With help of staff, Holy Cross nears goal for ER expansion.

Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, one of only three trauma care centers in the San Fernando Valley, has raised three quarters of the funds needed for a major expansion of the hospital's emergency department, including $425,000 donated by the medical center's own employees.

"Our employees and their families use our services, and they appreciate it when their medical treatment is seamless," said Dr. Michael Sarti, the emergency unit's director. "They see first-hand how expanded trauma and emergency services will help their community."

The $7.5 million capital improvement project, which will expand and update the emergency room and trauma treatment facilities, will break ground in August, and completion is slated for 2006. The Providence Holy Cross Foundation, the hospital's fundraising entity, has amassed $5.4 million, or 73 percent, of the planned total.

"Holy Cross has needed this expansion for five years," said Carol Meyer, director of Los Angeles County's Emergency Medical Services Agency, which oversees the 13-hospital trauma care network.

"Their physical plant really needed this and we are really pleased to hear the funding is coming through on this," Meyer said. "The fact the community is coming through for them to get this expanded is commendable."

The current total includes $2.82 million raised through donations through philanthropy, including $2.4 million from six different charitable foundations and the funds donated by employees. One of every three workers at the Mission Hills hospital has made a pledge to the fund drive, officials said.

Holy Cross is part of the Seattle-based Providence Health System, which also owns hospitals in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California, including Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

Trauma centers, by definition, are hospitals that maintain a higher level of services, including specially trained surgery staffs, at all times, which differs from a typical emergency room.

Decline in number

There are currently 13 trauma centers in Los Angeles County, including three county-run facilities, down from a total of 24 in the mid-1980s. The only other designated trauma centers in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys are Northridge Hospital Medical Center and Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita.

Along the decline in specialized trauma care, the number of emergency rooms in the San Fernando Valley dropped with the closure of Granada Hills Community Hospital in July 2003. Not surprisingly, that closure added heavily to the burden on Holy Cross and Northridge, Meyer said.

"You have to drive further and you have to wait longer because the same volume of patients, or a larger volume, is going into a smaller funnel," she said. "It has a negative impact on surrounding communities."

Holy Cross has seen an additional 2,000 emergency department patients, an increase of about 13 percent, since Granada Hills closed, while Northridge has treated an additional 100 patients every month, hospital officials said.

"We've seen significant growth," said Mike Wall, Northridge's president. "Part of it is just market share, but part of it is Granada Hills' closure."