MEDICAL : Childrens Hospital in Orange Fills New Job of Chief Operating Officer

Tony Paap has filled the new position of chief operating officer at Childrens Hospital of Orange County. Paap, formerly chief executive officer at Children’s Hospital Medical Center Oakland, took over responsibility for day-to-day administrative duties at the Orange-based hospital on Oct. 3.

Paap’s duties at CHOC were previously performed by Harold Wade, the hospital’s chief executive officer, who now has received the additional title of president.

The administrative restructuring is expected to give Wade more time to concentrate on negotiating the hospital’s expanded affiliation with UCI Medical Center, CHOC spokeswoman Maureen Williams said.

Williams said Wade also will be able to devote more of his attention to the hospital’s $50-million construction program that will get under way next month.

Construction plans call for razing the five-story tower that CHOC owns and building a new six-story acute care hospital. Also, the hospital will build a new five-story research building, which will house a general pediatric clinic and a diabetes and endocrinology clinic. The top three floors are designed to house future research programs into childhood diseases.

The hospital bought the five-story tower in 1974 with the intention of converting it into a general acute-care hospital. However, the structure did not meet state building codes for such a conversion because there was not enough space between floors to accommodate air-conditioning and ventilation equipment.

Williams said the new hospital will have state-of-the-art technology and private and semi-private rooms for its young patients.

The new CHOC complex, to be built on land next to the existing facilities, is scheduled for completion by the end of 1991.

After the building project is finished, CHOC will vacate a wing of St. Joseph Hospital that it has occupied under a lease agreement since the children’s hospital was founded in 1964.

CHOC spokeswoman Maureen Williams said construction of the new hospital is being financed mostly from money collected in prior fund-raising drives for the proposed tower conversion.

“The majority of the money for the new hospital building has been raised in prior campaigns, but we are seeking commitments to fund the research building,” Williams said. Construction of the research building alone is estimated to cost $10 million.