Asthmatics’ Home Looks to Donations to Stay in Operation

Although its situation “is still in limbo,” the financially troubled Sunair Home for Asthmatic Children in Tujunga is continuing to operate and officials are hopeful that fund-raisers and donations will help support it.

“We’re still open; we’re still accepting patients and we will continue to operate,” said Harriet Rinkov, president of the board of directors for Sunair. “The prognosis is guarded but promising.”

Rinkov said two fund-raisers scheduled for May and June, in addition to assistance from the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce, would help support the nonprofit home, where thousands of children have been treated since 1937.

New government funding regulations, insufficient donations from private sources and a decreasing patient population had pushed the Sunair home into a financial bind, and some officials had said the home would probably be forced to close within a few months.

Closure Reports Exaggerated

But Rinkov said reports of the facility closing were exaggerated. Although only nine patients lived at the 39-bed home in February, Rinkov said 13 patients were now being treated. She also said the facility had expanded its medical capacity to treat diabetic children.

“We will be doing well if we can get the word to the medical community on what we are doing,” Rinkov said.

The Sunair home is the only live-in rehabilitation facility of its kind in California. Physicians at the facility say a patient’s typical six-month stay at the Sunair home is designed to allow an asthmatic child to become self-sufficient for life.

But last spring the facility was hard hit when county officials announced that they would pay for just two months of a patient’s stay. The California Children Services program had been paying for the entire six-month stay, $37.70 a day for each child.

Reason for Cut

Officials said the decision by California Children Services, a state program administered by the county, to cut funds for Sunair was based on medical, rather than administrative or budgetary, reasons. They said a review had concluded that 60 days was enough time for most children to obtain full benefit of the Sunair program.

Rinkov said the reduced funding was not enough to cover the program provided to the patients. “We can’t negotiate our reimbursement from the government, and the funding now only covers 40% to 50% of our budget,” she said.

A celebrity golf tournament on May 13 at the North Ranch Golf Course in the City of Thousand Oaks will benefit the home, Rinkov said, as will a spring luncheon fund-raiser scheduled for June 1. The Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce was sending letters to former patients and to celebrities, asking for support.

“We received three checks for $700 from the chamber Tuesday, and every little bit helps,” Rinkov said. “We’re trying to buy time now to exercise our options, and, if we can hold out until June, I think we will be fine with our funding situation. But we really have to hold out until then.”