Stirling Wants UCSD to Run Hillcrest Mental Hospital for State

A state assemblyman who has tried without success to close down the county’s Hillcrest mental hospital has now proposed that the state, through UC San Diego Medical Center, take over the troubled facility.

Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) said Thursday he plans to introduce legislation soon that would create a neuro-psychiatric institute at UCSD similar to ones now operating in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Stirling said the transition would be made easier by the fact that the state already owns the building that houses the 60-bed mental hospital. The building is part of the UCSD Medical Center.

County and university officials, who have considered such a program in the past, said they had not heard from Stirling or seen his plan.

“It’s news to us,” said Leslie Franz, a spokeswoman for the UCSD School of Medicine. “UCSD has not been approached and has not been involved in any deliberations.”

Ruth Covell, associate dean of the medical school, added that a neuro-psychiatric institute would involve millions of dollars in funding for research beyond the budget for care of the county’s patients. The institute at UCLA has a $58-million annual budget, almost four times as large as the budget for the two county hospitals at Hillcrest and Loma Portal.

David Janssen, the county’s acting chief administrator, said county and hospital officials had discussed the possibility privately but had not heard of Stirling’s proposal. He said the county’s first priority is to keep state and federal funding for the Hillcrest hospital, which is threatened with the loss of Medicare and Medi-Cal money because of problems in patient care and management.

“The idea is not new,” Janssen said. “This is something that will be actively considered when the Board of Supervisors gets to the point of deciding what the long-range future of the facility will be.”

Supervisor George Bailey said he would be happy to turn over the hospital to the state.

“If he (Stirling) has got an idea that is practical, I’d be glad to support it,” Bailey said. “Certainly we’ve got something that’s a long ways from the best of all worlds up there.”

But Bailey said he was skeptical about whether Stirling could persuade his legislative colleagues to support the proposal.

“The state has been unloading as much mental health as they could over the last couple of years,” he said. “But if he wants to do it and they can do it better, I’d be glad to give him the chance.”

Stirling said improvements the county has made so far at Hillcrest have been designed only to meet minimum federal standards.

“The more I hear and the more I know, the more I believe it’s a shell game with them,” he said. “They talk like they’re improving the place, but I don’t see any resolve to make substantive changes.”

Stirling said the hospital would be best served by the “professionalism and standards” that the University of California would bring to the operation.