County Opens Child-Care Center to Help Hospital Recruit Workers

Los Angeles County officials, seeking a competitive edge in recruiting nurses and other hard-to-find hospital specialists, Wednesday dedicated a center to care for the children of employees at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar.

It is the second child-care center at a county hospital. The first opened in September, 1988, at County-USC Medical Center. Another is slated to open early next year at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, and still others are planned in Downey and in the Los Angeles Civic Center area.

The Olive View center, housed in a renovated pharmacy storage building surrounded by play areas, can accommodate up to 84 children from 6 weeks to 6 years old. It is operated by a nonprofit group, the Child Development Consortium of Los Angeles, which contracts with the county.

Although the center is open to the hospital’s 2,000 employees, as well as other county workers, priority will go to the children of nurses, physical therapists, radiology technologists and those in fields in which hospital recruiters must compete for the small number of specialists available.

“It makes good sense for our future and good sense for employees,” Richard B. Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer, said at the dedication ceremony. “Study after study shows you have an easier time of recruiting qualified workers . . . if you care for their very crucial child-care needs.”

Need Outstrips Supply

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district includes Olive View, said the need for child care in Los Angeles County far outstrips the supply.

There were 12,926 licensed infant-care spaces in 1986, but 45,386 more were needed for the county’s population, according to Kathleen Malaske-Samu, the county’s child-care coordinator. About 97,499 licensed spots were available for preschool-aged children, but 45,199 more were needed, and there were 23,333 licensed spaces for school-aged children, but a need for 84,951 more, she said.

Antonovich predicted that the center at Olive View will reduce employee absenteeism, enhance morale and improve productivity. “It will result in better health care to the community,” he said, because employees freed of child-care worries will work more efficiently.

Thirty-seven children are already enrolled at the center. The youngest, at 4 months, is Ryan Sewell, whose mother, Debra, works as a respiratory therapist at the hospital. Sewell said she had reservations about returning to work after a three-month maternity leave, particularly because she was still nursing her son. But she said she and her husband needed the extra income.

Perfect Solution

The child-care center, just west of the hospital, offered the perfect solution, she said. The staff calls her when Ryan cries and she’s there in a flash.

“You can have the best of both worlds,” she said.

The center is open from 6:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Fees range from $281 a month for preschool-aged children to $476 a month for infants.

Other government agencies have made an effort to meet the growing demand for child-care services. The city of Los Angeles recently opened a child-care center in City Hall, Malaske-Samu said, and the state Department of Motor Vehicles operates one in Sacramento.