West Hills Hospital and Medical Center has taken another step in its transformation from community hospital to regional medical center with the opening of a $60 million emergency department and critical care unit that will be the largest such facility in the San Fernando Valley.
The hospital’s capabilities will grow even more when the Grossman Burn Center moves there from Sherman Oaks Hospital this summer. Part of an existing wing at West Hills is being converted for the burn center. One of the ICU rooms at the new critical care unit will be equipped to handle severe burn injuries in conjunction with the burn center.
“All told, it’s a lot of upgrades here,” said Beverly Gilmore, chief executive of the facility.
A new catheter lab for use in treating heart patients is expected to receive approval by inspectors soon. The medical center is also giving a face-lift to its existing ICU unit, as well at the hospital’s main entrance, lobby and cafeteria. The latest work culminates nearly eight years of planning and construction.
West Hills Hospital and Medical Center is owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Inc.
Ground Breaking
A key aim of the recently passed federal health care reform package is improving care for underserved populations. And the consolidation of AltaMed, an east Los Angeles County community health center operator, will give it an edge in competing for reform-generated funding.
Though it is still finalizing financing for construction, AltaMed last week broke ground on a $20 million, 80,000-square-foot facility in Commerce. The land was purchased through a joint venture with Camfield Partners LLC, the developer of the project. The new offices will be on the former site of a foundry along Interstate 5.
The company’s current administrative offices are spread over four rented buildings at the Citadel complex in Commerce and a fifth building in Monterey Park. The staff administers 43 clinics in Los Angeles and Orange counties that serve patients in communities that are considered by the federal government to be medically underserved or have a large number of uninsured residents. While some AltaMed clients have private insurance, many also are covered by federal programs.
“The new office will prepare us to better take advantage of the number of initiatives under health care reform that are earmarked for community health centers,” said Chief Executive Castulo de la Rocha, who hopes to have all his staff under one roof by June 2011.
AltaMed serves about 140,000 people who make about 700,000 office visits annually.
“We had planned to grow at 20 percent annually even before health care reform, and we now think we’ll be able to grow even faster and possibly expand outside Southern California using our current model,” de la Rocha said. “There is at least $11 billion in new or dedicated funding for community clinics, so we’re very excited about the opportunities that can present.”
New Doc Finder
West Hollywood’s Citysearch has joined the ranks of online services hoping to attract more eyeballs by helping Web searchers find the local doctor or dentist that best meets their needs.
Citysearch, which operates online city guides in Los Angeles and seven other national metro areas, earlier this month launched Doc Finder on its Insider Pages service, which solicits reviews from readers. People can search for a practitioner by specialty, gender, years of experience, languages they speak, distance from home or work address, and insurance they accept.
Insider Pages targets young and middle-age families who own homes in urban and suburban areas. They’re a natural audience for a physician referral service, said General Manager Eric Peacock.
Doc Finder combines its review service with data about a doctor’s record. That data comes from Insider Pages’ content partner, HealthGrades, a health care ratings organization based in Golden, Colo., that profiles hospitals, nursing homes and physicians.
“User-generated content, from people like you or me, is important, but it’s not enough to make a good decision about a doctor,” said Peacock, noting that the service has data on around 800,000 medical professionals and features reviews on more than 300,000 of them. “People also want to know: Does this doctor take my insurance and does he have a clean record.”
Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232.
