As reported by TheWrap on Wednesday, the Motion Picture and Television Foundation has decided to keep its long-term care facility open and expand healthcare services at its Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills. The decision draws a two year long drama to a close.
That fight began in 2009, when then-MPTF chairman David Tillman announced the decision to shutter the facilities. The often pitched battle unearthed an odyssey of mismanagement, ineptitude and heartache that eventually led to Tillman's departure.
As members of the industry breathe a sigh of relief over the continued operation of the organization's care facilities, TheWrap presents a timeline of the events that shaped the stand-off.
January 14, 2009: The MPTF announces its intention to shut down its acute-care hospital and long-term care facility.
February 2009: In the month after the closure announcement, six residents of the Woodland Hills facility pass away, further casting an air of despondency over the center.
February 11, 2009: MPTF foundation board chair Jeffrey Katzenberg gives the board "a failing grade" for inadequately explaining the reasons for the closures.
February 2009: As the elderly prepare for displacement, news breaks that MTFP CEO Tillman's annual salary is in excess of $500,000, including a 20 percent raise he received shortly before announcing the MPTF facilities' closures.
April 2009: It's revealed that Tillman's own staff members advised against the intensive-care facility closure.
February 2010: TIllman vacates his position amid rumors of an MPTF shakeup.
February 2010: Tillman's replacement, interim MPTF CEO Bob Beitcher, bluntly admits, "We f*cked up."
May 2010: George Clooney and the Screen Actors Guild join forces to plan a fundraiser to keep the MPTF facilities open.
May 2010: The MPTF is slapped with a $7,500 fine by the California Department of Health for failing to prevent the injury of 87-year-old patient who fell and cut her head while being transferred from her wheelchair to her bed.
May 5, 2010: SAG VP Anne-Marie Johnson rescinds her donation to MPTF and urges SAG members to do the same.
July 14, 2010: MPTF announces the layoff of seven staff members.
August 2010: State health inspectors say MPTF violated the law the year before by not giving adequate notice before transferring dozens of patients out of its long-term facility the previous year, though they reverse that stance shortly thereafter.
October 20, 2010: Robert Hunter and wife Dianne Ladd propose a new, independently funded hospital to replace the MPTF's Woodland Hills facility.
November 29, 2010: The California Department of Public Health launches an investigation following 89-year-old, wheelchair-bound MPTF resident Carrie DeLay's death. DeLay was found injured at the bottom of a staircase a week before her death.
February 23, 2010: In a shocking reversal, the MPTF announces its decision to keep its facillities in Woodland Hills open.