Investopedia Definition of Private Equity:
"Private equity is an alternative investment class and consists of capital that is not listed on a public exchange. Private equity is composed of funds and investors that directly invest in private companies, or that engage in buyouts of public companies, resulting in the delisting of public equity. Institutional and retail investors provide the capital for private equity, and the capital can be utilized to fund new technology, make acquisitions, expand working capital, and bolster and solidify a balance sheet. " https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privateequity.asp
"Avanti was formed by a handful of investors in 2008 to purchase and turn around Memorial Hospital of Gardena and East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital, two underperforming L.A.-area hospitals. The investment team included Joel Freedman, Jamie MacPherson and Nick Orzano of downtown L.A. corporate finance advisory firm Paladin Capital LLC, and Mark Bell and Irv Edwards of Manhattan Beach’s Emergent Medical Associates, an emergency room physicians group."
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More seriously, he alleges gross negligence in the chain’s emergency room procedures, citing the death of a patient who was not transferred in time to another hospital equipped to provide needed medical services. He claims the company delayed in transferring the patient because it was not in its economic interest.
The hospital death accusation is notable because Bell and Edwards’ Emergent Medical Associates is also facing lawsuits for delays in transferring emergency room patients for monetary reasons.
In an interview, Linn said the company has had an operating loss since last year.
Michael Amir, an attorney who reviewed Corn’s and Linn’s lawsuits for the Business Journal, said that the fact that some of the allegations were made by a former chief executive and current principal gave them more weight, but also more cause for doubt.
“You’re talking about someone who’s supposedly an insider,” Amir said, “but you also wonder how much of that is sour grapes.”
Brietta Clark, a professor of health law at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, said that shareholder anger over payouts and allegations of pocketing money reflect inherent tensions at for-profit hospitals.
“This is one of the real challenges of any sort of for-profit model in health care,” she said. “That necessarily puts you at odds with many of the broader missions or goals that people would expect of a hospital.”
https://labusinessjournal.com/news/weekly-news/windfall-nurses-hospital-feud/
SAME STORY, DIFFERENT LOCATION/HOSPITAL, SAME PLAYERS!
Here's another one involving a high profile hospital Hahnemann ran to the ground to file bankruptcy because the real estate was worth more to the investors to sell than to keep as a Safety Net Hospital.
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For decades, Hahnemann University Hospital served as the main safety-net hospital for downtown Philadelphia’s neediest residents. But last week, it released its last patient. Within a month, the hospital’s 2,572 staff will all have been laid off, and the doors will close, leaving a gaping hole in the city’s ability to serve its poor — not to mention any victims of trauma, like shootings or car accidents.
“It’s not safe. We’re right here in the middle of everything. Jefferson [University Hospital] isn’t that far, but for a life-threatening situation, minutes matter,” said Maria Gutierrez, a Hahnemann oncology nurse who on Wednesday received a call from a manager saying all her shifts had been canceled. “That’s why he wants the land.”
The “he” Gutierrez was talking about is Joel Freedman, the California-based owner of the private equity-backed company that bought Hahnemann and its sister hospital St. Christopher’s for $170 million in early 2018. About a month ago, the entity that owns the two hospitals filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying that although St. Christopher’s was profitable, Hahnemann’s financial situation was unsalvageable.
Not included in the filing: The entity that owns the entire city block’s worth of land underneath the hospital, as well as a few associated medical office buildings and parking garages, which Freedman had split off from the operating businesses when he and his co-investors acquired them. The same central location that made Hahnemann valuable as a health care provider — spitting distance from City Hall and the convention center — also makes the site incredibly desirable for a high-end hotel or condominiums."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/economy/hahnemann-hospital-closing-philadelphia/index.html
From the EMA website: https://www.ema.us/team.html
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Dr. Mark Bell has been a managing partner in EMA since 1998. As Co-President, he has led the start-up and management of several emergency departments, and developed along the way a unique skill set centered on creating department efficiencies and managing the critical role emergency departments serve in driving hospital performance. He developed the EMA administrative residency program which prepares EMA physicians for administrative roles. His expertise covers customer service, strategic planning, business development, and community service. Dr. Bell is an active physician, hospital advocate, and represents his colleagues in healthcare issues on a local as well as national level.
Mark is a graduate from the Chicago Medical School. His undergraduate training was at Westmont College, in Santa Barbara, California. He completed residency in emergency medicine at the University California Irvine in 1996 and is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Following residency, Dr. Bell went into private practice in the South Bay of Los Angeles and soon partnered with Dr. Irv Edwards at Emergent Medical Associates. Through a dedication to quality, service, and efficient patient care, their emergency department management company grew from 5,000 patient visits per year, to more than 700,000 over the next decade. Mark is also the President and co-founder of Benchmark Hospitalists, a hospitalist company based in Los Angeles, and managing partner of Pipeline Health. He sits on various boards including the Marconi Foundation, Huntington Beach Hospital, Norris Cancer Leadership Board, and Goals for Life. Dr. Bell’s expertise is particularly strong in emergency department and in-patient efficiencies, customer service, paramedic outreach, strategic planning, and business development. Mark spends much of his time teaching physicians the skills required to succeed in administrative management and leadership. He has published on many topics, including pediatric cardiology, nutrition, and emergency medicine reimbursement, and frequently lectures on subjects most interesting to him such as The History of Nuclear Biological and Chemical Warfare, EMTALA, the Field Management of the Unknown Overdose, and the effect of efficient hospital care on morbidity and mortality. When he’s not working, Dr. Bell enjoys surfing, cycling, rugby, and traveling with his family. He’s married to Dr. Camela Ott, and has two children Luke and Dominic."
Just putting these things together googling names and words together. It's not much to connect these things.
Tell me again hospital admin spokesperson, how EMA is not run by private investors and private equity backed, only intent of making a profit when it has close associations with companies and people with previous record of running hospitals to the ground for profit and in lawsuits over how mismanaged their EDs were that people died and being connected to the same people the same activities that private equity does in healthcare?
Pipeline Health buys three Illinois hospitals, one goes bankrupt, Pipeline Health sells two :https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-transactions-and-valuation/hospital-owner-looks-to-exit-illinois-with-92m-deal.html
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In the first four years of the state’s 2010 fee program, Avanti received an influx of about $60 million, according to a 2013 Business Journal article.
“This law greatly helped Avanti get off the ground and actually start to turn a profit,” said Craig Beam, an independent hospital consultant in Orange County who has held several board positions at hospitals and managed care organizations.
In 2017, two of the original Avanti investors, Nick Orzano and Mark Bell, started a new venture called Pipeline Health, focused on taking Avanti’s business model and applying it to hospitals in other states. Their first purchase, completed in 2018, was City Hospital at White Rock in Dallas. Purchases of two hospitals in the Chicago metro area soon followed.
In 2019, Orzano and Bell bought out the other Avanti investors and then renamed the entire company Pipeline Health."
https://labusinessjournal.com/special-reports/pipeline-health-success-safety-net-hospitals/
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Pipeline Health has signed a letter of intent to sell its two Illinois hospitals to a Michigan-based company for $92 million, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Los Angeles-based Pipeline is selling 234-bed West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Ill., and 236-bed Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago to Resilience Healthcare.
"Both parties are interested in a smooth and seamless transition," Pipeline CEO Andrei Soran told the Sun-Times. "All hospital operations will continue as usual with quality, compassionate care delivered to all patients served."
Pipeline, which owns hospitals in California, Texas and Illinois, said it has invested $60 million in West Suburban Medical Center and Weiss Memorial Hospital since it took ownership of them three years ago, according to the report.
If the deal closes, Pipeline will no longer own any Illinois hospitals. The company owned three hospitals in the state before closing Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, Ill., in 2019."
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In 2019, Pipeline bought the hospitals in a package deal that included Weiss Memorial, West Suburban and Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park for $70 million from Tenet Healthcare.
The group quickly fell out of favor with residents and political leaders after announcing it would close Westlake despite promising to help improve the safety-net hospital’s services.
The looming closure sparked months of protests and a bitter legal battle between the village of Melrose Park and Pipeline. Several state leaders also got involved in the fight.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker ousted two state board appointees after it unanimously approved the closure of the hospital. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx joined the legal battle to keep the hospital open. Then former employees of Westlake filed a lawsuit against Pipeline, alleging the former owners violated U.S. labor laws."
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Pipeline in early 2019 bought Weiss along with West Suburban Medical Center and Westlake Hospital for $70 million. The company soon after shuttered Westlake in Melrose Park, saying the closure would help it invest in the more financially viable Weiss and West Suburban.
Pipeline was forced to pay Melrose Park a $1.5 million settlement following the hospital closure.
The closure caused concern among North Side lawmakers and neighbors who worried about the future of Weiss under Pipeline.
Neighbors and housing advocates raised further concern over the hospital’s future after Pipeline sold Weiss’ parking lot along Wilson Avenue to a development firm for $12 million.
After neighbor protests and a controversial vote on the project, a 314-unit apartment building has been approved to rise on the former parking lot. The developer has applied for a building permit for the project but it has not yet been granted by the city, records show.
Pipeline will refund $12 million of the purchase price for Weiss to make good on its pledge to use the parking lot’s sale to further invest in the hospital, the company said in a statement."
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In recent years, however, Pipeline has angered community members and leaders. In 2019, just weeks after buying the three hospitals with promises to rejuvenate them, Pipeline said it planned to close the 230-bed Westlake because the hospital was losing too much money. Though the village of Melrose Park sued over the decision, the hospital ultimately shuttered.
More recently, Pipeline agreed to sell a Weiss parking lot to a developer hoping to build apartments on the site, over the objections of some community members who worried that it was the beginning of the dismantling of Weiss, and that the building would further contribute to gentrification, driving out lower-income residents.
Pipeline said it plans to give the $12 million from that parking lot sale to Resilience to reinvest in the hospitals.
Ald. James Cappleman, 46th Ward, reassured constituents in a recent newsletter that the sale will help to ensure Weiss’ survival.
“This potential sale will allow a new owner, rather than a private equity firm, to increase investment in Weiss Hospital and commit to its continued success,” he wrote.
But given Pipeline’s history in the Chicago area, some community members say they don’t trust anything Pipeline does, including selling the hospitals.
“It’s really a slap in the face ... to the people who work at Weiss Hospital because they are just in limbo again as to their job security,” said Angela Clay, a board member with Northside Action for Justice. “It’s like ripping a band-aid off of a wound that never got a chance to heal.”
Others say given Pipeline’s history with the hospitals, they’re glad to see Pipeline go.
“We think it’s a victory that Pipeline is out of the picture,” said Marc Kaplan, also a Northside Action for Justice board member. “We just don’t know anything about Resilience.”
"emorial Hospital of Gardena has been in the international, national and local news in recent weeks as it faces accusations that it mismanaged the handling of dead bodies of patients as the hospital struggled to keep up with the numbers, and allegedly storing them improperly. UK newspaper the Daily Mail wrote that, “Soaking wet body bags are seen piled up outside the Los Angeles-based Memorial Hospital of Gardena, owned by Pipeline Health System, in footage captured by CBSLA. Employees are also seen in the footage rearranging the body bags of 19 deceased COVID-19 patients and carrying them into a mobile freezer in the hospital’s parking lot.”
https://gardenavalleynews.org/memorial-hospital-accused-of-mishandling-dead-bodies/
"A former security guard has sued a California hospital, alleging she was forced to physically handle the decomposing bodies of COVID-19 patients that had thawed because of too warm temperatures in the morgue and outdoor freezers."
https://www.insider.com/ex-guard-sues-hospital-over-decomposing-bodies-covid-19-patients-2022-1