County OKs Funds for Birthing Center Study
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Los Angeles County supervisors unanimously approved spending $1.4 million Tuesday to study building a birthing center in the Antelope Valley, the beginning of a process to look into replacing the 171-bed High Desert Hospital.
The county now contracts with Valley Medical Hospital in Lancaster for obstetrical services.
Kathryn Barger, aide to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who proposed the new hospital, said county patients increasingly are filling up the beds that were intended for patrons of the private hospital.
Barger said studies show that the birthing center could expect about 2,600 deliveries annually by 1995, when it is scheduled to open.
The $1.4 million will pay for site inspection and environmental studies, Barger said. If supervisors agree to build the center, it would cost about $17 million, and the rest of the hospital would cost $198 million, she said.
The county hopes to obtain some construction funding from a state Medi-Cal program.
The site under study for the new hospital is 40 acres of county land situated about a mile from the current hospital.
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