NEW PLAN FOR HOSPITAL SITE COUNTY INTENDS URGENT-CARE COMPLEX AT OLD HIGH DESERT FACILITY.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Los Angeles County officials are moving forward with a plan to replace an ambulatory care center at the old High Desert Hospital site with a new, $98.8 million complex in central Lancaster.

The new complex on Avenue I at 3rd Street East would replace the High Desert Health System facility in the old High Desert Hospital, which is miles from nearly all its patients. The facility is referred by county officials as a Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center or MACC.

``The medical center will be designed and constructed with the needs of the community as the primary focus,'' said county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. ``The MACC is a new urgent-care facility that will help reduce the burden on the crowded local emergency rooms and enhance patient access.''

The Board of Supervisors this week authorized a $1.2 million contract to begin work on a site master plan and to develop design and planning documents needed to put the project out for contractors' bids.

County officials are negotiating with officials of the city of Lancaster, which owns the property.

The tentative schedule calls for awarding a construction contract in May 2008 and having the facility completed by late 2010. Proposed on 15 acres cleared in the 1990s of high-crime apartment complexes just east of the former Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, the complex would include a 39,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center, a 38,000-square-foot clinical services building, a central plant, and a 47,000-square-foot administrative support building.

The medical offices now are on 60th Street West south of Avenue I in the former High Desert Hospital, which was converted to outpatient care in 2003. The existing complex consists of a main hospital building that is 44 years old and 19 additional buildings that are approaching 50 to 65 years in age.

County officials looked at two other options -- a major overall renovation of the existing site, estimated at $96.5 million, and a hybrid option, estimated at $96.3 million, in which a new facility would be built in central Lancaster, but administrative functions would have stayed at the High Desert site.

The first option was deemed limited in opportunities to incorporate design efficiencies to keep maintenance costs down and the second would have resulted in extra operation costs from duplication of efforts in regards to building and site maintenance, warehousing and security.

While the plan selected by the board is more expensive, officials said they anticipate recouping that additional cost through design efficiencies and lower maintenance costs over the next nine years.

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com

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