$33-Million Expansion of Hospital Announced

In a $33-million expansion, Alvarado Hospital Medical Center will expand its emergency and outpatient facilities and will build an 80-bed physical rehabilitation hospital and three-story medical office building, the hospital’s owner, National Medical Enterprises Inc., said Thursday.

The rehabilitation center will create up to 300 new jobs, Daniel McLean, Alvarado’s chief executive, said, adding that construction at the site, just east San Diego State University, will be completed in 1990.

The four-story, 80-bed, physical rehabilitation hospital will be built to the west of the existing 214-bed acute-care hospital.

‘Cradle to Grave’ Service

National Medical Enterprises is bolstering services at the Alvarado complex to “provide service from the cradle to the grave,” according to San Diego-based health-care consultant Charles Ewell.

Ewell said many hospitals are turning to businesses such as rehabilitation and drug-abuse counseling to bolster the flow of revenue. If Alvarado successfully controls its expenses, the additions could give Alvarado Hospital an edge over competing hospitals, including nearby Grossmont District Hospital in La Mesa, he said.

The rehabilitation hospital will serve the increasing number of patients who, because of recent medical advances, are surviving accidents that formerly proved fatal, according to William P. Travis, a National Medical vice president.

The rehabilitation hospital will also service the county’s rapidly growing elderly population.

The health-care corporation also will add 30,000 square feet to Alvarado’s 80,000-square-foot acute-care hospital. The expansion will include a renovated emergency room, a new ambulatory-care center, a cafeteria, a cardiac-imaging center and a radiology department.

Psychiatric Beds Due

The expansion will include a new parking structure and the medical complex’s third medical office building.

Santa Monica-based National Medical also plans to upgrade and expand its nearby Alvarado Convalescent and Rehabilitation Hospital. Within six months, the company will add 44 child and adolescent psychiatric beds and 30 rehabilitation beds.

State and federal health officials, citing problems with health-care quality, recently revoked the convalescent facility’s Medicare and Medi-Cal license. The facility has remained open, however, serving private patients.

National Medical also operates the nearby Alvarado Parkway Institute, a 60-bed psychiatric hospital; the 156-bed San Diego Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, and the 123-bed Southwood Psychiatric Centers in Chula Vista.

The publicly traded company owns and operates 43 acute hospitals, 47 psychiatric hospitals and 18 rehabilitative hospitals. It also operates 13 substance abuse centers and 299 long-term care facilities in this country and abroad.