AIR FORCE TO REPLACE HOSPITAL; EDWARDS WILL GET HEALTH CLINIC.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer Air Force officials said Monday that they plan to tear down to demolish violently; to pull or pluck down. - Shak. See also: Tear Edwards' hospital and replace it with a health clinic, saying its declining in-patient load does not justify keeping a full-service hospital. Air Force officials are planning to build a 44,000-square-foot clinic beginning in 2001. The clinic is expected to be open by 2003, when the hospital would close. ``The real benefit is replacing the oldest hospital with a brand new facility to take care of beneficiaries,'' said Col. Roger Bisson, commander of the 95th Medical Support Squadron. The nine-bed Edwards hospital, built in 1955, is the oldest Air Force hospital in the continental United States United States territory, including the adjacent territorial waters, located within North America between Canada and Mexico. Also called CONUS. . The hospital serves about 10,500 base residents, other military personnel and retirees. Moving from a hospital to a clinic would decrease the staff from about 360 workers to about 240, base officials said. None of the cuts would involve civilian workers. The move is estimated to save $2.5 million a year. Edwards' hospital admits an average of two patients a day. Thus far this year, the number of hospital admissions has declined by 263 patients. Part of that decline is from a move last year to close the labor and delivery ward and contract with other hospitals for those services. Improvements in preventive medicine preventive medicine, branch of medicine dealing with the prevention of disease and the maintenance of good health practices. Until recently preventive medicine was largely the domain of the U.S. also have taken a bite in the admission numbers, officials said. ``We just can't justify the caseload case·load n. The number of cases handled in a given period, as by an attorney or by a clinic or social services agency. caseload Noun ,'' Bisson said. First revealed as a possibility in April 1997, the move is being made in accordance with the Air Force Medical Service Re-engineering and Rightsizing Selecting a computer system, whether micro, mini or mainframe, that best meets the needs of the application. Initiative, an Air Force-wide move to replace hospitals with clinics. Emergency patients would be taken to Lancaster hospitals, which base officials said have better staffing and equipment than the base hospital. The health clinic would include primary care services, a pharmacy, radiology section, a laboratory, and logistics and administrative support areas. The clinic will have a strong emphasis on preventive medicine, environmental and occupational health, and pediatrics, Bisson said. Other medical services would be contracted out, primarily to Lancaster Community Hospital This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. and Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Hospital. The base has held town meetings to notify its populace of the move. |
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