Image by PixabayUCLA Health officials have confirmed the closure of two small community ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), adding to a string of facility closures over the last two years.
The closures are reportedly a cost-cutting measure, and the closure date provided was Dec. 5.
“As part of a restructure to improve efficiency, UCLA Health has made the difficult decision to close operations at two small community ambulatory centers in Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks,” a UCLA Health spokesperson told ASC News in an email. “After Dec. 5, patients receiving care at these ambulatory surgery sites will be able to get care at nearby locations.”
The email also mentioned that the 26 nurses, surgical technicians and support staff affected by the restructuring are being encouraged to apply for open positions at other UCLA Health locations.
UCLA Health operates five hospitals and over 280 clinics throughout Southern California and the Central Coast.
In the spring of 2024, Canfield (Ohio) Surgery Center closed its doors. A few months earlier, the Vascular Surgery Center inside Colorado Springs’ Penrose Hospital abruptly ceased operations.
More recently, in September 2025, Millard Fillmore Surgery Center announced it was shutting down.
While there have been ASC closures, most instances have had unique circumstances, or they’ve been related to a larger entity consolidating operations. For the most part, they don’t reflect the overall health and momentum of the ASC industry at large, experts told ASC News.
“This shouldn’t be a surprise given their plan to focus on centralizing services and expanding new specialty care models, but this presents a strategic trade-off in the context of continued strong market growth in California and beyond,” Chris Schriever, co-founder and CEO of ASCdata in Washington, D.C., told ASC News. “This move prioritizes efficiency and modernization for UCLA; maintaining a decentralized, smaller-scale footprint is harder and less profitable. The closures are a logical part of their broader strategy aimed at centralization and optimization, which aligns with industry trends toward high-acuity, specialized care in modern facilities.”
Schriever further explained that consolidating services into larger, newer facilities, such as the expanded Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and the acquired UCLA West Valley Medical Center, which includes an ASC, is expected to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs over time, as larger centers can often leverage advanced technology and specialized staff more cost-effectively than older, smaller satellite locations.
“This strategy enables UCLA Health to better concentrate its resources on delivering high-acuity, complex procedures — its core strength as an academic medical center — in centralized, top-tier surgical settings,” Schriever said.
Consolidating staff into fewer, larger facilities may also help address the clinical staffing shortages reported in the industry at both the national level and in California, as it centralizes specialized personnel, he noted.
Contextually, the ASC market is experiencing significant growth in multiple areas.
The national ASC market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 4.1% to 8% over the next 10 years, supported by the shift of procedures from hospital outpatient departments to ASCs, according to Schriever. California is a key region driving this growth.
Closing local ASCs in Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks naturally limits patient access and convenience in those areas, Schriever said. This creates a market gap that competitors are ready to fill, which could weaken UCLA’s local market share for common, routine outpatient surgical cases.
The loss of smaller, local ASCs could also result in “leakage,” where patients with less complex surgical needs opt for a more conveniently located facility closer to home instead of traveling to the larger, more centralized UCLA facility. This also risks losing potential patient pathways to UCLA’s specialty services, he further explained.
Ron Grace, principal at Polsinelli Law Firm, said that while he doesn’t have specific knowledge about these particular closures, generally, many ASCs are struggling to compete with larger enterprises that have advantages like pay, contractor or vendor supply agreements. It could also involve having other centers in that market or area, making it sensible to shut down one and transfer cases to another.
Overall, Grace said he does not see this as a signal that the industry will experience more closures.
“People are remaining optimistic about the ASC space,” he said. “We’re seeing deal flow there and, on the sell side, multiple bidders are interested in acquiring an ASC, so healthy M&A is still happening. I’m not seeing many ASCs with closures or bankruptcies. Things are still fairly healthy.”
