Westlake Doctors Plan New Hospital

THOUSAND OAKS —  Convinced that the new owner of Westlake Medical Center intends to dissolve their ranks, doctors from the former community hospital said Monday they plan to strike out on their own to build a new hospital.

Dr. James Hellyer, chief of the Westlake Medical Center staff, said private donors have already committed $6 million to the new hospital, which would be located in Westlake Village.

A new hospital would up the number of large-scale medical facilities in the Conejo Valley to three. It would compete directly with Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks and perhaps less so with the former Westlake Medical Center, now named Salick Health Care Specialty Hospital, which faces an uncertain future.

Cancer-care specialist Salick Health Care recently bought the community hospital from Columbia/HCA, vowing to work with unhappy residents in the region stretching from Malibu to Thousand Oaks who wanted the neighborhood facility to stay open.

However, the purchase agreement limits what Salick can do with the property. At this point, it can only be operated as a cancer center.

Salick has filed a lawsuit seeking to lift the restriction and is awaiting a ruling from a Los Angeles County judge. But in a memo Thursday to the medical staff, the cancer-care specialists indicated there is no guarantee that the hospital will return to being a full-fledged acute-care facility, even if the legal challenge works.

“Even if these efforts are successful, it does not necessarily mean that [Salick Health Care Specialty Hospital] will offer all of the services previously offered at the former Westlake Medical Center,” the memo states.

Hellyer said the memo made it clear that the 300-member medical staff, composed of doctors and other hospital personnel, was to be dissolved.

He said that currently there are only 20 to 30 staff members actually working at the Westlake facility, which has remained nearly empty except for a few cancer patients since the sale to Salick in July.

So few doctors and staffers stand to actually lose their jobs at this point, Hellyer said. But, he added, members of the medical staff will lose their privileges and their connection with a popular community hospital.

In the memo, Salick said members of the medical staff are free to reapply to join the new Salick staff.

But the memo says staff positions will be open only to physicians who have practiced actively in cancer care and kidney disease. That would be a fraction of the staff, Hellyer said.

“It’s almost nobody,” he said. “Probably 15 or 20 people.”

Salick Executive Vice President Les Bell disagreed with Hellyer’s interpretation of the memo.

“I don’t think it dissolves the staff,” Bell said, adding that he believes the new criteria leave room for many of the members of the former staff to reapply.

“I’m sure there are surgeons that have done cancer procedures at Westlake,” Bell said. “They would certainly all be eligible to be on the medical staff.”

Hellyer said he does not understand why Dr. Bernard Salick, the founder of Salick Health Care, decided to sever his ties with the Westlake staff.

“I have no idea,” Hellyer said. “We certainly were supporting him. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, he sent this memo.”

He said he does not feel betrayed by Salick, but that the relationship has come to an end. And he said he wants to look forward and direct his attention to building a new hospital.

“Rather than dwell on the negative, I would rather focus on the positive,” he said.

Few details are available about what a new hospital would look like. Hellyer said his ambition is to make it a highly competitive acute-care facility. He said he hopes that many members of the former Westlake staff would come to work there.

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As for location, he has in mind something not too different from the former Westlake Medical Center, which is just a few blocks off the Ventura Freeway on Agoura Road.

“It would be as good a piece of property as we can get, close to the freeway,” Hellyer said.

Financing would come from the private sector, he said.

“We really do want a hospital,” Hellyer said. “I’m confident that something can be done.”

But Salick’s Bell called the effort to build a new hospital “silly.” He said he believes Salick will eventually win its lawsuit with Columbia and the restrictions will be lifted, opening the door to Westlake’s former staff to return. Spending an estimated three to five years working on a new building would then be unnecessary, he said.

“That seems kind of silly,” he said. “By the time they find a place and finance it, we will have won and they will be able to treat at our hospital.”