Officials Propose 10% Cut in Beds at County Hospitals

Trying to close a looming deficit, Los Angeles County’s health department has opened a political can of worms by proposing to cut beds by 10% in most of its hospitals next year.

The cuts, to affect all public hospitals in Los Angeles County except Harbor / UCLA, are proposed in a budget request from the health department to the county’s chief administrative office and are merely the opening salvo of the department’s budget process.

Although county budget officials stressed that the cuts are only a tentative proposal and that layoffs are highly unlikely, the idea surprised some because it revives the volatile issue of cutting hospital service when the county overall is expecting a modest budget surplus.

“I can’t believe they’re going to let this stand,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina. “At this point in time, I think we’ve realized our worst nightmare: that people are going to go without medical care.”

Health Director Mark Finucane said patients will not go without treatment because they will be seen by other health facilities, including expanded county outpatient clinics. He emphasized that the cuts would be a last resort but are necessary because the county is short $27 million in tobacco tax revenues from the state.

Even as he proposes cutting hospital services, Finucane seeks to expand outpatient services and public health. In that sense, his budget request is in keeping with the department’s efforts to shift from expensive hospital care to preventive medicine, and with the terms of a federal bailout that saved the county from falling into bankruptcy in 1995 due to its reliance on hospitals.

Earlier this month the Board of Supervisors hesitantly approved an $8-million increase to the health department to expand outpatient services--even as it stared down a projected $119-million deficit in the department.

Even with the federal bailout, the department is running a deficit because it failed to save the money it projected in a restructuring process.

The budget proposal closes that gap largely by tapping into reserves and relying on increased funds from other government agencies. The reduction in hospital patients would save only $5 million because the department would lose the federal reimbursements for those patients.

Finucane said that the savings, though small, were significant.

“It is $5 million more I will have for ambulatory care or public health.”