County Healthcare Needs a Boost, Board Told

Los Angeles County’s financially troubled hospitals and healthcare facilities need $774.3 million in improvements, including seismic upgrades and new emergency rooms, according to a report released this week.

Many county healthcare facilities are too small to accommodate physicians’ offices or expand existing emergency rooms and other services, county health officials told the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

“We have various buildings at various ages, some of which are quite old and ... near inadequate for some of the care we’re trying to give,” said Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, the county’s director of health services.

Health department officials have previously requested funding for many of the improvements to the county’s crumbling healthcare infrastructure -- laid out in a three-page wish list attached to the report -- but have not received money from supervisors.

Among the major needs cited are $143.3 million for a new emergency room at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and $29 million for a new emergency room and tuberculosis unit at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. These facilities and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center also need $132 million in seismic upgrades.

Supervisor Gloria Molina, who requested the report, said she was “impressed with the number.”

“I was very, very concerned, when we saw the Martin Luther King capital costs that may be escalating,” Molina said.

“But obviously that is going on in all of our healthcare campuses.”

Garthwaite assured supervisors that none of the $774.3 million in maintenance and improvement costs for the county’s health facilities is required for the hospitals or centers to be accredited.

A team of consultants will study construction needs at each of the county’s health facilities and provide supervisors with a comprehensive report in the next year, said David Janssen, the county’s chief administrative officer.

On Tuesday, the supervisors also decided on how to allocate a windfall of $138.1 million for the county’s 2005-06 fiscal year budget gleaned largely from the county’s red-hot real estate market and lower-than-expected workers’ compensation expenses.

“Our fund balance is about $30 million higher than it was last year overall,” Janssen told supervisors.

“So our fiscal condition continues overall to be reasonably healthy.

The bulk of the money, about $104 million, will go toward construction and maintenance. About $14 million was designated for mental health services and $10 million was set aside for storm-related assistance the county may need for Hurricane Katrina victims who relocate to the area.

Although the windfall means the current county budget is the first in several years not to require significant belt-tightening, the discussion was followed by the sobering reality of a looming shortfall at the county’s Department of Health Services.

The department’s budget is expected to plunge $889.1 million into the red in four years, according to a report by Garthwaite.

This shortfall is less than the deficit of $954.7 billion predicted by county health officials earlier this year.

“We continue to work other issues that could improve our bottom line,” Garthwaite told the board.