Community Hospital Long Beach is an acute care hospital in Long Beach, California. After closing on July 3, 2018,[3] it reopened on Monday, January 4, 2021 under a new operator Molina Wu Network LLC.[4][5]
History
Community Hospital of Long Beach was founded in 1924 as Long Beach Community Hospital with 100 beds and 175 surgeons and physicians on staff. Long Beach councilman and mayor Fillmore Condit donated $50,000 to the Long Beach Community Hospital Association to assist with its development.[6] Hugh Davies designed the original Spanish Colonial building.[7] Nine years later, the 1933 Long Beach earthquake shook the hospital but did little damage to the hospital. The hospital provided medical care to hundreds of residents following the disaster. In the 1940s, the hospital added a new wing, increasing the number of beds to 150.
The 1960s and 1970s saw increasing modernization of hospital equipment and facilities with a doubling of the size of the emergency room, the opening of an intensive care unit, a nuclear medicine department and a coronary care unit. In 1980, the hospital was designated as a Historical Landmark. The 1980s and 1990s saw changes of ownership. In 1982, HealthWest bought the hospital. Through a 1988 merger, UniHealth became the owners of the hospital, followed by a purchase of UniHealth's hospitals in 1998 by Catholic Healthcare West.[8][9]
Community Hospital of Long Beach
Throughout the same period, additional changes and upgrades were made to the hospital including a neuropsychiatric center, a neonatal intensive care unit, an urgent care facility and a cancer center. The hospital also received a name change to Long Beach Community Hospital Medical Center. In the year 2000, Catholic Healthcare West closed the hospital prompting a strong reaction from the community around the hospital. After 9-months of “Save Our Neighborhood Hospital” community efforts, the hospital was re-opened with its current name in 2001 through the major efforts of Charles Lane, local realtor.[10]
In June 2011 Memorial Care Health Systems purchased the hospital, preventing its inevitable closure. On September 29, 2017 the hospital was renamed Community Medical Center Long Beach. It has continued its growth and betterment under the leadership of Long Beach Memorial and Millers Women's and Children's Hospital.
After closing in 2018 the hospital signed a new lease agreement signed with Molina Wu Network LLC.[12][13][3]
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in California, the Community Hospital reopened on January 4, 2021,[14] providing needed hospital beds to the Southern California region.[15][5]
