2002 LOCAL NEWS: IN RECOVERY: HEALTH SYSTEM GETS LATE SHOT IN ARM.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

As the nation faced the continued threat of terrorist attacks in 2002, Los Angeles County officials scrambled to prepare while their health care system was crumbling.

Originally facing an $800 million deficit by 2005, the Board of Supervisors voted in the early summer to close 11 health clinics, convert High Desert Hospital in Lancaster to an outpatient clinic and close Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey.

This action saved enough money to reduce the deficit to $404 million, but the supervisors faced stiff opposition from the county's unions and health care advocates, who staged protests.

In a long-shot bid to bolster the ailing health system, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky proposed a parcel tax to inject the system with $168 million a year, targeted to preserve the county's trauma centers, emergency rooms and for bioterrorism preparations.

Measure B - The Preservation of Trauma Centers and Emergency Medical Services; Bioterrorism Response - was placed on the Nov. 5 ballot, and 73 percent of voters approved, giving the measure the most votes any initiative or candidate on the ballot received.

The passage of Measure B, along with optimistic comments by state and federal officials, convinced the supervisors they would be able to keep open two hospitals, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Boosted by the success of the measure, the supervisors persuaded Gov. Gray Davis to ask the Bush administration for waivers of federal health funding rules to help the cash-strapped county health system.

The plan, released in late November, would provide the county with $150 million to $200 million a year, leaving the county less than $100 million to cut from its $2.4 billion health budget.

Meanwhile, with the help of a nearly $30 million federal grant to prepare for biological or chemical terrorist attack, the county began purchasing protective suits for health care workers and gave money to the county's 81 hospitals to construct decontamination facilities for chemical or radiological terrorist attacks.

The county was also struck with its first few cases of the West Nile virus and an outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease at the downtown Good Samaritan Hospital, where nine patients became ill, including two who died.

In early December, county Public Health Officer Dr. Jonathan Fielding announced plans to vaccinate up to 20,000 public health workers and hospital emergency employees against smallpox as the first step for potential bioterrorism attacks.

The plan eventually calls for the vaccination of a broader group of health workers and firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement personnel. The U.S. government may offer the vaccinations to the public in late 2003 or early 2004.

Despite these preparations, critics said the county is still ill-prepared for a biological attack, noting that hospitals are already exceeding 80 percent of capacity and wouldn't be able to handle a large number of ill people seeking treatment.

Coming at an awkward moment in the midst of the health crisis, the supervisors voted in early December to give final approval to an $820 million project to rebuild County/USC Medical Center, the earthquake-damaged landmark that gained fame on the soap opera, ``General Hospital.'' The project is the largest in county history.

The supervisors, presented with the first $2.5 million increase in the project's price - said they wanted the Department of Public Works to closely monitor the project, fearing contractors could submit an endless list of cost-overrun requests that could run the price up to $1.2 billion.