Evaluating town’s needs

Michael Beck, 50, is vice president of operations at Mission Hospital Laguna Beach. He has been with St. Joseph Health System for 17 years. He previously served as vice president of quality and systems at the Mission Viejo campus, one of St. Joseph’s 14 hospitals. During his tenure in Mission Viejo, he oversaw development and implementation of hospital policies and procedures based on health-care regulations.

A graduate of Abilene Christian University in Texas, Beck holds a master’s degree in speech pathology from the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. He was certified in 2002 as a professional in health-care quality. Away from the hospital, Beck acts as surveyor for the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, a process that distinguishes rehabilitation and human services providers for their quality and outcomes focus.

A native of Orange County, Beck is married with two sons.

For coherence, questions and answers have been grouped more or less by subject, not as they were asked or answered.

Beck declined to answer questions that might be relate to a lawsuit filed in Superior Court by neighbors last week who want $15 million to compensate them for the generators that power the hospital’s heating and cooling systems before and after Mission acquired South Coast Medical Center, the use of the campus as a bus stop and other alleged annoyances. On the lawsuit, Beck said, “We are still trying to figure out what that means and what the scope is and that kind of stuff.”

Q. Any chance that Mission would bring back the Laguna campus maternity ward, including perhaps the highly regarded midwife program?

A. We never say never, but Mission is a very planning-oriented organization. Although it is not too exciting to say we are in the process of planning, one of the things I really appreciate about Mission in the acquisition and transition process is that we recognized we are new to Laguna. We did not come with the belief that we knew what was needed or that we knew what was wanted. So we are being very methodical.

Q. Being fairly cautious?

A. Well, there is caution, but I think there is also wisdom and being prudent in regards — if we don’t know. We know how to run hospitals, and we believe we are pretty good at that.