Ronald Reagan Medical Center celebrates major milestone: dedication ceremony marks completion of construction at UCLA.

IT will be close to another year before the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center treats its first patient. But the major construction is complete, good enough for the university to invite Nancy Reagan over last week to christen the vessel.

At least that's what the hospital's senior medical director for clinical operations likes to compare the hospital to. Dr. James Atkinson notes the last time President Reagan's widow christened something this big, it was an aircraft carrier.

"Completing a hospital is a lot like fitting out an aircraft carrier. An event like this is a celebration of a major milestone," said Atkinson, noting Mrs. Reagan christened the USS Ronald Reagan.

Before the $1 billion facility gets its certificate of occupancy, 40,000 pieces of medical equipment and 18,000 pieces of furniture must be installed, plus more than 10,000 doctors, nurses and support staff trained. Hospital officials are aiming for a March 2008 opening date.

For last week's dedication, a handful of operating suites, patient rooms and intensive care units were far enough along to be outfitted with furniture and high-tech equipment so that the 400 guests, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, could get a feel for the finished product.

But some of the facility's most distinctive features likely won't be noticed by the average patient. For the med center's centralized interventional floor, where surgeries and other complicated procedures take place, officials convinced its lead equipment venders to collaborate on making their devices better cooperate with each other.

"From a business standpoint there's a greater operational efficiency in having everything together in one area," Atkinson said. "'But to make it work we needed the equipment to work together in a plug-and-play fashion."

UCLA used its influence on companies ranging from imaging equipment maker Siemens Medical to medical lighting specialist Berehtold Corp. The process provided numerous opportunities for medical center's Center for Advanced Surgery and Interventional Technology, an industry-supported program where companies can send their engineers to work with faculty or graduate students at the engineering school and department of surgery to develop new designs.

"As a customer we wanted to drive our venders to work together so we could have centralized places where each type of equipment could be connected," said Atkinson, who expects other hospitals will follow UCLA in setting a new standard for the medical equipment industry.

Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at [phone], ext. 232, or at [e-mail].