Trauma Unit at Hospital to Be Closed

Officials at Santa Ana Hospital Medical Center said Tuesday that they will close its 24-hour emergency room in November and use the space to expand its obstetrics department.

The closure is not considered a significant blow to the county’s emergency medical system because the medical center does not receive paramedic patients, said Betty O’Rouke from county emergency medical services. The county has 30 hospitals in the emergency medical system.

Still, this is the fifth emergency room/trauma unit to close in Orange County in the past year and some health officials warn that county budget cuts for indigent medical services will force more closures.

Bryan Burklow, group administrator at Santa Ana Hospital Medical Center, said hospital officials funding cuts were not a factor in the decision to close the emergency room.

“We’re not in the same dilemma as those (emergency rooms) that have closed,” Burklow said. “Our niche is in obstetrics, and we decided to capitalize on that.”

Burklow said the number of obstetrics patients at the center has doubled from 140 patients a month to 250 in a year’s time. The center’s emergency room receives about 500 patients a month, which is lower than other hospitals in the area, Burklow said.

But others say reduced reimbursements by the county is forcing hospitals to give up their emergency rooms, which tend to attract the uninsured and indigent, and get into more profitable ventures.

“We warned the Board of Supervisors that hospitals would begin cutting vital community services to survive financially,” said Russell Inglish, regional vice president of the Hospital Council of Southern California. “This is an example of that happening.”

In August, the county’s Board of Supervisors refused to cover a $13.6-million cut in state funds for indigent medical care. The program, which lost 55% of its funding, pays medical bills for about 22,000 people in Orange County.

Inglish said the county may see more hospitals deciding to close down emergency care services so that they can survive financially.

“Many of these hospitals are forced to make a financial decision to either pull out of needed emergency services from the community or stay afloat financially,” Inglish said.

In June, Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana changed its emergency room department into an urgent care center, enabling it to refuse patients who do not have insurance. Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center closed its trauma center last December. Midwood Community Hospital in Stanton and St. Jude Hospital in Yorba Linda closed their emergency rooms to become psychiatric hospitals.