Los Robles Regional Medical Center

Viewers of ABC's nationally televised show "Good Morning America" were greeted by volunteers from Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks on Aug. 6. The 500 members of Los Robles Volunteers Inc., a nonprofit auxiliary organization, were celebrating 1 million hours of service since the program began in 1971. And you might have guessed--nearly half of them are age 60 and older. Senior volunteers are worth their age in gold.

A Thousand Oaks hospital has agreed to pay $4.75 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of miscalculating overtime and not compensating hourly workers for missed rest periods and lunch breaks. The settlement by Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center will result in payments ranging from $100 to more than $25,000 to 1,116 current and former employees who worked there from October 1999 through July 2004.

The nation's major hospital accreditation organization will inspect Los Robles Regional Medical Center next month to determine whether to restore the center's full accreditation. The inspection will be the Thousand Oaks hospital's fourth in less than two years by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Previously, the commission has cited Los Robles for failing to meet filing and record-keeping standards.

An 87-year-old Thousand Oaks woman was killed when the car she was driving was broadsided by an SUV, authorities said Wednesday. Nellie Dishno and her husband Thomas, 88, were northbound on Skyline Drive about 3:10 p.m. Tuesday when the accident occurred. After stopping her 1994 Buick Century at Hillcrest Drive, Dishno began to drive through the intersection into the path of a 2002 GMC Yukon driven by 42-year-old Katherine Hopkins of Thousand Oaks.

A month after the merger of the Conejo Valley's only two hospitals won approval, officials at Los Robles Regional Medical Center are considering scenarios that would shut down Westlake Medical Center or convert it to a rehabilitation facility. Officials of Columbia/HCA, which owns Los Robles and received permission from federal regulators to acquire its Westlake Village rival, are expected to discuss plans for the hospital at a corporate meeting Aug. 23 in Dallas, a hospital spokeswoman said.

It is just after 11 p.m. on Friday, and the emergency room at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks is packed. A 12-year-old boy lies on cot No. 2, his face a patchwork of scrapes and bruises, the result of a hard fall off a racing bicycle earlier in the evening. A blond woman in her late 30s squirms on cot No. 5 after having an allergic reaction to a wine she knew she wasn't supposed to drink.

Carmen Tinoco was trying very hard not to cry. She was recalling her son's death about a year ago, and the 55-year-old Oxnard woman furiously blinked back tears as she told what happened. "He was killed by a drunk driver," Tinoco said, her face tightening as she remembered the accident. Her son Anthony was at Lake Casitas with some friends when a woman driver asked for directions. Anthony climbed into the truck to ride with her to the lake.

The occupants of a slow-moving vehicle heading south on the Ventura Freeway at the Conejo Grade suffered minor injuries after being hit in the rear by another vehicle. The passengers were wearing seat belts, the CHP reported. Dirk Spialti, 20, of Ventura and Jo Ellen Davis of Yucaipa were treated for minor injuries Sunday night at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks and released.

The second lawsuit in less than a year alleging that local doctors did not diagnose the so-called "flesh-eating bacteria" in time to save a life was filed in Ventura County Superior Court on Wednesday against the Westlake Medical Center and seven doctors. The strange ailment killed Charles S. Thrower in March. The 39-year-old Agoura man died at Los Robles Regional Medical Center on March 9, a day after doctors moved him from Westlake Medical Center.

About 560 licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, respiratory care practitioners, housekeepers and other employees at Los Robles Regional Medical Center will join with the hospital's registered nurses in the Service Employees International Union. The move will enable the workers to negotiate for pay increases, retirement benefits and increased staffing, said Jennifer Kelly, a union spokeswoman. Employees of the Thousand Oaks hospital needed a vote of more than 50% to unionize.

After listening to more than six hours of comments from neighbors, doctors and supporters of Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Thousand Oaks planning commissioners early Tuesday approved a $120-million expansion of the city's only major hospital. Speaker after speaker cited overcrowding at the 34-year-old facility, which needs to modernize to meet state earthquake safety mandates.

A group of local doctors is hoping to get approval from the City Council and state health officials to build a $20-million private hospital. Plans for Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital--a 40,000-square-foot surgical center that would be built at Rolling Oaks and Los Padres drives--include upscale private rooms with TVs, refrigerators and sleeper sofas for guests.

America's two largest hospital chains are gearing up for a battle royal in the Westlake area, each scrambling to tap a market left wide open when the Westlake Medical Center closed in 1996. The country's biggest chain, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., may reopen the vacant Westlake Medical Center, possibly turning it into a 24-hour urgent-care center or a women's hospital, officials said.

After casting their ballots to unionize more than a year ago, nurses at Los Robles Regional Medical Center expect to finally learn the results of that vote early next week. The long delay stemmed from an appeal filed with the National Labor Relations Board by the management at Los Robles and based on whether nurses at a managerial level should have been allowed to vote.

The second lawsuit in less than a year alleging that local doctors did not diagnose the so-called "flesh-eating bacteria" in time to save a life was filed in Ventura County Superior Court on Wednesday against the Westlake Medical Center and seven doctors. The strange ailment killed Charles S. Thrower in March. The 39-year-old Agoura man died at Los Robles Regional Medical Center on March 9, a day after doctors moved him from Westlake Medical Center.

After a month of speculation about the fate of Westlake Medical Center, the hospital's new owners have announced that the hospital will remain open and will even be adding a new rehabilitation facility. "We're very pleased by the announcement, but we're not surprised," said Patrick J.

After a month of speculation about the fate of Westlake Medical Center, the hospital's new owners have announced that the hospital will remain open and will even be adding a new rehabilitation facility. "We're very pleased by the announcement, but we're not surprised," said Patrick J.