La Mirada

Construction is to begin next month on the first phase of a $15-million expansion of the Medical Center of La Mirada. Encino-based Nu-Med Inc., operators of the hospital, expect the project, including a 35,000-square-foot medical office building, to be finished by mid-1987.

The project also will include a new four-story patient care tower and a women’s care facility and expanded intensive care, emergency treatment and physical therapy facilities. The number of hospital beds will not change from the current 141, said Dennis Gaschen, spokesman for the medical center on East Imperial Highway.

Construction on the $2.5-million women’s center--including expanded labor and delivery rooms and pediatric facilities--will begin next month, Gaschen said. The La Mirada center, which opened in 1961 with 50 beds, is one of six Southern California hospitals owned by Nu-Med.