Activists enlist attorney general in fight to save Marina Hospital. (Up Front).

When Tenet Healthcare Corp. announced it would close financially struggling St. Luke Medical Center in north Pasadena, there was community grumbling. Even so, the hospital closed its doors sooner than expected.

Months later, the Santa Barbara-based company announced plans to close Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital, another money loser--and nothing less than a firestorm threatens to delay the closure.

The difference? A small band of community and health care activists has waged a relentless--some might say quixotic--campaign to save the Marina del Rey facility.

Tenet is under attack by area politicians and has been hauled into court by the state Attorney General's office, which plans to seek a preliminary injunction this week to stop the closure on grounds that Tenet has not met legal conditions for closing the facility.

"I don't think they thought anyone would take them to task," said Julie Inouye, cofounder of the ad hoc group Save Our Marina Hospital and wife of a physician with staff privileges at the hospital. "But the whole community is abuzz. My phone is ringing off the hook."

Uphill battle 

Tenet officials say they have met all conditions, and still expect to shutter the facility unless a buyer can be found.

Last December, Tenet purchased the 166-bed facility and its sister Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, which reportedly were losing $23 million a year, from the Catholic Carondelet Health System Inc.

Since the $57 million sale involved the transfer of the hospitals from a non-profit to a for-profit operator, Attorney General Bill Lockyer had the authority to review the transaction.

But faced with the hospitals' possible closure should the sale not go through, Lockyer approved the transactions, though with conditions. They included a requirement that Tenet continue to operate the larger Memorial hospital, with no such requirement for the Marina, seen as the weaker facility.

However, the attorney general did require that Tenet solicit public input and consult with community healthcare organizations as part of a "comprehensive planning process" in mapping out the Marina hospital's future.

It is here where activists say Tenet has failed most blatanfly, stirring up the opposition.

Terry Conner, president of the Villa Marina Council Inc., which represents 1,635 condominium owners across from the hospital, said Tenet officials never bothered to contact his group.

"They could have done this and paid nothing but lip service to the community, and at least satisfied the conditions the attorney general put down on them' Conner said. "But they are arrogant, and they don't care.

The activists have lobbied elected officials into opposing the closure. Among them: U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, state Sen. Deborah Bowen, County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Assemblyman George Nakano.

During a county hearing on the closure last month, Bowen, who lives in the area, noted sarcastically that Tenet's actions reminded her of Ernest Hemingway's novel, "The Scum also Rises."

Bowen is angered by the fact that Tenet, which has acknowledged shopping the 7.3-acre site to developers, could likely reap a huge profit by selling a medical center that serves a graying population.

"Should a private buyer be allowed a huge financial windfall from these non-profit assets?" said Bowen. "There are people alive today because there is an ER there."

Tenet spokesman David Langness seemed taken aback by the level of vitriol the proposed closure has prompted. "It's really unfortunate' he said. "What's happened is that many of the people in the activist group and some elected officials have weighed in on this subject without knowing what Tenet has done."

Rare Opposition

The company has seen this level of opposition only once before, he said, when it proposed closing the emergency room at an East Bay hospital in Pinole as part of a plan to merge services with another nearby Tenet hospital. Tenet went ahead with the plan two years ago despite opposition from the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.

However, opponents of the Marina closure have an ace up their sleeve--the Attorney General's office, which has been pestered by the activists and felt heat from the area's politicians. Inouye said she has sent a raft of petitions opposing the sale to Lockyer's office.

In seeking a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, the Attorney General's office will argue that Tenet has not met Lockyer's conditions, such as meeting with community groups prior to the announced closure.

"We are certainly very much aware of the community involvement and are aware of the activists, and that is something that is important when you have a significant facility or closure," said Sandra Michioku, a spokeswoman for Lockyer.

Tenet officials have said they would talk to any prospective buyer, but doubt there is any company willing to operate the hospital given its history as a small, underutilized facility.