1987: dealing with AIDS.

BACK in the 1980s, the rapidly rising number of AIDS cases was eliciting warnings from health care executives and public health officials who feared that the pandemic could overwhelm the system.

Among those sounding the alarm was Steven Gamble, president of the Hospital Council of Southern California, who in 1987 told the Business Journal that hospitals weren't prepared to bear the financial burden:

"'A key part of my message is that we've got to realize how big this thing is,' Gamble says. 'We keep dealing with the statistics as of today instead of statistics as of tomorrow. There are only 30,000 cases now (nationwide), but we will have 270,000 by the year 1991.'

"Hospitals need to plan for the management of AIDS, he says, because the cost per hospitalization for each patient is generally higher and the typical AIDS patient is hospitalized three times over the course of the disease."

Fortunately, reality didn't live up to expectations. Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California, said the impact on hospitals was smaller than expected. The introduction of retroviral drugs in the mid-1990s meant that fewer patients needed hospitalization.

"The treatment of AIDS and drug intervention pretty much negated most of the cost predictions that were made at the time," Lott said. "When those were made we had no idea there would be this type of treatment available."

As a result, whole hospital wards dedicated to the treatment of AIDS patients, such as at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital, were closed while other ones expanded to include other types of patients, such as at Midway Hospital in the Fairfax district.

"Out of the Past" celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles Business Journal.