Los Robles Hospital Expansion Complete

An 8,400-square-foot emergency room addition has been completed at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, but hospital officials are still waiting for approval from the state Department of Health Services before it can open.

Once finished, the $6.5-million upgrade will end the sometimes three-hour waits that have plagued the emergency room, officials said.

“It’ll allow us to see more patients,” said hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman. “We’ll have more staff. Exactly how many, we’re not sure just yet. But we will cut down on wait time.”

Carraway-Bowman led delegates on a tour Tuesday to show off the 11 new patient beds, three trauma rooms and a new fast-track area for treating illnesses and injuries that aren’t life-threatening. The officials included Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo and Thousand Oaks Mayor Dennis Gillette.

“It’s long overdue,” Gillette said. “[At] Los Robles, being the only emergency room in the immediate area, there were a number of instances of people having to wait for a very long time to be seen, which wasn’t a life-endangering situation. But it was a major inconvenience.”

When the 30-year-old hospital opened, it served a community of about 30,000, Carraway-Bowman said.

Now, the hospital serves more than 150,000 residents in the Conejo Valley.