HOSPITAL UNDER FIRE ABOUT GOLD-CARD HOLDERS DOCTOR SAYS PRIVATE ROOMS, PERKS GIVEN TO THEM.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE

Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, trying to push through an ambitious expansion plan, is taking heat from opponents for its VIP treatment for donors, volunteers and "community leaders," who get top priority for private rooms and other amenities.

A local doctor, who brought attention to the program at a recent Santa Clarita City Council meeting on the expansion, called the practice discriminatory.

"I am aware they are allowing gold card members to receive special treatment including private rooms ... at times when beds are needed," said Dr. Gene Dorio, whose practice focuses on seniors. "Gold card members are given their gold card privileges (while) those who are not gold card members ... are allowed to be left in the emergency room holding area."

Gold-toned cards, which convey perks to a chosen few, are issued by the hospital's foundation, not by the hospital. Card holders admitted as patients receive visits from foundation staff members and hospital administrators, a goody basket, thank you's from hospital workers, options for meal upgrades, wine served at mealtime -- and, according to a brochure, "the highest priority for private room (if available.)"

Dorio's claim about room privileges is ridiculous and untrue, said the woman who heads the foundation.

"If I had that kind of power, that would be something," said Diana Vose, president of the Newhall Memorial Health Foundation, the hospital's fundraising arm.

Among the card holders are major donors, potential donors who promise gifts and bequests, hospital and foundation board members, community leaders and those who are singled out by the VIPs.

Newhall Memorial's head of nursing said Dorio's "discussion surrounding these facts is not based in reality."

"Room placement is really truly based on medical necessity," said Diane Lynch, chief nursing officer for the hospital. "The private rooms are provided for isolations, because we have so few of them."

Most of the hospital's 217 beds are in double occupancy rooms. People may be isolated for communicable diseases or for their own protection from germs -- in the case of cancer patients, Lynch said.

In May, roughly 439 patients who had visited the emergency room waited more than two hours for a bed. In September, about 87 patients waited, and the number has dramatically increased each month.

Newhall Memorial is asking the Santa Clarita City Council to approve its controversial expansion plan.

Dorio has criticized the proposal and the hospital's announcement it will close the Transitional Care Unit, which provides skilled nursing care to those who no longer need acute care but are not ready to return home.

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