County to Study Support to Ailing UCI Hospital

Orange County supervisors Tuesday ordered a study of the county’s support for the UCI Medical Center in Orange, acknowledging that state budget cuts and a swelling number of indigent patients have badly hurt that hospital.

The study will allow the supervisors to “make the most informed decision possible” regarding future funding, said Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez, who proposed the review.

Vasquez asked that the study be completed “as soon as possible.”

But while the supervisors have ordered a study, they have not committed to increasing funding for indigent medical services in Orange County. Those programs lost about 55% of their funding last year when the state slashed its support for them and the county declined to fill in the gap.

The county continues to wrestle with bleak budget forecasts, and many officials have warned that new aid for medical programs will be hard to come by.

Vasquez wrote: “ . . . Recognizing the seriousness of the situation and the possible loss of a valuable resource to the residents of our county, I do not believe that we should leave any stone unturned.”

Vasquez was joined in his comments by Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, another longtime supporter of county health-care programs.

The medical center, she said, has become the county’s chief provider of care for the indigent. It “has truly taken an unfair share of that responsibility, and it’s become a burden for them,” Wieder added.

In addition, Wieder requested that county officials investigate the government’s overall role in providing health care and discuss whether that role should be re-evaluated.

In an interview last week, Tom Uram, the county’s Health Care Agency director, said he will recommend that the county budget $3 million more to make up for the cutbacks in the state’s funds for indigent care.

The supervisors’ action came after UC Irvine Chancellor Jack W. Peltason wrote them a letter a few weeks ago saying the hospital was “a financially bankrupt institution.” He also said the UC system could no longer go on shouldering the burden of caring for the poor because the responsibility belonged chiefly to the county.

Peltason said that while $3 million will help, the county also has to address the issue of which hospitals care for indigent patients. Currently, hospital and UC officials have said, the UCI Medical Center cares for 60% of the county’s poor patients while it has only 6% of the county’s hospital beds.

UC system officials have put more pressure on the county to make up for the shortfall because the UC system is facing its own budget problems. Last week, UC regents voted to raise student fees by $650 a year, the largest increase in the system’s 123-year history.

Several of the regents were so upset by the losses that they talked about closing down the hospital. A discussion on the hospital, which had been scheduled for last week’s regents’ meeting, was put off until March when it was learned that Vasquez would direct the county to search for ways to help.

“We’re essentially saying (caring for most of the county’s poor patients) isn’t working, and we can’t be stuck with the bill,” Peltason said Tuesday.

Times staff writers Kris Lindgren and Lanie Jones contributed to this report.