The Palm Drive Hospital in California has been closed since April, 2014 after its Board of Directors cited declining overnight stays, declining insurance payments, and stiff competition from other nearby hospitals and filed for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy.  The Board’s stated goal in the filing was to seek protection from creditors while they devised a plan that would allow them to re-open the hospital in a healthier financial situation.

The Palm Drive Health Care Foundation, a private group that has donated millions of dollars to the hospital over the years, has been pushing to re-open the hospital immediately.  The foundation has devised a plan that it believes will allow the hospital to open and function while the bankruptcy and other financial matters are resolved, but the Board of Directors has rejected it while offering no firm date of their own for re-opening the hospital.

The Board has also filed papers rejecting the Foundation’s request for court-appointed mediation, stating that it is unnecessary.  Representatives of the Board expressed surprise at the Foundation’s move, stating that recent negotiations had been positive and encouraging.  However, the Board has never set any sort of firm timeline for re-opening the hospital.

The local area is divided as to the wisdom of re-opening the hospital at all, with many local residents feeling that the other hospitals in the area are more modern and better run, and that Palm Drive Hospital had never been their top choice of hospital in the past.