Tenet Agrees to Acquire Queen of Angels

Pushing ahead amid controversy, Tenet Healthcare Corp. said it has reached a final agreement to acquire Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center for $86.4 million. Santa Barbara-based Tenet, the nation’s second-largest for-profit hospital chain, also said it will place more than $100 million in the nonprofit charitable foundation that now runs the Hollywood hospital. The sale has drawn harsh criticism from Cardinal Roger Mahony, some hospital executives and a labor union representing workers. Mahony has said that Tenet’s emphasis on profit is incompatible with the Catholic-owned facility’s emphasis on care for the poor. In announcing the deal, Tenet said it would “continue the hospital’s historic level of charity care in perpetuity,” maintain its “traditional Catholic and Presbyterian religions’ missions” and offer jobs to all hospital workers at their same salaries. The deal is subject to approval by the state attorney general, among others. Dr. Moneim Fadali, president of the hospital’s medical staff that had opposed the sale, said he was taking a “wait-and-see” stance.