Plans to keep the Motion Picture & Television Fund's longterm care facility and hospital open and running were presented to a tough crowd on Wednesday night — the families of current patients and campus residents.
Roughly 120 people crowded into the Saban Center, to hear MPTF CEO Bob Beitcher explain a deal with Providence Health & Services that will keep the facility operational, albeit with fewer beds.
The reaction, according to one person who attended, was "subdued."
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"People were interested and concerned," according to a family member who attended.
Also in attendance were several MPTF staff members.
Beitcher started the meeting by reading from a press release announcing the deal with Providence. His statement that the hospital would remain open was met with applause, but those who attended also subjected the MPTF chief and MPTF COO Seth Ellis to difficult questioning.
Chief among the crowds concerns was the fact that under the agreement with Providence, the MPTF will provide roughly 80 beds to patients needing longterm care or dementia assistance, down from the roughly 250 beds that were allocated to the home before the decision was made in 2009 to close the facility.
Also of concern, was whether the Fund would institute a waiting list for members of the entertainment community if the number of beds it filled exceeded the demand for them. Beitcher indicated it would.
Though the mood on the part of residents and their families was hopeful, the MPTF chief took pains to indicate that the agreement with Providence was not yet a done deal.
"We're engaged, but we're not married," Beitcher told the crowd.