Damage Might Speed County Hospital Project

Extensive earthquake damage to the pediatric and psychiatric hospitals within the County-USC Medical Center complex could bring in money to help speed up a $1-billion replacement project for the center scheduled for completion in 2002, Los Angeles County health officials said Wednesday.

The Pediatric Pavilion, a children’s hospital within the complex, was the latest victim of the earthquake and its aftershocks.

The aftershocks, particularly the 5.0 jolt on Saturday, left the structure so badly weakened that the hospital was evacuated Tuesday night, county officials said. The 37 children and 16 adults in the hospital were moved to other facilities within the Medical Center complex.

In all, eight buildings at the Medical Center were damaged, the worst destruction absorbed by the pediatric and psychiatric hospitals, both of which are now empty. The preliminary estimate of damage to the Medical Center buildings is $389 million.

County administrators, as well as state and federal health officials, must decide whether to pump millions of dollars into the hospitals to repair quake damage and bring them up to current safety codes, or perform temporary repairs and use the money for a major new replacement hospital.

County officials said they were encouraged by comments over the weekend by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who toured the medical center Saturday. Shalala told Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt outside the Pediatric Pavilion, “We ought to see this as an opportunity to plan for health care in the 21st Century, not rebuild what we had.”

One state official, Neal Hardman, principal architect for the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Assistance, cautioned against expecting too much of a windfall. He said state disaster relief could provide some help, but it would be on the order of an insurance agency weighing the claim for an older car totaled in an accident. “If you have a Chevrolet, we won’t buy you a Cadillac,” he said.

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Groundbreaking for the replacement hospital is scheduled to begin in 1995, but the county is still in the process of completing its environmental impact report. It still must submit its architectural plans to the state for approval. Financing for the $1-billion project also remains murky, with county officials hopeful of getting state bond money to pay for it. Another obstacle is the need to reach agreements with local property owners to buy homes and businesses.

Health planners envision a new hospital with a 15-story tower, plus a five-story diagnostic and treatment facility. The new Medical Center would house services now performed in two outpatient facilities and four separate hospitals in the County-USC Medical Center complex--the historic General Hospital, Women’s Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital and Pediatric Pavilion.

Most of the buildings are at least 30 years old and do not meet codes for fire, evacuation and earthquake safety. Because some of the facilities do not have modern fire alarm systems, fire patrols routinely walk hospital corridors looking for smoke. General Hospital, the backdrop for numerous movies and television shows, was completed in 1932; the Pediatric Pavilion went up in the mid-1950s.

Ted Holland, the administrator for plant management at the medical center complex, said at a news conference Wednesday that he thinks the earthquake damage will hasten approval of the project.

“We’ll see it much sooner,” Holland said.

Douglas Bagley, a regional administrative chief for the county Department of Health Services who is in charge of the County-USC Medical Center, was more cautious but still optimistic based on discussions with Shalala and Witt.

“They made what we thought were general policy statements that we interpreted as very positive,” he said, cautioning that firm commitments are a long way off.