Valley hospitals make room for growth in north county. (Up Front).

Projected growth in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, coupled with the pending closure of a county run facility serving parts of the region, are spurring a string of local hospital expansion plans in the northwest county and in the San Fernando Valley proper.

The plans counter experts' predictions in the 1990s for decreases in demand for acute care beds countywide due to the proliferation of outpatient surgery centers.

Providence Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills is mid-way through construction of a new $5.2 million diagnostics imaging center. The hospital also anticipates 'completion by 2004 of a new $7.5 million emergency room that will boost the number of acute care beds from 16 to 28, and is in the early stages of crafting a master plan for development that will likely include construction of a new hospital campus.

Finally, Holy Cross is in negotiations with a developer to construct an 86,000-square foot medical and urgent care center in Valencia, that will also house radiation therapy, cancer and diagnostic imaging units to serve residents living in the Santa Clarita Valley and nearby communities.

Holy Cross officials say daily capacity rates have remained at 95 percent for the last i 8 months in its emergency room and acute care units. Because it is an "open campus" Holy Cross treats patients from most parts of the county, and that often includes trauma cases from the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

"We have been planning for growth here in the Valley for some time because demand is up despite what experts were calling for some years back," said Kerry Carmody, the hospital's administrator. "But we are also planning now for the growth in the Santa Clarita area because we have a significant number of patients from there and we know that number is going to increase as the population increases."

Recent forecasts project roughly 1.7 million more residents are expected in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys by 2030.

Holy Cross's annual acute care admissions have risen from 9,071 in 1997 to 11,606 in 2002. Annual ER visits have risen steadily since 1998 from 21,011 to 37,339 in 2002.

Henry Mayo Newhall Clinic in Santa Clarita, a 217-bed acute care facility, is preparing to convert roughly 26 beds in its transitional care unit to acute care beds to meet increasing demand for trauma services.

Configuring beds

The hospital is expected to launch the transition and announce other expansion plans in June. Andie Bogdan, director of planning, marketing and public relations for Henry Mayo said daily capacity rates now are averaging at about 80 percent. Converting the beds, she said, would offer about a 25 percent capacity increase.

"Here we have the beds, we just aren't configured in the way that meets our community' s needs," Bogdan said.

Clearly experts' predictions that demand for inpatient services countywide would decline dramatically by 2002 due to the spread of outpatient surgery centers and advances in technology, have failed to hold water.

In addition to population increases, those predictions are also being revised to account for a rapidly growing aging community.

Bogdan said roughly 15 percent Henry Mayo's patients are over 85 years old, and the number is expected to grow by 18 percent over the next five years.

"There's no question that these expansions are justified," said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Health Care Association of Southern

California. "The population is both expanding and aging now, so the need for hospital in-patient services is also growing."

Further over the hill, Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster is planning to add roughly 50 beds to its acute care services units to ease overcrowding and address long-term growth in the region, according to Norm Hickling, field deputy for Supervisor Michael Antonovich's 5th district and a former member of the AV Hospital Advisory Board.

AV Hospital is also bracing for a June 30 closure of nearby county run High Desert Hospital, despite several efforts to generate revenue for the cash-strapped facility that serves mostly the poor and uninsured.

Converting High Desert

The county wants to convert High Desert to an outpatient facility, which would force AV Hospital to take in much of the overflow. The hospital's advisory board is considering a plan to take over High Desert through a joint-powers agreement with the county and is also threatening to file an injunction to block the closure to buy time to hammer out a game plan, Hickling said.

According to Lott, other county clinic closures and cutbacks implemented last year to stave off a projected $1.1 billion deficit have resulted in increases of up to 6 percent at private emergency rooms within 10 miles of the closures.

"Private facilities are clearly suffering the consequences of these cutbacks," Lott said.

Lancaster Community Hospital, a 117-bed facility, is preparing to add eight acute care inpatient beds, according to Robert Trautman, the hospital's chief executive.

In addition, on May 21, the hospital's board of director's approved the facility's joint-plan with the city of Palmdale to build a 170-bed hospital there, expected to be complete by December of 2005.

AV hospital is also considering a plan to open a new hospital in Palmdale.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Tower Part of Project At Valley Presbyterian

Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys is six months away from completing construction of a new 127,000-square foot medical tower, part of a $75.5 million rehabilitation plan that began two years ago in response to state mandates for seismic upgrades following 'the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The 290-bed facility, which is also celebrating its 45th year in operation, is not adding beds but rather replacing old ones.

Once completed, the hospital will have 20 new adult intensive care unit beds, a new 32-bed neo-natal intensive care unit, and 10 new pediatric intensive care beds.

"We are not necessarily at the point yet where. we need to think about increasing beds, but instead, obtaining more effective utilization of the services and beds we. have available," said Bob Bills, the hospital's president and vice chairman.

The retrofit project, which is running about six months behind schedule due to funding gaps, will also include construction of a new cardiac catheterization laboratory and expansion of the hospital's labor and delivery center.

Valley Presbyterian received roughly $51 million in funding through grants from the Federal Emergency Management Association and is attempting to raise the balance through community and private events, Bills said.

Jacqueline Fox