Board Extends Pacts for Trauma Centers

To keep 10 private hospitals from making good on a threat to close their trauma centers, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has agreed to a month-to-month contract extension for the next six months, officials said Monday.

Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia along with seven other Los Angeles hospitals threatened to shut down their trauma centers unless the county increased its reimbursement rates for uninsured patients, a rate that has remained constant for a decade despite rising health-care costs.

The closure would leave the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys without a trauma center, forcing critically injured patients to wait for on-call physicians to arrive at emergency rooms or to be airlifted to three other county hospitals in Los Angeles.

County officials say they had no choice but to offer the month-to-month contract pending the outcome of budget negotiations with the state and federal governments for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

“We are extending the contract on a month-to-month basis to allow us to continue to negotiate with the trauma hospitals and to ensure that the system continues to function,” said Dr. Donald Thomas, associate director of the county Department of Health Services.

Even so, hospitals cannot afford to pick up the tab for treating uninsured patients, said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Southern California Healthcare Assn., an industry trade group that represents local hospitals.

“These trauma centers are so costly, we have to ask the government to pay more for the indigents that come in,” he said. “We are getting a fraction of what it costs to provide the care.”

The protracted contract negotiations are taking a toll on trauma center surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and other emergency room staffers who are concerned whether they will have a job for another month.

“If we lose these people, we may as well shut down the trauma center,” Lott said.

Other private hospitals with trauma centers are Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and UCLA Medical Center.