Hospital plans draw criticism: Henry Mayo officials cite need for acute care unit.

The board of directors of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia is considering a contentious plan to turn a 27-bed unit used for the elderly and recovering patients into an acute care ward that treats life-threatening emergencies.

The possible conversion is in response to a huge up-tick in demand for acute care facilities in the Santa Clarita Valley. Andie Bogdan, director of planning for Henry Mayo, said the current 217-bed hospital does not have enough room for patients who need serious care

"Bottom line: we're in a big expansion phase," she said.

The plan would focus on the hospital's transitional care unit, used to house patients too sick to go home, but well enough to not need round-the-clock medical care. Bogdan said that because those patients could be moved elsewhere, the TCU is ideal for conversion to meet acute care needs.

"There's a variety of options, but the most immediate opportunity in terms of meeting growth in the community in the acute care area is to really look at that TCU and see what the benefits are of using that as the place for capacity," she said. "That is the lowest cost, fastest option to provide acute care."

The threat of closure has been met with resistance in the community, primarily from the group Committee Against Closing the TCU, a group of elderly and supporters which has staged a series of protests outside the hospital and have taken the case to the Santa Clarita City Council.

"We view transitional care as a vital part of medical services delivery," said Brad Berens, a committee member and executive director of the Santa Clarita Valley Committee on Aging, which represents 9,000 senior citizens and the disabled in the area.

"Experience tells us that people are not quite ready to go home and they're discharged to the home setting without adequate care and therefore are re-admitted back to the acute setting," he said.

Bogdan said hospital officials realize the dilemma, but have little choice. Demand for acute care is increasing, especially for seniors. Medicare admissions are up, especially through emergency room visits, which account for one in six of all Medicare patients in the hospital, she said.

Bogdan said that if the hospital does not add more TCU beds by 2010, 700 Medicare patients at acute level will be turned away.

"We need to open up capacity. We can't have people waiting for a bed in the ER," she said.

Bogdan is adamant that no decision has been made, but admitted that the hospital has moved to investigate what it would take to alter the TCU.

In mid-July, hospital officials presented the board of directors with a financial and clinical analysis about converting the unit.

If plans did move forward, the earliest the changeover would happen is 2008. Bogdan said the hospital would need to have its state TCU license changed.

Some patients would shift to other facilities and providers and senior citizens would be transferred to senior care facilities, she said.

The conversion would take about a year, some of which would be used to recruit and prepare a staff. Bogdan said that the hospital would work with the existing staff to resolve "possibly anxieties." Nursing education would be part of the preparation for staffers who want to move into an acute care setting, she said.

The actual changeover would be fairly simple, since the TCU was constructed in the 1980s as an acute care facility, Bogdan said. "From the facility side, relatively minimal modifications and expenditures will need to be made, since TCU was designed beyond skilled nursing standards, so as to eventually be suitable for acute care," said hospital Chief Operating

Officer John Schleif.

BY CHRIS COATES 

Staff Reporter