Borrowing a tactic from patients and public interest law groups that has stalled cutbacks at other county health facilities, the directors of the Antelope Valley's largest hospital are threatening to seek an injunction to stop the closure of inpatient services at High Desert Hospital in Lancaster.
Abdallah Farrukh, chairman of the five-member board that oversees the nonprofit Antelope Valley Hospital, said Thursday that the board is considering legal action to prevent county officials from converting High Desert Hospital into an ambulatory clinic that treats only minor medical problems.
Critics contend that the move would reduce the health-care options for the area's poor and uninsured patients.
The board will not take a formal vote on the matter until next week, but Farrukh said members have agreed that some action is needed to stop the county's plan to end inpatient services at High Desert by June 30.
County officials say the conversion of High Desert Hospital is part of a series of cutbacks that must be made to avoid a projected budget shortfall of $1.1 billion by the 2007-2008 fiscal year -- a scenario that could plunge one of the nation's largest public health systems into even greater turmoil.
Earlier this month, federal lawsuits by public interest law groups and patients helped temporarily block cutbacks at County-USC Medical Center and the closure of the county's Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey.
Local officials consider High Desert Hospital crucial to the Antelope Valley's health-care system. Although it has only 75 beds, the hospital serves the poor and uninsured in an area where an estimated 25% of residents lack health insurance. In the last decade, the Antelope Valley's population has grown by about 27%, to 318,000, while two of its five hospitals have closed down.
"All of a sudden we have demographics we're unable to handle, and we're going be even more stressed in the future," Farrukh said. "We need these beds."
If no county hospital exists to treat indigent patients, Farrukh said, those patients will increasingly end up at the two remaining medical facilities: Antelope Valley Hospital and Lancaster Community Hospital.
"If the county walks away, we get stuck with these patients, and we have to pay for them," Farrukh said. "And then we'd have to cut staff and services to stay afloat."
