High Desert Hospital may be spared county scalpel. (Up Front).

What was ailing High Desert Hospital in Antelope Valley just a couple of months ago could only be described as "terminal."

But a plan proposed by community and business leaders that has the support of Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich would give the hospital, slated for closure in 2003, a new lease on life.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Aug. 22 to shutter 11 county hospitals and health care centers to make up a $60 million deficit in its health care budget. It also voted to convert High Desert to an outpatient clinic, threatening to force nearby, already overcrowded private facilities to take in the displaced patients, the majority of whom are on state aid.

But when the news of the planned closures first surfaced earlier this year, the 14-member High Desert Hospital Advisory Committee, formed in 1996, came up with its own plan to generate new revenue for the cash-strapped County Department of Health Services - and keep the hospital open.

"We said, "If we can come up with the $10 million you say you need from us, will you agree to let us stay open?"' said Mel Grussing, a member of the advisory committee who helped craft the plan and, until six months ago, the hospital's CEO.

Under pressure from Antonovich and a group of hospital workers who went by bus to downtown L.A. to lobby the board before the Aug. 22 vote, the supervisors agreed to a six-month pilot project that will allow High Desert to lease its unused beds to nearby private facilities. Those include Antelope Valley and Lancaster Community hospitals, HMOs and health care providers who want to lease beds in the hospital's emergency room, long-term care center and other departments.

The plan benefits everyone, said Grussing, because poor patients on medical and other forms of aid won't be forced to drive 50 miles to the nearest county facility in Sylmar, and the private facilities won't have to pick up the overflow and possibly the tab for displaced patients who can't drive to another county facility.

"We went to Lancaster Community Hospital, Antelope Valley Hospital, Kaiser (Permanente) and other private operators and said, 'Where is your need?"' said Grussing. "They told us they needed beds; their emergency rooms are packed to the gills. So we said, we have them if you are willing to pay for them, which they are happy to do."

High Desert is licensed for 170 beds but, due to budget constraints, has been operating with only 82 for some time, Grussing said. The three hospitals in the region have a total of just over 500 beds available on a daily basis.

According to John Wallace, director of external relations for the L.A. County Department of Health Services, the Antelope Valley, with a population of about 340,000, has 1.8 acute care beds per 1,000 residents. The national average is 2.8 beds per 1,000.

So if the county was going to be selective about cutting facilities, why High Desert? Geography, Grussing said.

"County officials never came out here and met with the community leadership," he said. "I suspect the direction they are going is to try to save the larger hospitals and trauma centers down in the (San Fernando) Valley. They just didn't think the Antelope Valley had enough political clout. But now they known that we do."

High Desert Medical Group, an Antelope Valley-based health care provider for larger HMOs with approximately 55,000 members, is on the list of potential contractors.

Norm Hickling, the medical group's assistant administrator for business development and also a member of the hospital's advisory committee, said he'd already approached administrators at High Desert Hospital about using unoccupied beds in their long-term care facility.

"Our clients have a real need for more facilities with skilled nursing centers for long-term care patients," said Hickling.

Members of High Desert Medical Group belong to HMOs such as Pacific Care, Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

"My management completely supported this plan from the very beginning," said Hickling. "There are so few acute care beds and skilled nursing facilities, we were having to send our patients to facilities far from their own communities. And we're talking about people with very good insurance, and doctors taking on patients they didn't knew, and family members having to drive 40 and 50 miles for visits. These hospitals out here are jammed, so if we can send overflow to High Desert, everyone wins.

Hickling said his company is hoping to lease 10 beds from the hospital at a cost of about $200 each per day.

Over the course of the next few weeks the advisory group will coordinate meetings between county health officials, Antonovich and potential health care partners to negotiate contracts.

Antonovich called the plan "ambitious" but said it could be a first step toward making the county less isolated from the rest of the region's health care industry and possibly serve as a blueprint that other county facilities might use.

"This can serve as a model," Antonovich said. "There's absolutely no reason why a private facility should have to deal with overcrowding if there are beds available at a county facility. And there's no reason why these kinds of partnerships shouldn't be looked at countywide, especially if the (Department of Health Services) is hurting for cash."

Antonovich, who represents the district, wrote up the proposal and eventually convinced fellow supervisors to support it.

"All I did was help them jump through the right hoops," Antonovich said. "They came up with the plan, not me."