HOSPITALS SEEK RELIEF VALLEY FACILITIES' COSTS SOAR.

Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer

Hospitals throughout the San Fernando Valley are suffering from overcrowded emergency rooms and a shortage of nurses, but a great disconnect still exists between legislators and hospital administrators.

Almost 40 percent of the Valley's 33 hospitals have been forced to close in the past 15 years. And with the volume of patients increasing and reimbursement for uninsured patients shrinking, hospitals will soon be financially pushed beyond the breaking point, according to a report released Thursday by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.

``But nobody is taking notice. And we need to sit down with legislators and work toward a solution instead of some sort of knee-jerk reaction,'' said David Levinsohn, president and chief executive officer of Sherman Oaks Hospital.

More than a half-dozen executives from Valley hospitals voiced their grievances to the Economic Alliance, shedding light on a broad spectrum of issues that are jeopardizing the region's health care system.

The words ``at all times'' impassion most hospital executives these days, as they refer to the current nurse-staffing ratios that will eventually cost facilities more than $956 million, the report found.

Many nurses are in favor of the new ratio laws, as they improve patient care and ease the stress in an already frenzied profession. But David Fleming, chairman of the Economic Alliance, said the new nurse-staffing ratios are part of a political agenda that has gone awry.

``We are all for helping nurses and improving their salaries, but these new ratios are like asking the Titanic to come back without having any life boats,'' said Fleming, who is also chairman of Valley Presbyterian Hospital. ``We need to talk to Arnold and a Legislature that has been living in a dream world.''

There is no time for dreaming for Registered Nurse Ken Riek at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. A computer monitor shows the names of several hospitals in red, a sign that emergency room patients are being transferred to Northridge from other medical centers.

``I make a good living here, but I'm so beat up when I get home sometimes I don't feel like going back,'' said Riek, a clinical supervisor who earns more than $100,000 at the hospital. ``Staffing ratios are a problem, but what we need is more nurses and that starts with education early on.''

Creating an even greater capacity crisis is the recent closure of Granada Hills Community Hospital. The 155-bed hospital closed last summer just as it was reorganizing under Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. More than 500 employees lost their jobs and the region lost an important emergency care facility.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials agreed to pay $22.5 million for the bankrupt Granada Hills facility, outbidding a company that had plans to keep the hospital open.

Bonny Herman, president and chief executive officer of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, said she sent several legislators a letter about the Valley's hospital crisis. The letter generated only one response, she said.

``... And I ask you, why don't these people care? It's time to penetrate. And we are going to continue to access these people,'' Herman said.

The glut in uninsured patients is also hurting Valley hospitals. The ranks of the uninsured swelled by 2.4 million last year as insurance costs soared and more Americans lost their jobs, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report.

Many of the hospitals are not adequately compensated by state and federal governments to care for the uninsured. Fleming said the immigrant population is certainly adding to the woes at many emergency rooms.

``And we might have to raise taxes to generate more reimbursement to care for the uninsured,'' he said.

Asked whether he thought taxpayers would welcome an increase to improve reimbursement rates, Fleming said, ``that might be the only thing we can do right now.''

Emergency room Dr. Judi Meindl is concerned about Northridge Hospital's ability to care for more patients. ``But maybe this is the time for socialized medicine. You can't stop people from coming into the hospital,'' she said. ``But then again, money is always an issue at hospitals.''

Evan Pondel, [phone]

evan.pondel(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Emergency room nurses Ken Riek, left, and Marianne Bush track patients Thursday at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center. Many Valley hospitals are being pushed to the breaking point as patient volume increases and costs rise.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer