Palmdale’s Lone Hospital to Close Today

The only hospital in Palmdale will close its doors today the victim of a bad economy, changes in health care and the hospital’s location, which was too far from where physicians chose to practice.

The closure of 20-year-old Desert Palms Community Hospital leaves the Antelope Valley with three hospitals instead of four, and two emergency rooms instead of three.

But health-care specialists in the Antelope Valley said they do not expect a major impact because the 123-bed Desert Palms typically admitted fewer than 20 patients each day. Even its busy emergency room, which handled 40 patients a day, had only six beds.

Officials at other hospitals also noted that facilities in Lancaster are only about eight minutes away from Desert Palms by ambulance.

“Everybody is saying there are 110,000 people who live in Palmdale and how awful it is that it will be without a hospital, but we were only treating 15 patients a day,” said Elizabeth Scarcelli, the hospital’s administrator.

In addition to a continuing slow economy because of defense cutbacks in the Antelope Valley and the trend toward outpatient services instead of in-hospital care, Desert Palms had a problem attracting physicians and their patients, Scarcelli said.

For the most part, the Antelope Valley’s doctors are based in Lancaster, and they referred patients to nearby hospitals rather than to Desert Palms, she said.

Officials of Paracelsus Corp., which owns the hospital, would not disclose how much Desert Palms was losing, but one official said that during the past six months alone, the figure had climbed into millions of dollars.

Desert Palms’ 235 employees, who will will be given 60 days’ pay, have received training in resume writing and other employment-seeking skills, said Bob Joyner, Paracelsus’ vice president.