Cost to Total $60 Million : AME to Build a Hospital, Expand a Second One
Affiliated Medical Enterprises of Orange plans to expand its Pacifica Community Hospital in Huntington Beach with a $20-million, five-story extension and will build a new $40-million hospital in Palmdale to replace Palmdale Hospital Medical Center, company officials said Tuesday.
“Basically, they’ll be building brand-new hospitals to replace the hospitals that they have,” said John Weir, a hospital spokesman.
The existing Palmdale hospital will be bulldozed or converted to other use. The existing Huntington Beach hospital will be remodeled, joined to the new building and used to house women’s health services, including delivery rooms, a nursery for newborns and a geriatric care area.
The Pacifica project will increase the hospital’s capacity to 161 beds from 109. Construction should be completed in 1992. The new Palmdale building, which will increase capacity to 180 beds from 123, is scheduled to open in 1993.
When Affiliated was founded in 1986, it operated one hospital, the 116-bed Ojai Valley Community Hospital in Ojai. In 1988, it bought American Health Group International Inc. of Kirkland, Wash.
The $100-million acquisition brought the company up to five hospitals and one home health-care company. The facilities purchased in 1988 were Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley, Palmdale Hospital Medical Center, Pacifica Community Hospital, Roosevelt Hospital in Portales, N.M., and Evergreen Home Health Care Inc. in Burbank.
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