HOSPITAL PLANS NEW BIRTH WARD\Facility to be second for Lancaster women.

Byline: Karen Thacker Special to the Daily News

If all goes as planned, expectant mothers in late 1997 will have a choice of local hospitals for delivering their babies.

Lancaster Community Hospital plans to add a 12,000-square-foot obstetrics ward with 12 beds. Architectural plans are in the final drawing stages, and facilities should be ready for births in about 18 months, said Steve Schmidt, Lancaster Community Hospital chief executive officer.

"Physicians in the community have expressed an interest in having another OB unit," Schmidt said.

Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster is now the only local hospital providing obstetric services.

Lancaster Community Hospital needs a maternity ward to attract contracts from health-maintenance organizations and preferred-provider organizations, he said.

"I think it is essential in this day and age for hospitals to be full service, and that obviously includes OB services," Schmidt said.

About 150 deliveries a month is the goal for the new facility, Schmidt said.

About 400 babies are born each month at Antelope Valley Hospital. An average of 15 were born each month at Desert Palms Community Hospital in Palmdale before obstetrics services ended there just over a year ago.

Desert Palms itself will close today. Both Desert Palms and Lancaster Community are owned by Paracelsus Healthcare Corp.

The active pursuit of an obstetrics ward for Lancaster Community Hospital began about six to eight months ago, Schmidt said, before it was clear Desert Palms would close.

In 1992 Antelope Valley Hospital paid Lancaster Community Hospital $250,000 to drop a five-year-old anti-trust lawsuit alleging AVH engaged in unfair competition by using its monopoly in obstetric services to force health-insurance companies to send all their clients.

Under the settlement, AVH agreed not to engage in the conduct for 18 months or until Lancaster Community opened its own obstetrics ward, whichever occurred first.

The one-story addition will be mostly on the west side of the Lancaster Community Hospital, Schmidt said.

Six beds will be in private rooms for labor, delivery and recovery. There will be three semiprivate rooms with two beds each. Another room would be just for delivery and primarily for Caesarean sections.

Additional rooms will include nurses' stations, a sleeping area for physicians, a locker area and exam rooms.

Antelope Valley Hospital has eight labor and delivery rooms, two obstetrics surgical rooms and six observation beds, where women wait for labor rooms to become available. Antelope Valley Hospital also has 55 postpartum beds, also used for women undergoing surgery.

Lancaster Community Hospital officials have been working with the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to make sure all plans meet code regulations, Schmidt said.

The hospital, built in 1962, has about 65,000 square feet and beds for 113 patients before the addition.