Plan Calls for 35 More Officers at County-USC : Safety: Supervisors will consider a proposal to increase around-the-clock security in the crowded emergency area where three doctors were shot Monday.

Los Angeles County officials Thursday, responding to this week’s emergency room shooting, proposed an interim plan to improve security at County-USC Medical Center, including the hiring of 35 additional officers to patrol the sprawling facility.

The plan, which would be put into effect over the course of a year, would nearly triple around-the-clock security in the emergency area, where three doctors were shot and seriously wounded Monday by a disgruntled patient.

The shooting drew attention to worsening conditions in Los Angeles County’s overcrowded emergency rooms, where staff shortages contribute to long waits and frustration among patients. The Board of Supervisors, which ordered drafting of the security plan Tuesday, still must approve the proposals.

“If we don’t do something, we’re going to have a rough time keeping our doctors,” Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said. “We have to do something to let doctors and nurses know we’re serious about security.”

Implementing the security program would cost $700,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends in July. Representatives of the chief administrative office and the Department of Health Services developed the plan after a walk-through inspection of the facility.

Hiring the officers would cost $1.9 million a year, according to a memorandum by interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford. Other proposed security measures include the construction of an inside wall on the hospital’s first floor that would partially block pedestrian traffic into the emergency room.

Lt. Pat Soll of the county’s office of security management said officials hope to develop security measures that will save the expense of hiring so many officers.

“We need to do more with less,” Soll said. “We’re still in the brainstorming stage. We’re looking at all the hospitals (in the county system), trying to find a way to make it as safe for everyone as possible.”

The plan also calls for the immediate posting of eight additional officers on the first floor of the medical center. Soll said the county is considering providing trailers as an annex to the emergency room, a move that would ease crowding.

Still, Supervisor Ed Edelman wondered about the cost of the security measures. The county faces a budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year that may approach $1 billion. Last month, supervisors ordered the drafting of a budget that would cut social services by 10% to 15%.

“My first question is, where are we going to get the money for this?” Edelman said.

Last year, when the county faced a $588-million shortfall, it turned down a request from the Department of Health Services for 143 new guards at county hospitals.

Joel Bellman, Edelman’s spokesman, said: “The question is, what are the most pressing, life-threatening needs? What is a reasonable level of security based on the threats and problems of the past?”

Representatives of county employee unions said the security plan included many proposals that health workers had put forward for years, including panic buttons in the emergency room triage area.

“We think it’s an important first step,” said Gilbert Cedillo, general manager for Service Employees International Union, Local 660, which represents most county health workers.

The most seriously wounded of the three shooting victims, Dr. Richard May, remained in critical condition Thursday at County-USC hospital.

The state Senate’s Committee on Health and Human Services has scheduled a public hearing on emergency room violence for Thursday at 9 a.m. at the Women’s Hospital at County-USC Medical Center.

Times staff writer Josh Meyer contributed to this story.