Good Choice by UCI Hospital

UC Irvine made the right decision when it ended talks that could have resulted in having a private hospital chain run the school’s medical center.

The decision two weeks ago to call off talks to give Tenet Healthcare Corp. a long-term lease to run the medical center in Orange followed the school’s earlier termination of talks with Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., the country’s largest hospital chain.

Although neither chain was accused of providing poor service to patients, the talks did occur as Columbia/HCA was facing a federal investigation of suspected Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Tenet this summer agreed to pay about $100 million to former patients who claimed they were illegally held in the company’s psychiatric hospitals in the 1980s and early 1990s.

UCI Medical Center began searching for partners because of its longtime fiscal problems. But in the fiscal year that ended June 30, it showed a profit of $13 million. Most was due to one-time infusions of government funds to help it provide health care for the poor and continue educating medical students. Director Mark Laret said the medical center is expected to at least break even this year. That improved balance sheet should reduce the urgency of finding a partner with deep pockets. But it should not keep the medical center from continuing to look for partners who could help eliminate duplication of services and improve health care delivery to Orange County residents.

UCI Medical Center has teamed up with Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach to develop a new method of treating brain tumors. It also has affiliated with Children’s Hospital of Orange County for a joint pediatrics program. Those affiliations are needed in the current climate of rapid changes in medical care designed to rein in increasing costs.

The end of the talks clears the way for UCI to continue its special role in the county as a mainstay in treating the poor. Advocates for the poor have been concerned about what will become of impoverished patients. Keeping the medical center under the umbrella of the university buys valuable time to find ways for meeting these health care needs over the long term.