Hospital to Double in Size by 2012

Community Memorial Hospital on Tuesday announced a $121-million expansion and earthquake retrofit that officials say will not rekindle a bitter war that flared for a decade with the neighboring county hospital in midtown Ventura.

The expansion includes construction of a seven-story wing that will double the hospital’s square footage and increase the number of beds from 242 to 260 when completed in 2012, Executive Director Michael Bakst said.

Although not part of this proposal, Bakst said hospital officials are considering a hotel and restaurant on the same site to serve out-of-town patients and their families.

But the ambitious plans are not an attempt to lure away patients from county-run Ventura County Medical Center, with whom the private hospital had a protracted battle before calling a truce last year, he said.

“We seem to have worked out our differences,” Bakst said. “We agreed to work together with each other and work together with our respective constituencies. If there are certain services they don’t have, we try to help them out and provide them.”

Fearing competition from the 223-bed public hospital just two blocks away, Community Memorial bankrolled a $1.6-million ballot initiative in 1996 that killed the county’s plan to add a hospital wing and to upgrade its aging buildings on Loma Vista Avenue.

After the two sides called a truce, the county agreed not to recruit patients with private insurance to join in its low-cost health-care plan, and Community Memorial pledged not to stand in the way of upgrades to the medical center.

At one point, the hospitals even talked about merging, but the idea fizzled.

County Supervisor John K. Flynn said he does not believe Community Memorial’s plans will tip the delicate balance, even as the county grapples with funding cuts that make private patients ever more valuable.

Hospitals are generally reimbursed at lower rates for services to patients in public health programs than those covered by private medical insurance.

“I never look at us as being in competition,” Flynn said. “I know Community Memorial has been concerned about that. Our basic role has been to provide health care for those who cannot or do not have the money for health care. There will always be a role for public health care.”

He said he believes west county residents will continue to choose Ventura County Medical Center over Community Memorial because of its “superior service.”

“I think we’re doing a great job. I think Community Memorial’s doing a great job,” Flynn said. “There’s room for a public system and private. There’s nothing wrong with competition. It just helps provide a superior service.”

Bakst said hospital officials decided to embark on the multimillion-dollar project because the state is requiring all general hospitals to retrofit or rebuild to meet new seismic standards by 2008.

The hospital next year will begin a $21-million first phase set for completion by 2006. That will extend the retrofit deadline for the entire project by five years to 2013.

The first phase will add about 80,000 square feet to the existing building, including a women and children’s pavilion, a new parking structure across the street and expansion of the emergency room and laboratory.

The $100-million second phase will break ground in 2010 for a seven-story wing that will connect to the main eight-story structure.

By the time construction is completed in 2012, all the rooms in the hospital will be private and the square footage will expand from 235,000 to 475,000.

The existing hospital will be converted to medical offices, so a seismic upgrade will not be required, Bakst said.

Community Memorial is not alone in its quest to provide newer and better facilities while meeting the 2008 deadline. Both Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley Hospital recently announced their own expansion plans.