Reasons Behind County/USC Decision
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, after an extensive amount of research, public testimony and debate, will replace the earthquake-damaged County-USC Medical Center with a 600-bed facility if the state provides the additional funding, or a 500-bed facility if it doesn’t.
The decision was based on two essential factors: need and cost. The proposed 750-bed hospital was defeated because it could not be built with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state money alone.
There currently are 10,900 surplus beds in Los Angeles County. Sixty percent of these hospitals are losing money. It makes economic sense to fill these private beds and stabilize the non-profit hospitals rather than force them to close and require residents of the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys to travel downtown for their medical needs. This provides the community-based medical care system that best serves the needs of our residents.
The Harvey Rose study commissioned by our board identified surplus beds in the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys. The report also confirmed that doctors are willing to participate in contracting with Los Angeles County to provide the necessary services.
There has been a considerable amount of misinformation regarding the private-sector interest in establishing public/private partnerships. The facts are that the Department of Health Services wrote this in their Nov. 6 memo to the Board of Supervisors, and testified Nov. 10, that they never sent to the private hospitals a Request for Proposals or a Request for Interest.
It is also important to recognize that the county currently has contracts with White Memorial, Good Samaritan and California Medical Center for emergency and indigent medical services through the year 2000. Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian hospital has also indicated its ability to contract for medical care services and provide beds to the county.
Another fact that has gone unnoticed is that the number of beds for trauma care, emergency room, burn, intensive care, and jail are the same under the 391-500-600 and 750-bed proposals. These are areas that have been identified as critical care services. They remain constant under all proposals.
Two years ago, as a result of a bankrupt health department, we entered into an agreement with Gov. Wilson and President Clinton to downsize our hospital beds and increase outpatient services through an aggressive public/private partnership. This will provide quality cost-effective medical services which are community based. Prior to this action, patients and taxpayers were saddled with a patient warehousing system which only satisfied the bureaucrats.
Our decision to build the 600-bed facility, if state funding is approved, or a 500-bed facility if it is not, is a positive step toward ensuring the medical needs of our residents for decades to come.
MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH
Supervisor, Fifth District
