PLAN TO SHUTTER TRAUMA CENTERS DECRIED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

Doctors and patients warned Thursday that proposed cutbacks at Los Angeles County hospitals would overload already crowded emergency rooms throughout the San Fernando Valley and cause the county's trauma system to collapse.

The Board of Supervisors might be forced to eliminate in-patient services and shutter the emergency rooms at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to fill an estimated $800 million deficit facing the county Department of Health Services during the next three years.

``If Olive View closes, the patients we now help would flood the system, and it would fold like a deck of cards,'' said Dr. David Talan, director of the hospital's emergency department. ``Our fragile network will collapse and, let me emphasize this: people will die who otherwise would not.''

Concerned about a domino effect on all hospitals in the region, officials have put a property tax measure on November's ballot that would raise $175 million to keep the trauma centers open and called on state and federal officials to help fill the massive deficit.

If approved by voters, the parcel tax would be 3 cents per square foot for houses, offices and other buildings - $42.66 a year for the owner of an average-size home of 1,422 square feet. Vacant land and parking lots would not be assessed.

About 200 people attended the hearing of the Emergency Medical Services Commission and urged officials not to close the trauma centers or significantly reduce services and the number of available beds at the King/Drew and County/USC medical centers.

Granada Hills teen Peter Beal recounted his ordeal after being hit by a sport utility vehicle while riding his bike six years ago.

``I was lucky, and they flew me to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles,'' Beal said. ``Quite simply, without these doctors, I would not be here today. Do not turn your back on the children who need these services now.''

The closure of two of the county's 13 trauma centers would cause a ripple effect that would overwhelm every health-care facility in Los Angeles County, including private hospitals and clinics, officials agreed.

``This is unthinkable craziness,'' said Dr. Steven Shea, director of the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Directors Association. ``We should be trying to fix our system, not figuring out how best to dismantle it.''

The specter of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was invoked several times during the hearing, with many doctors calling the county's ``inadequate'' trauma system a national security risk.

``I find it almost unimaginable that the day after Sept. 11 I'm sitting here trying to defend our trauma system,'' said Dr. Maurice Heilbron Jr., a trauma surgeon at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn called the proposed closure of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, the closest hospital to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, ``extremely frightening.''

``The ports are among the prime targets for terrorists in the entire country,'' Hahn said. ``We cannot abandon the 5,000 men and women on the docks and the 2,000 other workers in the harbor.''

The hours of impassioned testimony painted a picture of a county health care system long in disarray now coming apart at the seams. Since 1985, nine trauma centers have been closed due to lack of funds.

``Long ago we cut out all of the fat in the system,'' said Dr. Daniel Higgins of St. Francis Hospital. ``Now, we're hacking at the bone.''

Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills would treat most of the patients turned away from Olive View if it is closed. However, Holy Cross is already operating at 94 percent capacity, said Chief Executive Officer Kerry Carmody.

``We have absolutely zero empty beds,'' Carmody said. ``We'll certainly be affected and we're very concerned.''

During the last two years, visits to the Holy Cross emergency room have jumped 35 percent, and doctors will treat 600 more trauma patients this year than they did in 1999, Carmody said.

The three already-overburdened trauma centers that serve the 1.8 million people who live in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys will be pushed to the breaking point, health care officials said.

``We're finally catching up to the growth Santa Clarita has experienced in the last decade,'' said Andie Bogdan, a spokeswoman for Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia. ``If these other facilities close, it will set us back significantly.''

County officials are hopeful that the property tax measure on November's ballot will help ease the deficit.

``This affects every man, woman and child in this county,'' Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told the commission. ``Every one of us has a stake in the trauma system. It doesn't matter who you are, how rich you are or if you have insurance. We all depend on this system.''

The gaping shortfall was created when the federal government declined to renew the Medicaid rule waiver, which has provided about $2 billion in health bailout funds to northern Los Angeles County since 1995.

The supervisors voted last month to make $150 million in cuts, including closing the emergency room at High Desert Hospital in Lancaster and closing 11 health clinics, including those in North Hollywood and Tujunga. Under the latest proposal, High Desert Hospital would be closed entirely.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Newhall Memorial Hospital officials Vivian Rebel, Mark Wallenstein and Laurie Dougherty, from left, applaud testimony at a hearing on plans to close county trauma centers.

(2) Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky speaks to the Emergency Medical Services Commission about the health-care crisis. About 200 people attended the Thursday morning hearing.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer