Tenet Transfer Extends L.A. Saga

Some fear the group will take radical steps to secure any extra financing they need. Specifically, they worry the new owners will try to sell Marina to developers who are interested in the valuable real estate on which the hospital sits.

Indeed, a recent email from one Centinela Freeman HealthSystem insider hints at just that possibility.

"There has been scuttlebutt about Marina, vis-a-vis real estate options, keeping it until it can be developed vs. having a fancy day-surgery there," the email states.

But the new owners have emphatically stated that they plan to keep operating all three facilities, including Marina, as full-service hospitals with emergency rooms.

"Marina is just an excellent, growing, upscale community," Finnegan told TheStreet.com on Wednesday. "It's the perfect place for a hospital. ... [And Marina] is the only hospital there."

Still, locals haven't forgotten that Tenet tried to shut down the hospital, anyway. And some feel they have little reason to trust new owners with ties to that same company.

Skolnick foresees a possible backlash.

"There is still [apparently] no love lost between some community members and the administrators of these facilities," she wrote. "This could give rise to further community activism."

But Brandon Edwards, a spokesman for the new owners, described the pending arrangement as an "interesting" and "dynamic" one. He believes the hospital CEOs are well-equipped to operate the facilities they will soon partly own.

"They know everything that goes on with those hospitals," he explained. "So there will be fewer surprises."

Certainly, they understand that all three hospitals are under investigation by the government. The probes, seeking evidence of illegal physician kickbacks, began last year when both administrators were at the helm of the facilities. Those investigations follow on the heels of an ongoing criminal probe of another Tenet hospital, Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in San Diego, where both men previously served as senior executives.