DON'T WAIT SO LONG CLINIC TO OPEN FOR WALK-INS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Walk-in primary care services are scheduled to start next month at the Palmdale clinic operated jointly by Antelope Valley Hospital and Los Angeles County.

Urgent care services will not begin for another two months because a laboratory and X-ray services are not set up yet at the east Palmdale facility.

Once fully operational, the urgent-care clinic will help relieve pressure on Antelope Valley Hospital's emergency room in Lancaster, where waits can be as long as five to six hours, officials say.

``We've done a lot of surveys, and the heaviest times are in the early afternoon up until 10 p.m. This will cover that heavily used time,'' Antelope Valley Hospital board Chairman Gary Hill said.

The walk-in clinic at the South Valley Medical Center, on Palmdale Boulevard at 40th Street East, is scheduled to open May 13 and will operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

The county has signed contracts with about 10 physicians to work part- time at the walk-in clinic, county officials said. Some of these doctors already work in the Antelope Valley for other urgent care offices.

The walk-in clinic will expand to a 24-hour operation once a contract is completed with a physicians group, expected in early 2003, county officials said.

``It won't be urgent care. The services will be a little more limited for the first two months until a full lab and X-ray services are available. Then it will be a full-fledged urgent care clinic,'' said John Wallace, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

``We'll have the first part of the urgent care going in, but because we don't have a lab and X-ray all set up yet, we can't call it urgent care,'' Hill said.

The Board of Supervisors last December voted to order a study of whether an emergency room is needed at county-run High Desert Hospital in Lancaster.

County officials said that in 2001, the emergency rooms at Antelope Valley Hospital and Lancaster Community Hospital had to divert patients elsewhere 40 percent of the time because of rising numbers of patients and long waits. Emergency room patients often have minor ailments that can be treated at urgent-care centers or walk-in clinics.

The $5.8 million, two-story, 29,000-square-foot clinic, which was built by Antelope Valley Hospital, opened last September.

It currently houses a county primary care clinic, which sees patients by appointment; the hospital's obstetrics program; and a government nutrition program for women and children.

The hours of operation for those programs are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.

The two programs and the county's clinic had previously been in office space at 15th Street East and Palmdale Boulevard.

The clinic has been billed as the launch of a three-phase plan to build a hospital in Palmdale, offering primary care and emergent care services - an around-the-clock facility staffed by emergency room physicians seven days a week.

If patients need to be admitted, they will be transported to Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster once they are stabilized. Life-threatening situations will still be sent to Antelope Valley Hospital after being evaluated in the field by emergency personnel.

Antelope Valley Hospital last year announced plans to form a partnership with local physicians to move forward with building a hospital in Palmdale. Hospital officials said they would conduct a feasibility study after more than 70 physicians expressed interest in partnering with the health care district.

Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services Inc. also is moving forward with plans to build a 120-bed hospital on Palmdale's west side. Universal Health completed its acquisition of Lancaster Community Hospital in January.

Palmdale lost its only hospital in March 1996, when Desert Palms Community Hospital closed.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Nurse Bobbie Jordan gives Joshua Hellmann an injection at a Palmdale clinic that will expand services in May.

(2) Joshua Hellmann gets an exam from Dr. Elizabeth Estrada at South Valley Medical Center, operated jointly by the county and Antelope Valley Hospital.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News