BOARD TO VOTE ON TRAUMA-CENTER TAX ASSESSMENT HIKE WOULD HELP RAISE FUNDING FOR OUTLYING EMERGENCY CARE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County supervisors are set to vote today on the possibility of increasing the medical property tax assessment to help open new trauma care centers in the Antelope and East San Gabriel valleys.

Department of Health Services Director Dr. Thomas Garthwaite said Fire Department helicopters are now used to transport critically injured people in remote areas of the county to trauma centers in the San Fernando Valley and downtown.

``We think we can minimize the time from trauma to definitive treatment if we can get these trauma centers set up,'' Garthwaite said. ``But I think it's going to be hard (to get a hospital to open a trauma center) because the physician call panels and the other staff necessary are significant issues for these hospitals.''

If approved, the property tax assessment would rise a quarter of a cent to 3.25 cents per square foot. The assessment would bring the annual household total to $48.75 for an owner of a 1,500-square-foot home.

The increase is allowed through the medical inflation adjustment, which was authorized under Measure B. Under the measure, the county could raise an extra $15 million a year for medical funding, boosting annual collections from $181 million to $196 million.

Of the increase, $6 million would be set aside for the costs of opening trauma centers in the two areas.

Voters approved Measure B in 2002 to keep hospital emergency rooms and trauma centers open.

The item was continued from the July 19 meeting after the Board of Supervisors raised questions about how the increased parcel tax funds would be spent, noting there is a $12 million surplus now - expected to grow to $20 million by June 2006.

``We are very much interested in increasing the availability of trauma centers in the East San Gabriel and Antelope valleys,'' said Tony Bell, spokesman for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. ``We are working with Pomona Valley Hospital as well as the county's Emergency Medical Services Agency to look at the possibility of expanded trauma services. And we want to see increased ground and air transport to see faster transport times.''

The money would also be used to buy EKG equipment for fire departments throughout the county to expand a regional cardiac care program to ensure faster care for heart attack victims and to keep open the emergency room at Downey Regional Medical Center, which has been overwhelmed with patients since the closure of the trauma center at Martin Luther King-Drew Medical Center south of Watts.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com