$6 MILLION OK'D IN DESIGN FEES A.V. HOSPITAL LOOKS AT EXPANSION PLANS.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Antelope Valley Hospital will spend nearly $6 million in architectural and engineering fees to design the first phase of the hospital's master facilities plan.

Hospital officials want to expand the emergency room by 9,000 square feet and increase the number of beds in the intensive care unit from 24 to 40 under a plan that will cost an estimated $87 million.

``We need this to be done first,'' Chief Operating Officer Ed Mirzabegian said. ``We will work on all the projects with our staff and physicians to design it and will translate the designs to technical drawings. The drawings go through OSHPD (Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development). It takes a long time.''

The board at Wednesday night's meeting unanimously approved the $5.9 million in fees.

The expansion of the emergency room and ICU are among eight projects in phase one of the master plan. Other projects include adding a second cardiac catheterization laboratory, creating more parking, and a building canopied entrance.

The total construction cost is projected to be $47.9 million, with additional costs for fees and equipment estimated at $39.1 million.

Funding the projects would depend on how much money the 379-bed hospital gets from its operations, hospital officials said when announcing the plan last fall.

The ICU would expand into space freed up by the move of women's services into the hospital's former skilled nursing facility, which has been converted into a women and infants center at a cost of $24.3 million.

The center is scheduled to open next month.

Enlarging the emergency room will help with patient flow and allow for separating patients by the seriousness of their condition.

``We are reorganizing it where we will have urgent care and emergency care in different wings based on acuity,'' Mirzabegian said. ``Right now everybody is mixed together, and it creates chaos. This way it will be more organized.''

The plan also calls for adding a second cardiac catheterization laboratory along with holding rooms and recovery areas.

``They get everything done right there instead of having to go to the (hospital) floors,'' Mirzabegian said.

The plan includes adding more parking spaces, refiguring the entrance to the hospital and adding a large canopy that would provide cover for patients entering and leaving the hospital.

The plan also calls for relocating MRI and CAT scan equipment from a satellite building into the hospital.

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