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   From: noreply@dirge.harmsk.com   
      
   Future of Mission Hospital Laguna Beach not expected to include ER, acute   
   services   
      
   Operators expect to close the emergency room and stop offering acute   
   care services on site as they consider the future of Providence Mission   
   Hospital Laguna Beach.   
      
   Seth Teigen, chief executive of Providence Mission Hospital, updated the   
   Laguna Beach City Council during a recent workshop on discussions the   
   health-care system is having about the hospital, which would need to   
   complete a $300 million retrofit to its nearly 70-year-old tower by 2030   
   to comply with California’s seismic safety mandates.   
      
   “We have no intention of leaving Laguna Beach, but the hospital will   
   look different,” Teigen said, adding that Providence would also need to   
   pay another $50 million to replace the facility’s original plumbing and   
   electrical systems.   
      
   “The real key point and something we’ve never come out and said   
   publicly, is that the plan does not include running an acute care   
   hospital,” he told the council. “That plan is going to be doing   
   healthcare at a very different way for Laguna Beach.”   
      
   Teigen explained that acute care includes inpatient care beds and the   
   hospital’s emergency department. No timeline was given for potential   
   changes.   
      
   The option for a standalone emergency room — something San Clemente   
   officials and residents had hoped to keep when the community hospital   
   there was shuttered by MemorialCare in 2016  — doesn’t exist, Teigen   
   said, adding that such a facility requires additional services, such as   
   radiology, surgery suites and laboratories, to accompany the emergency   
   room.   
      
   “I think we recognize that of greatest interest to this community is how   
   they access urgent or emergent care,” he told the council. “We hope   
   you’ll allow us to come back as we get through this first phase of   
   planning to unveil how we think we’re going to be able to deal with that   
   patient population in a non-traditional model. A model that will really   
   meet the needs of the community members in the city and the surrounding   
   coastal cities as well.”   
      
   In 2025, as of Nov. 17, 950 people had been taken by the Fire Department   
   to the Laguna Beach emergency room — of those 517 were residents.   
      
   Laguna Beach Fire Chief Niko King said Friday that his primary concern   
   about not having an ER in town would be his department’s ambulances   
   being out of town, driving a patient to another area hospital, when   
   they’re needed.   
      
   “A critical patient treated in the back of an ambulance, be it they’re   
   not breathing, their heart stopped, we have just about every technology   
   they have in an emergency room,” he said. “Whether or not it’s going to   
   be a 15 to 20 minute drive to a hospital Code 3 or a five-minute ride,   
   it’s not that significant because we’ve made the intervention already.”   
      
   “The concern for me and for the fire service here is that right now I   
   have two ambulances that are in service 24/7,” he said. “When they   
   transport to Laguna hospital, it’s a five-minute transport time. They   
   drop the patient off, do the paperwork, and they’re listening to the   
   radio the whole time, so if another critical call comes in, they’re   
   right back in the ambulance responding; they’re never leaving the   
   community.”   
      
   “If they’re leaving, they don’t have the option to come back into   
   service,” he added. “They can monitor the radio, but they’re going to   
   have to fight traffic to get back in. Their turnaround time is   
   significantly higher. How often are we going to find ourselves with zero   
   ambulances to respond in the city of Laguna Beach?”   
      
   Residents hearing the update at the recent council meeting told city   
   leaders they were concerned about those suffering an emergency.   
      
   A woman who identified herself as an emergency room nurse for 30 years   
   described for council members an incident in which her son’s best friend   
   experienced shortness of breath just blocks away from the Laguna Beach   
   hospital, but was taken to the Mission Viejo hospital instead and died   
   of cardiac arrest just as they arrived.   
      
   “The transport time to get to Mission is 30 minutes, Hoag is 35 minutes   
   and Saddleback is 31 minutes, and that’s just to get there,” she said.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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