Patience a Must at Unopened Hospital

First, the good news.

After 10 years of planning and one delayed opening date after another, Irvine’s first hospital is now expected to open by the middle of July.

Meanwhile, apparently confused by Irvine Medical Center’s recent--but incorrect--announcement that it would open in June, some prospective patients have tried to visit the place, only to discover that it is closed.

To be sure, 400 hospital employees have been hired and an elegant medical center has been constructed on Sand Canyon Avenue.

It is filled with the state-of-the art medical equipment, 177 private rooms that will cost $460 a day, and a huge, mall-like atrium, art gallery and waiting area with a waterfall.

But because the hospital has not yet met all state licensing requirements, it is not yet open.

Meanwhile, in recent weeks, several people have driven to the hospital, apparently under the impression that they can now receive medical care there, public relations director Lizz Mishreki said.

“This is not funny,” she said. “We’ve had people drive up--and people calling too,” asking if the hospital was open.

So far no one has come to the emergency room, Mishreki said. “But somebody saw someone drive up to the back of the hospital last week or the week before,” apparently looking for a patient entrance, and then drive off.

And last week “we saw a little old lady pull up in a dial-a-ride bus that pulled up to the outpatient entrance. She stepped out,” looked around, finally realized that the hospital was closed “and stepped back into the bus,” Mishreki said.

A banner with the hospital’s name was to have been unfurled on the building’s tower, Mishreki said. “We decided to hold off on that” for fear people would come to the wrong conclusion.

Now, said vice president Rob Johnson, the hospital has designed a sign that “will announce that we are not open yet,” proclaiming instead, “Opening Mid-July.”

Some longtime hospital employees say they have lost count of the many announced opening dates but recent ones included January, April, May and an especially well-publicized day, June 23.

In conjunction with the latter date, hospital leaders held a press conference and went ahead with a June 1 black-tie dinner for supporters.

But the June opening was scrapped, too, after hospital officials discovered a problem with their fire alarm and alerted the state fire marshal’s office.

That agency was expected to inspect the system on Monday. And yet another opening date, July 9, was announced--contingent, Mishreki said, on securing the fire marshal’s approval this week.

But Deputy Fire Marshal Marge Yarlborough only got about halfway through the 200,000 square-foot building Monday and because of other commitments, is not expected to finish the job until next Monday, hospital vice president Rob Johnson said.

Fire door by fire door, smoke detector by smoke detector, Yarlborough is slowly making her way through the 200,000-square-foot hospital, testing every piece of equipment, Johnson said.

Hospital officials now promise that if all goes well, they will open in about a month. And they are philosophic about the delays.

“Sure we’d like to open now,” said emergency room director Dr. Keith Rosing. “We would have liked to open another three months ago, but these inspections take time.”