior counsel. Most recently, Lambert served as campaign supervisor and consultant for the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's $90-million endowment campaign. He has also directed Brakeley, John Price Jones campaigns for Children's Hospital Medical Center and Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

A city Fire Department ambulance was stolen Wednesday afternoon from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, and a man was arrested several hours later after driving 200 miles to Paso Robles, authorities said. The man was arrested by California Highway Patrol officers on U.S. 101 around 8 p.m. Authorities said he would be brought back to Los Angeles to be booked on suspicion of grand theft auto.

A man died of asphyxiation and three people were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a faulty heater today in a Hollywood apartment building. Firefighters called to 1525 N. Van Ness Ave. about 10:30 a.m. found the dead victim and the injured people and quickly evacuated the apartment house, said Los Angeles City Fire Department Inspector Ed Reed. Paramedics took the three victims, who were suffering from "dizziness and nausea," to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Reed said.

A charge of attempted murder was dismissed against Van Nuys physician John Frederick Kappler, whom authorities had accused of removing, without authorization, the life-support system of a brain-damaged patient at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center last April.

State health officials fined Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center $25,000 after nurses on Oct. 28 gave a patient blood intended for another person, causing the patient to die. The patient who died had type O positive blood and was not supposed to receive a transfusion. But two licensed nurses mistakenly gave the patient A positive blood from a transfusion bag intended for another patient. The nurses failed to make sure that the name on the blood bag matched the name of the patient receiving the transfusion.

Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) said they will ask state budget conference committee members to earmark more than $100 million generated by new tobacco taxes for hospitals sharing a heavy portion of trauma and emergency care. "We once had a safety net. Now there is a huge hole in that net," said Roos, noting that Whittier Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital's recently announced plans to close its trauma facility would leave the Los Angeles area with only 13 of its original 23 trauma centers.

LeRoi Moore, a saxophone player for the Dave Matthews Band, died Tuesday of injuries suffered in an accident on an all-terrain vehicle in June. He was 46. Moore, born in 1961, died at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, the band said on its website. He was initially hospitalized in late June after the accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va. He had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin physical rehabilitation when complications forced him back into the hospital July 17. It was not immediately clear what the complications were.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on Friday settled allegations that it left a paraplegic man crawling around downtown Los Angeles' skid row in a hospital gown and with a colostomy bag by agreeing to pay $1 million and be monitored by a former U.S. attorney for up to five years. The resolution of the lawsuit marks the biggest settlement so far in the Los Angeles city attorney's efforts to crack down on hospitals and other institutions that "dump" patients on skid row.

A city Fire Department ambulance was stolen Wednesday afternoon from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, and a man was arrested several hours later after driving 200 miles to Paso Robles, authorities said. The man was arrested by California Highway Patrol officers on U.S. 101 around 8 p.m. Authorities said he would be brought back to Los Angeles to be booked on suspicion of grand theft auto.

Prosecutors filed civil complaints on Tuesday accusing two hospitals and a transportation services firm of dumping homeless patients in downtown Los Angeles, including one highly publicized case in which a paraplegic man wearing a colostomy bag was found crawling in a gutter near a skid row park in February. The complaints by the L.A.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, accused of dumping a homeless paraplegic patient on a skid row street, announced Friday that it would adopt the same discharge rules for the homeless as Kaiser Permanente agreed to this week to resolve criminal charges and lawsuits by the Los Angeles city attorney. Kaiser's settlement with the city attorney requires that it establish new discharge protocols for homeless patients and provide more training for employees, and calls for monitoring by retired U.

A hospital under investigation for leaving a paraplegic man on skid row last week has released his medical records, the city attorney said Thursday. "These records will serve as an essential tool in our efforts to investigate this recent and shocking instance of homeless dumping," City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said. The handover came a day after Delgadillo accused Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center of "stonewalling" the probe.

A hospital under investigation for leaving a paraplegic man on skid row last week has released his medical records, the city attorney said Thursday. "These records will serve as an essential tool in our efforts to investigate this recent and shocking instance of homeless dumping," City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said. The handover came a day after Delgadillo accused Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center of "stonewalling" the probe.

The Los Angeles city attorney Wednesday lambasted Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, saying it was deliberately blocking the release of medical records from a paraplegic man who was allegedly "dumped" last week in a skid row gutter. City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said in a statement that a prosecutor had met with the victim, obtained his written consent for the release of records and forwarded the document to the hospital.

The Los Angeles city attorney's office is investigating whether a Hollywood hospital violated multiple laws when it attempted to leave a paraplegic man on a gurney at the Midnight Mission -- hours before he was left in a skid row gutter, officials said Monday. A video, filmed by security cameras at the Midnight Mission early Thursday, shows two workers from Hollywood Presbyterian arriving by ambulance and trying to wheel the man, who is strapped down to the gurney, into the mission courtyard.