ANTELOPE VALLEY HOSPITAL: BOARD DIRECTORS' HOPES FADING.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital directors Gary Hill and Dr. Don Bean were losing their re-election bids, according to incomplete returns.

Retired nurse June Snow and Dr. Don Parazo were leading for the two board seats.

Parazo, Snow and fellow challenger Lawrence Caird blasted the trustees for long emergency room waits for patients, for spending tens of thousands of dollars fighting a nurse unionization effort and for making it harder to fire top administrator Mathew Abraham.

Hill fought back with advertisements labeling Parazo an ``HMO doctor'' and criticizing HMOs in general for what he characterized as poor patient care.

He charged that Parazo's employer, High Desert Medical Group, pushed his candidacy to secure more favorable contracts with the hospital. High Desert put more than $100,000 into Parazo's campaign.

Two other candidates, Ronald Tisbert and John Misurek, did not campaign.

The election campaign came in the midst of a unionization effort aimed at registered nurses, which Hill and Bean and other hospital officials have been fighting.

The California Nurses Association backed Snow and Caird, a former Veterans Administration administrator, then dropped Caird and campaigned for Parazo.