L.A. hospitals still coping with aftermath of quake.

University-based institutions face biggest problems

More than 16 months after the Northridge earthquake, all quake-hit hospitals throughout Los Angeles County are back in business. However, many stopgap measures implemented after the temblor have yet to be replaced with long-term solutions, according to hospital sources.

One major unresolved issue is that several damaged hospital buildings can only be salvaged at great cost. And in many cases, the hospitals have determined that constructing new buildings would actually be cheaper than repairing damaged ones.

Of the quake-hit hospitals, the ones facing the biggest uphill battles are two university-based institutions - UCLA Center for Health Sciences in Westwood and County-USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights.

Sarah Jensen, UCLA's associate director for capital programs, said that university will probably have to tear down its damaged 2 million-square-foot medical complex and replace it with a completely new building at a cost of around $932 million. That cost, while considerable, is a bargain compared to the $2 billion it would cost to bring the damaged facility up to current earthquake standards, Jensen said.

The USC Medical Center complex, meanwhile, is also being slated for a wholesale demolition after a new facility on the campus' west side is built. The new facility, not yet under construction, is slated to cost an estimated $1.3 billion.

Quaking down to size

Unlike UCLA's hospital replacement project, however, the new County-USC facility in Boyle Heights has been planned since 1990, well before the Northridge quake struck. USC spokesman Harvey Kern said construction on the new County-USC facility is slated to begin by the summer of 1996 and is to be completed by the year 2000. "If anything, the earthquake has helped us keep the (new hospital) project on schedule," said Kern.

Many L.A.-area hospitals have scaled back their inpatient care services in recent years, largely as a result of the marketplace shift toward managed care and its emphasis on outpatient and preventative care. And the earthquake provided a convenient occasion for quake-hit institutions to reduce their inpatient care even more - quake-damaged inpatient facilities were merely torn down. Kern said County-USC plans to reduce its number of licensed beds from 2,045 before the temblor to only 946 by the time it moves to its new west campus facility.

Another hard-hit hospital to drastically reduce its inpatient capacity is Saint Johns Hospital & Health Center in Santa Monica. Bruce Lamoureux, chief operating officer at Saint Johns, said the hospital went from a pre-quake level of 350 staffed beds to only 250 beds at present.

Likewise, Santa Monica Hospital has decreased its number of hospital beds by 15 percent since the quake, according to hospital spokesman Ted Braun.

Santa Monica Hospital and Northridge Hospital Medical Center still have buildings that need to be razed or significantly renovated as a result of earthquake damage. Braun estimated that Santa Monica Hospital has spent between $13 million and $14 million on quake repairs to date and will ultimately spend up to $80 million before all its repairs are complete.

Northridge Hospital Vice President of Logistic and Support Service Neil Humphrey, meanwhile, said that hospital has spent $28 million to date on post-quake reconstruction, and it plans to spend another $24 million to raze and replace one of its severely damaged buildings.

FEMA aid sought

Many quake-damaged hospitals are holding off on major decisions to renovate or rebuild pending word from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, which will likely fund a significant portion of the rebuilding, according to hospital sources.

Nearly all the affected hospitals have already submitted lengthy damage reports to FEMA, though most have yet to receive substantial FEMA funds.

Of the money Santa Monica Hospital has spent so far on repairs, less than 4 percent has come from FEMA.

Victoria Snyder, vice president of clinical and support services at Mission Hills-based Holy Cross Medical Center, said FEMA has contributed slightly more than $800,000 towards Holy Cross' $15 million repair bill to date, and the UCLA Medical Center has yet to receive any FEMA money at all.

Two hospitals - Northridge and Saint Johns - have had more success in obtaining FEMA funds. FEMA has paid 81 percent of Northridge Hospital's repair bill to date, while nearly 72 percent of Saint Johns current $32 million repair bill has been covered by FEMA.

Northridge Hospital officials attributed their success to working closely with FEMA immediately after the quake.

"We were working with FEMA from day two (after the earthquake) and were one of the first hospitals to have a FEMA rep on site," said Humphrey of Northridge Hospital. He also attributed the hospitals timely receipt of funds to its extensive documentation of damages after the quake. "If you have the documentation, they (FEMA officials) are happy," said Humphrey, summing up the sentiments of several other hospital sources.

RELATED ARTICLE: Westside hospitals look to merge

Three earthquake-damaged hospitals - Santa Monica Hospital, Saint Johns Hospital & Health Center and UCLA Center for Health Sciences - were in a game of merger musical chairs in the year following the Northridge temblor. And the music is expected to stop this summer with UCLA buying Santa Monica Hospital.

The earliest talks after the quake were between Santa Monica Hospital and Saint Johns, involving a possible merger between the two institutions, which are situated near each other in Santa Monica.

"Our (Saint Johns Hospital's) interest was to collaborate with Santa Monica Hospital and concentrate our resources to meet the community's needs," said Saint Johns' Chief Operating Officer Bruce Lamoureux. He noted that one goal of the proposed merger would have been to reduce the "tremendous overcapacity" at both hospitals.

Merger negotiations between Saint Johns and Santa Monica Hospital were in progress when UCLA entered the picture last June and started its own direct talks with Santa Monica Hospital. These talks, however, were focused on an outright sale of Santa Monica Hospital to UCLA.

Santa Monica Hospital's owner, Burbank-based health care conglomerate UniHealth, apparently favored the outright sale option, because last December the talks between UCLA and Santa Monica Hospital became exclusive, leaving Saint Johns Hospital out in the cold.

Negotiations for the pending sale of Santa Monica Hospital to UCLA are well advanced, and Santa Monica Hospital spokesman Ted Braun said officials from that hospital are "hoping to have something finalized by this summer."

- Douglas Young