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Closure of beloved L.A. hospital is the latest in a troubling trend, experts say
Los Angeles Mar 29, 2021
Olympia Medical Center, which has served the Mid-Wilshire area since 1947, is slated to close March 31. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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The announcement of Olympia Medical Center’s sale and closure came on New Year’s Eve. Before the clock struck midnight, the community began mobilizing against it.
City Council members wrote letters, healthcare workers signed petitions, and union groups staged protests in the days and weeks that followed. By the end of January, the L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Agency had passed a resolution calling on officials to keep its doors open for at least another six months.
None of it worked.
Olympia Medical Center, which has served the Mid-Wilshire area since 1947, is slated to close Wednesday.
The pending closure of the facility — which housed an emergency department and six intensive care beds, among other services — has prompted outrage and concern for myriad reasons: Nearly 40% of the hospital’s patients are Black Americans, 63% are over the age of 60 and 90% are covered by Medicare and Medi-Cal. Many residents of the surrounding neighborhood have long relied on the hospital for their primary care.
The hospital’s operator, Irvine-based Alecto Healthcare Services, caught the community by surprise with Olympia’s abrupt sale to […]
