In August of 1989, I went to work for Midwood Community Hospital in
Stanton, on Katella avenue, just off the intersection with Beach Blvd.
It was probably one of the worst places I've worked at.
I worked as a bill collector in the business office. The office was
located in the old City Hall building situated in front of the hospital.
Both the accounts receivables and payables were handled there, as well
payroll and personnel. It was a time of despair. The hospital had just
hired a new business manager to aggressively improve collections. The
manager hired me and a friend of mine from another hospital to help
implement his new policies.
The office had about 10-15 employees who worked in receivables. They
were all long-timers, ranging from 5 years to 20 years of service to
Midwood, and back when it used to be "Stanton Community Hospital". These
folks were set in their ways. They were good, loyal people, but were
set in their ways. They told me stories of how administration was always
run poorly (at least as they knew it), and always losing money.
At one time, 60 Minutes did an investigation over the hospital deliberately
pocketing the employees' income tax deductions. While I was there, employees
complained that they lost health insurance coverage. Rumor had it that
the hospital was pocketing the insurance premiums too. The hospital
even played games where they would change employee payroll dates to
buy themselves a few more days between checks.
Midwood had a reputation as being a dumping ground for indigent patients.
When other hospitals received patients with no insurance, and no money,
they advised them to go to Midwood. We were not a fancy facility. The
hospital looked old, and in bad need of a face-lift. But when I came
there, employees tended to be in high spirits. Getting kicked in the
butt by your employer was something to be expected at Midwood, like
the Missouri River flooding your home each year. People just tolerated
it. Around Spring of 1990, in an attempt to cut losses, the hospital
closed up its emergency room. Some people lost their jobs.
The hospital always had difficultly getting doctors to admit their
patients. Most doctors admitted their patients to Martin Luther or Anaheim
Memorial. If their patients had no coverage, or were on Medi-Cal, they
admitted them at Midwood. Our rates were cheaper. The problem with most
of these patients is that they still could not pay. Medi-Cal paid very
low reimbursement rates, and you could never get the recipients to pay
their cost-share. Most of the patient accounts were assigned to collection
agencies.
The owner of Midwood was also a stakeholder in Mission Medical Center
and Fountain Valley Regional, both of which were important, thriving
facilities. The word I got from other employees was that the owner bought
Midwood as a gift to his wife. It seemed we were just a toy that lost
its fancy.
There were also employees who slept with other employees. And when
they grew tired of each other, they slept with yet other employees.
Eventually, all those who participated had slept with each other at
some time. We frequently had happy hour parties at the Reubens on Valley
View in Cypress, or the Pierce Street Annex in Costa Mesa. That usually
set up the sex that was to occur later on in the night. One guy invited
his friend over. The friend was asked to drive home a female employee
who had too much to drink. The next day, amazed to learn how easy it
was to get sex, he reported to some of us that in her drunker stupor,
she "pleaded" to perform oral sex on him in the car. Word spread around
the hospital, and she laid low for several days following.
Around February of 1990, Midwood began a policy of terminating employees,
and then rehiring them on a contract basis. They could pay people a
higher rate, and actually save money by not having to provide benefits.
A lot of people liked that, but some of them had difficulty getting
paid.
In March, the hospital converted itself from an acute care facility
to a psychiatric facility. At the same time, it laid off probably 70%
of its staff. They even got rid of their volunteers! I remember walking
down the nursing floors and finding no one. It was only a few months
earlier I recalled seeing nurses and patients. But now, nothing. We
vacated the old City Hall building, and set up office in one of the
patient rooms. The entire receivables staff was reduced to myself, the
sole collector, one other guy who did the billing, and one other guy
who managed the files. Our boss, set up his office in another patient
room.
The hospital had converted one of its wings into its psychiatric center.
They tried hard to get doctors to join with us, and admit their patients
here. My boss had once told me that we struck a deal with the sheriff's
office next door to place the drunks and drug addicts they pulled off
the street with us. We admitted them in like regular patients, and were
able to show doctors that we had real patients. Of course, I had the
responsibility of trying to extract money from these derelicts. Nothing
doing. Once they were released, they were never to be seen.
In May of 1990, as the sole bill collector, I could see that little
money was making its way into the hospital. I didn't see Midwood surviving
much longer. I started looking for a new job, and found one that month.
Now and then I still drive past the building. Another psychiatric facility
had bought Midwood, but it failed to survive as well. I can remember
seeing the photographs of the original Stanton Community Hospital hanging
in the lobby. There were photos of opening day ceremonies, and a ribbon
cutting. At that time, the new hospital was the pride of Stanton. It
meant that Stanton was growing up. I wonder who kept those photos?
- Steve Johnson
