County officials are considering construction of a 350-bed hospital and trauma center in the San Gabriel Valley as part of a master plan to offer improved medical services now provided at County-USC Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles.
Carl Williams, county director of hospitals, said the master plan is still being developed, funding of new construction is uncertain and a recommendation will not be submitted to county supervisors until this fall.
Officials are studying the possibility of reducing the number of beds at County-USC Medical Center by 550 and building a medical facility that would also serve as a teaching hospital in the San Gabriel Valley. Williams said preliminary findings indicate that the historic, 19-story General Hospital, built in 1928--one of four hospital buildings in the USC medical complex--"has outlived its useful life" and should be replaced.
Williams said the structure is sound, but the plumbing, heating and electrical systems need such extensive repair that it would be more practical to rebuild than remodel. "It's too bad to fix up and too costly to tear down," said Williams.
He said the building would not be torn down even if it no longer operates as a hospital, although it is not clear what use it might have.
One key finding in the master plan study is that the county medical center could operate more efficiently with 900 beds instead of its present 1,450.
If bed capacity is reduced through reconstruction and remodeling, Williams said, the county would need to build facilities elsewhere to serve its current patient load.
More Trauma Care
The logical location for a new hospital would be the San Gabriel Valley, Williams said, because the county does not have a hospital there and many of the medically indigent patients served at the medical center live there.
The San Gabriel Valley needs more trauma care facilities, he said, and those services could be provided there as well.
The county's 5-year-old trauma care system, which once included hospitals in Pomona, West Covina and Arcadia, now has only a single hospital member in the San Gabriel Valley, Huntington Memorial in Pasadena.
Trauma centers have surgeons and anesthesiologists on duty 24 hours, while hospital emergency rooms provide surgical services on call.
Williams said planners envision the San Gabriel Valley facility as a large teaching hospital.
