HOSPITAL REPRIEVE SOUGHT BOARD OKS FILING OF INJUNCTION TO HALT CLOSURE OF HIGH DESERT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital directors have agreed to go to court against Los Angeles County to seek a temporary injunction blocking High Desert Hospital from closing its inpatient wards next week.

With a county hospital in Downey already spared by a court order, High Desert's last inpatients are supposed to leave May 30 in preparation for the facility's conversion as of June 30 to an outpatient clinic.

``Once the hospital is closed, for all intents and purposes, these beds are lost to the community,'' Antelope Valley Hospital spokesman Ed Callahan said. ``That's why we have such a strong sense of urgency.''

Closing High Desert, Antelope Valley leaders say, would have repercussions far beyond the uninsured patients who make up most of its clientele. Antelope Valley Hospital and Lancaster Community Hospital are already crowded, and eliminating High Desert's beds would make conditions in the other facilities even worse.

The Antelope Valley Hospital board voted unanimously at a special meeting Tuesday night to file for a temporary injunction to prevent the closure of High Desert. Directors instructed hospital attorney Frank Michelizzi to research the hiring of an attorney to file the injunction, Callahan said.

They hope to hire the attorneys who helped stave off the closure of Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, another facility that was slated for closure by Los Angeles County as a cost-cutting move.

A federal judge May 6 issued a preliminary injunction barring the county from shuttering Rancho.

The cost of filing an injunction against the county to keep High Desert Hospital was not known, but directors asked to be told the cost when it is determined, Callahan said.

While the hospital is heading toward legal action against the county, hospital officials stressed their desire to work with county officials in meeting the health care needs of Antelope Valley residents.

``This is a community issue and it is our desire to work with Los Angeles County to find a working solution that is good for everybody. We must maintain health care access in our community in that everyone must work together to find a way to support the uninsured,'' Callahan said.

County health services department officials declined to comment on Antelope Valley Hospital's pending action.

``We haven't seen anything, so until we really see the suit and what it would be based on, we wouldn't have any comment,'' said John Wallace, department spokesman.

As of Wednesday, there were 37 patients at High Desert, 22 of them in skilled nursing beds. The hospital is licensed for 170 beds but only budgeted to operate 70.

Antelope Valley Hospital officials have said once High Desert Hospital closes its inpatient wards, it will be harder to regain state licenses to reopen.

``We have to try to keep that hospital open because once that hospital closes, we lose all the licensed beds,'' Antelope Valley Hospital board member Dr. Don Parazo said before the meeting. ``We can't get them back because of different criteria. If you want a license now, it will be a lot harder to get it.''

High Desert stopped admitting tuberculosis and long-term nursing patients April 1 and planned to stop taking in other types of patients during May, with the intention that all inpatients be gone by May 30, union officials said.

County officials said they can't afford to keep High Desert operating as a hospital. A $16.5 billion county budget plan released in April calls for $467.2 million in cuts and 2,158 fewer employees across the county, with more cuts expected in county revenue due to possible state government actions.