Contract for VA Hospital Awarded

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a $46-million contract for design and construction of a new ambulatory care center at the Sepulveda Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The project will include a new, three-story, 238,000-square-foot clinic, in addition to other site and utility improvements. It is scheduled for completion in August, 1996.

The Northridge earthquake wrecked the center’s 431-bed hospital and damaged some of the other 51 buildings at the complex, forcing the evacuation of more than 300 patients to other VA facilities in Southern California.

Citing the high cost of rebuilding the hospital and the department’s new emphasis on outpatient treatment, VA officials announced the hospital would be demolished and replaced with a new ambulatory care center.

The new center will offer no long-term beds, but will provide a range of outpatient services including neurology, cardiology, rehabilitative care and minor surgeries. Patients requiring major surgery will be sent to West Los Angeles or other VA hospitals.

Officials from the center also announced that the Sepulveda VA facility’s Spinal Cord Injury Unit and the Stroke Rehabilitation Unit have been rebuilt. A new day hospital program opened Feb. 28, and two new wings are under construction on the research building.

“Sepulveda has a unique mission,” said John Jay Kenagy, staff assistant to Perry C. Norman, the center’s director. “We’re doing both ambulatory care and long-term care.”

The center’s 120-bed nursing hospital will continue to provide longer-term care to senior veterans, but the center is moving toward outpatient care because it is less expensive, Kenagy said.

The construction contract was awarded to Nielsen-Dillingham Builders Joint Venture of Long Beach. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new center will be held at 1 p.m. March 17. Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, the department’s undersecretary for health, will participate in the ceremony.