By Tony Saavedra
The Orange County Register
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Orange County health officials have agreed to allow ambulances to resume taking emergency patients to Chapman Global Medical Center in Orange, more than three years after the county revoked the hospital’s ability to receive ambulance patients.
The county’s Emergency Medical Care Committee voted Friday unanimously to restore the 114-bed hospital’s designation as an emergency receiving center.
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“Beginning at 7 a.m. (Saturday), Chapman will again be able to receive 911 ambulance patients, giving local residents another access point for immediate, high-quality emergency care close to home,” said Daniel Knell, regional CEO for KPC Health, owner of the hospital.
Knell thanked the county’s Health Care Agency and Emergency Medical Services Medical Director Dr. Almaas Shaikh for their help in getting Chapman’s emergency designation restored.
Chapman’s ability to receive ambulances was stripped in February 2023, with no public explanation of why. A spokesman for KPC said it was partially because patients were not being offloaded from ambulances quickly enough, although the problem occurred during the pandemic and hospital quarantine areas were full.
The revocation didn’t affect patients coming on their own to the hospital, one of four under the “Global” brand in Orange County, including Anaheim Global, South Coast Global and Orange County Global in Santa Ana.
Most of the Global hospitals in Orange County have had recent problems with county Emergency Medical Services, although a spokesperson for KPC said the kinks are being ironed out.
Anaheim Global Medical Center’s ability to receive ambulance patients was suspended by the county for two months this year, with no public explanation. A hospital official said it was because a state fee to operate laboratory services had been paid late.
Anaheim Global remained open during the suspension and continued to service walk-in patients.
A county ban on transporting 911 stroke patients to Orange County Global Medical Center — KPC Health’s flagship facility — remains in effect.
In November 2025, the county revoked Orange County Global’s designation as one of nine stroke-neurology receiving centers in the region amid concerns of poor medical care. Receiving centers are the first to receive stroke patients transported by ambulance.
The action came four months after the county placed a temporary ban on ambulances taking stroke patients to Orange County Global.
The county’s decision to first suspend and then remove the 282-bed hospital as a county stroke center was prompted by a complaint from a woman whose husband waited nearly eight hours for an emergency stroke surgery because Orange County Global allegedly didn’t have the necessary equipment or a qualified neurosurgeon to conduct the operation.
KPC responded to the revocation with litigation seeking to overturn the county’s action. Lawyers for the hospital alleged it was denied due process by the county, calling the decision by former EMS Medical Director Carl Schultz “arbitrary and capricious.” Schultz, who retired, was replaced by Shaikh.
The hospital continues to treat stroke patients on a walk-in basis and receive nonstroke patients by ambulance.
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