L.A. Health Crisis May Draw Needy to County : Hospitals: Officials monitor a plan to close San Fernando Valley facilities. They warn of a possible influx of uninsured patients.

Concerned about a possible influx of uninsured patients, Ventura County health officials said Wednesday that they are monitoring the proposed closure of public hospitals and clinics in the San Fernando Valley.

“If people keep getting refused care, they will go wherever they can to get access,” said Pierre Durand, director of the Ventura County Health Care Agency.

County-run clinics in Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks could see Medi-Cal and uninsured patients trekking over from Los Angeles County if health facilities are forced to shut down, Durand said.

“It wouldn’t take much to create an overflow,” he said. “The numbers in Los Angeles County are big.”

Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar and the Canoga Park Health Care Center are among a slew of Los Angeles County health facilities that have been targeted for closure to help bridge a massive budget deficit.

But Los Angeles County officials said if this happens, most patients would probably look for other options in their own county rather than seeking out care in Ventura County.

They cited a lack of transportation as the reason. Many people who use the hospitals and clinics there depend on mass transit to get around, and that system does not extend to Ventura County, officials said.

“Transportation is going to be a major issue,” said Maple Gray, assistant administrator at Olive View.

Gray said a number of patients who use Olive View hospital already travel to County-USC Medical Center--which Los Angeles County officials want to keep open--to receive specialized care and would simply go there for all their medical needs. That facility is about 45 miles from Olive View, about the same distance as the Ventura County Medical Center.

“I envision a lot of people going to County-USC as a first option,” she said.

Toby Staheli, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said the majority of patients who use the Canoga Park clinic probably would seek care at a Van Nuys health center shielded from closure. She cited public transportation and familiarity with the county health care system as the main reasons.

“I think folks are going to go where they feel most connected,” she said.

But Paul Henkels, manager of the Sierra Vista Family Medical Center in Simi Valley, said his clinic already sees about 300 to 500 patients from Los Angeles County, many from the Canoga Park area. If the clinic there is closed, he said, he expects that number to go up.

“I’d be surprised if we didn’t get a big influx of people,” he said.

Henkels said his clinic now sees about 120 patients a day. Although it could absorb another 60 patients, he said, a greater caseload would be tough to handle.

“If we go to another 100 patients a day, that would strain us, I’m sure,” he said.

Kay Urban, an office manager at the Conejo Valley Family Care Center in Thousand Oaks, said the center sees few patients from Los Angeles County. She said the reasons they come have little to do with that county’s financial problems.

“It strikes me that they like the quality of care they receive here,” Urban said. “I am not under the impression that they are bailing out of Los Angeles.”

Durand said his big concern is that the people most likely to seek care in Ventura County would be those lacking health insurance, which would place a greater financial burden on the county.

He said those with Medi-Cal, the government-paid insurance for the state’s poorest residents, would still be able to get care in some private hospitals in Los Angeles County and so would probably remain there.

“I think they’re going to treat Medi-Cal patients in Los Angeles County before they treat the uninsured,” Durand said. “So the people who would be coming are going to be people without insurance.”

Still, Durand said, it’s difficult to gauge exactly what kind of threat Los Angeles County’s health-care crisis poses for Ventura County, especially since a number of proposals are being considered to bail out the ailing system.

“We do have a concern,” he said. “It’s just hard to predict whether that concern is justified.”

The proposals being discussed to rescue the Los Angeles County health care system from financial disaster include possible federal assistance.

Los Angeles County health czar Burt Margolin also hopes to turn over operation of more than two dozen public health clinics to private hospitals as a way to avoid massive budget cuts. The Board of Supervisors will consider bids submitted by private care givers later this month.

“If Margolin is successful in his plan to get the private sector to pick up those clinics, we probably won’t see much of an influx [of patients],” said Dr. Gary Feldman, Ventura County’s public health officer. “If that program collapses, we are at more of a risk.”

Lozano is a Times staff writer and Wahlgren is a correspondent.

* MAIN STORY: A1