CLOSING PROTESTED GROUPS PLEAD FOR HOSPITAL TO REOPEN.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Clinging to their last bit of legal hope to keep the Northridge Hospital Medical Center's Sherman Way campus open, community, medical and union leaders implored Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Thursday to prevent the sale of the medical center.

The hospital's owner, Catholic Healthcare West, discharged its last patient and shuttered the 209-bed facility on Wednesday. Huge red banners proclaim ``Hospital Closed'' across its doors, and even as protesters carried their signs outside the shuttered emergency room, moving vans parked behind them.

The groups have pinned their hopes on a provision of the California Corporations Code that gives Lockyer oversight authority on the sale of a not-for-profit hospital to a for-profit entity - in this case, to developer Dan Selleck. Under deals for around $12 million combined, Selleck will purchase the land, and Valley Presbyterian Hospital will purchase the equipment.

Selleck could not be reached for comment Thursday, but Catholic Healthcare West spokeswoman Susan Whitten said CHW was in final negotiations with him.

Negotiations have taken place ``like a private sale, but it's not,'' argued Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents the area. ``We're urging CHW to follow through with the law to save this hospital.''

Despite pleas from Cardenas, state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, and the Service Employees International Union that represents the nearly 600 workers the hospital employed, Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar said there was little his office could do. He said the attorney general has minimal power to intervene when there is no evidence of fraud.

``There have been allegations that the officials of the nonprofit (CHW) breached fiduciary duties, so we'll look at those and take appropriate action, but it wouldn't include re-opening the hospital,'' Dresslar said. ``The officials would be held liable, but it wouldn't force the hospital to reopen.''

Whitten maintained that CHW fulfilled all its legal obligations to notify Lockyer's office of the sale.

Community groups also appealed to CHW not to give up the license for the hospital and to allow another entity to step in to keep it running. The Valley Health Care Alliance, a group of 22 doctors who offered to pay $13 million for the 75-year-old hospital, was unable to engage CHW in talks. Dr. Kant Tucker, a kidney specialist who headed the group, appealed directly to Selleck as a ``good community member'' to withdraw his bid.

Separately, the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency released a report Wednesday saying that the closure would have a negative impact on Van Nuys and surrounding communities. It found that patients will have to wait longer for transport to surrounding hospitals and that the closed hospital had the only sexual assault response team in a 10-mile radius.

Though he sympathized with the community's troubles, Valley Presbyterian Hospital's chairman, David Fleming, saw little hope for the Sherman Way hospital to reopen. He warned that his hospital, which picked up the bulk of the closed one's patients, could face the same issues in the next few years.

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) George Shepherd gets a hug from his wife, Janet, as they gather with others Thursday protesting closure of Northridge Hospital Medical Center's Sherman Way campus in Van Nuys.

(2 -- color) In both English and Spanish, banners declare that the Northridge Hospital Medical Center's Sherman Way campus in Van Nuys is closed.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer