Olive View Medical Center Expected to Open in Spring

The long-awaited opening of the new Olive View Medical Center, which has been delayed since May of 1986 by mechanical and design problems, should take place this spring, hospital administrator Douglas Bagley said Wednesday.

Bagley made his prediction at a meeting of the Los Angeles County Health Facilities Authority, which sold the bonds for the construction of the $120-million county hospital in Sylmar.

The hospital will open after a lengthy inspection by state health officials that is tentatively scheduled for February, Bagley said. If the hospital passes the inspection, which could last two to four weeks, it will receive its operating license shortly thereafter.

“We’re not expecting there will be any major problems because we’ve already had preliminary inspections,” Bagley said. “It’s basically equipped and ready to go.”

Room for 350 Patients

Patients would be moved into the 350-bed hospital four to six weeks after the license is granted, the administrator said. The patients are now being treated at the county’s cramped and aging Olive View Mid-Valley Hospital in Van Nuys and at County-USC Medical Center in Eastside Los Angeles.

The hospital’s opening was delayed primarily by problems found in its air-handling system. Those problems prompted the county to file a $5.1 million lawsuit in November against the companies involved in designing the hospital.

Last year, inspectors for the Los Angeles Fire Department concluded that the exhaust system would be inadequate in the event of a fire. The system was also found to be incapable of circulating enough air to dissipate bad odors.

Larger fans for the air-handling system were installed in October and November, and tests indicated that they were circulating sufficient air. In fact, the fans are providing so much air that the “doors have difficulty shutting,” said Tom Schriber, an engineer with the county’s Facilities Management Department.

Air System Work Continues

With the fans in place, crews are working 12 hours a day, seven days a week at the hospital to balance the air flow from 900 vents in the facility, Schriber said at the hearing.

Through the lawsuit, the county hopes to recoup money spent on upgrading the air system, as well as other expenses incurred by unexpected design changes and equipment purchases required to open the hospital.

The county’s lawsuit was filed against Olive View Medical Center Architects & Engineers, the Luckman Partnership, Syska & Hennessy, and Welton Becket Associates.

The lawsuit contends that the architectural and engineering firms broke their contracts by drawing plans with “serious defects” and “design errors and omissions.”

The medical center was built to replace one demolished by the 1971 Sylmar earthquake a month after it had opened.