Now Nonprofit Clinics Are Waiting to Be Bailed Out : Health: A federal plan will rescue many public centers from closure, but officials at sites that are caring for growing number of former county patients say they don’t expect influx to end soon.

The patient’s phone call shocked Corrie Alvarez, but not because of the ailment needing attention.

It was where the woman, who had severe stomach problems, was calling from. Because the woman was uncertain about the future of the county clinic in San Pedro, where she normally went for care, she was willing to drive an hour to Arleta if Alvarez’s clinic could help her.

“I was stunned that she would even consider driving this far for care,” Alvarez said. The clinic administrator at El Proyecto del Barrio Inc. in Arleta lately has received many similar calls from worried county patients. “This could increase our load by 40 more patients a day.”

Despite President Clinton’s announcement Friday of a $364-million federal bailout plan for Los Angeles County’s health system, Alvarez and other officials at some nonprofit health centers in the San Fernando Valley are still bracing themselves for an influx of county patients.

“It might take a while for the county to figure out what’s going to happen with [its] clinics, and patients will still need to get treatment for their problems, so I don’t see the numbers dropping,” said Edwin Brown, executive director of the Samuel Dixon Family Health Center in Val Verde.

Brown said his small rural clinic has had a 20% increase in its client load since August. The clinic’s appointment schedule is booked solid for the next several weeks. And the waiting list has jumped from two to 15 people.

“We’ve been getting a lot of patients from the Valencia Health Center because they haven’t been accepting patients and are referring them to us instead,” Brown said. The Valencia center had been slated for closure as of Sunday, but now it may be saved.

The federal rescue package averts the threatened shutdown of the county’s six comprehensive health centers, most of the community clinics and many outpatient services at county hospitals. The closures had been scheduled to take effect Sunday.

Although details were being hammered out over the weekend, county officials still warn of significant cutbacks despite the bailout plan.

As financial turmoil wracked the health-care system, administrators, physicians and nurses at several county health facilities in the Valley have been forwarding patients to nonprofit medical centers, mental health clinics and drop-in centers. Some had even given patients a resource list of 18 private health centers.

“We want to help patients with continuity of care with the referrals and resource lists,” said Ernest Espinoza, associate administrator of the Valley cluster of county health centers.

He added that a number of patients had been referred to Mid-Valley Comprehensive Health Center in Van Nuys, which had been downgraded under the county’s cutback plan to provide only pediatric and prenatal care.

Several private health centers saw the first trickle of patients early this month. But the past couple of weeks has brought a steady stream of patients who were either turned away from county facilities or referred by doctors expecting their centers to close.

“We’ve been kind of inundated with clients who would have gone to Olive View and are coming here now, even though Olive View isn’t closing,” said Ludelia Cowan, executive director of Cornerstone, a Van Nuys-based drop-in and referral center for the indigent and mentally ill.

Cowan said Clinton’s announcement of the bailout “is really positive news for the county’s health department, but things move so slowly we don’t know when any real changes will happen.”

Several officials at nonprofit clinics said the influx of patients has not yet strained their budgets and they will continue to make contingency plans to handle an increased load of patients. The clinics receive their funding from a variety of sources, including federal and private foundation grants, fund raising, Medi-Cal and nominal patient fees.

Ted Acker of Van Nuys, an Olive View Medical Center patient, spoke of Clinton’s announcement with unbridled optimism, saying it would mean he could soon return to Olive View for his regular appointments.

“I’ll keep returning to the hospital if they keep giving me appointments,” he said. “I’ve been going there for years. They know who I am and are my friends. It’s easier than starting all over.”

Acker, 48, who has tuberculosis and is HIV positive, was referred to El Proyecto by his doctor at Olive View because services were being cut. Acker’s girlfriend, Okim Ellis, 54, was also referred to El Proyecto for TB and HIV testing. It took 30 minutes from start to finish for her tests. In the hospital, she would have waited hours just to have her name called, Acker said.

“It’s just like an anthill at the hospital--ants running all over the place,” he said. “Over here they took my girlfriend right away, no wait at all.”

Alvarez said she still expects to see county patients coming to her clinic because of the growing frustration with the county health-care system during the recent budget crisis.

“We’re still going to prepare ourselves,” Alvarez said. “We probably won’t get the amount [of patient referrals] I thought we would, but I think people are going to stop trusting the county because they’ve been jerked around like rubber bands.”