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Staff Report
HAWAIIAN GARDENS, CA (October 26, 2015) – The Board of Directors of Gardens Regional Hospital & Medical Center, a 137-bed not-for-profit acute care hospital located in Hawaiian Gardens, California, has announced that the hospital has entered into a management service agreement with Paladin-Gardens Management, LLC, a health care management unit of Paladin Healthcare of El Segundo, California, which has achieved a successful track record in managing suburban hospitals in Southern California and elsewhere in the nation. Under this new management agreement, the hospital will continue to operate as a non-profit general acute care medical-surgical facility, including 24/7 emergency care services.
In addition to management services, Harbor-Gardens Capital I, LLC, an affiliate of Paladin, will provide financial assistance to the hospital to ensure it can continue to meet the health care needs of the communities it serves, which encompass cities of the Southeast areas of Los Angeles County. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Under the new agreement, which commences on October 12, 2015, Paladin-Gardens Management will oversee day-to-day operations of the hospital. Moreover, it will lead a new team of veteran hospital leadership, including a new chief executive officer and chief financial officer. This highly qualified and experienced team will strive to revitalize the hospital and contribute meaningfully to the communities that the hospital serves. “After careful and thoughtful review of our options to remain competitive and viable for the long-term commitment of our mission to deliver high quality care to our patients and the community, we determined that Paladin has demonstrated that it possesses the experience and expertise needed to lead us into the future,” said Brian Walton, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gardens Regional Hospital & Medical Center. “We are confident that the Paladin partnership will improve access to high quality health care services, bring a new level of operational efficiency, achieve financial viability, and continue our mission of improving the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve.”
Paladin and its affiliated entities have a successful track record of improving the quality of patient care, financial operations, and the entire patient care experience in suburban hospitals that serve diverse communities during an unprecedented period of health care transformation and consolidation. The principals of Paladin own a controlling interest in and manage the day-to-day operations of Avanti Hospitals, LLC, which owns four community hospitals in Southern California, including Coast Plaza Hospital in Norwalk, Memorial Hospital of Gardena, Doctors Hospital of East Los Angeles, and Huntington Park Hospital in Huntington Park. In addition, an affiliate of Paladin currently manages the day-to-day operations of Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., where Paladin led a dramatically successful turnaround in financial, operational, and patient care outcomes, and recently received recognition for its efforts in the Washington Business Journal. Paladin’s leadership team will bring the same unique resources, experiences, and synergies to Gardens Regional Hospital.
“We are excited to partner with Gardens Regional Hospital to continue the mission on which it was founded many years ago,” said Joel Freedman, President of Paladin. “We recognize the important challenge before us but universally share the Board’s passion of serving the community with quality health care services in an area with few medical resources. We are firmly committed to the hospital’s long-term vision and look forward to working closely with its outstanding medical staff, nurses and other hospital personnel to improve access to high-quality health care services and improved patient care outcomes.”
Paladin employs a team of veteran health care experts that collectively has more than 300 years of C-suite experience at more than 40 hospitals. This dynamic team will actively support the CEO and CFO, and assist with the implementation of a range of initiatives designed to improve performance at all levels of care within the hospital, while establishing an integrated, community-based health care delivery system to meet the evolving healthcare needs of the community, including in-patient and outpatient surgical services, 24/7 emergency care, advanced technology, and coordination with numerous other healthcare providers.
