• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Thursday, January 30, 1997

MEDICAL CENTER:

Search for funding continues as medical center looks to improve for the 21st centuryBy Gil Hopenstand

Daily Bruin Staff

Now that the University of California Board of Regents have agreed to look into replacing UCLA's seismically damaged medical center, the task has turned to funding the project.

University officials plan to build a new 500-bed hospital in place of Parking Lot 14 and repair quake damage to the rest of the Center for Health Sciences. That, along with seismically repairing the schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and public health would take 10 to 12 years.

Construction costs should top $1 billion, but Provost of Health Sciences Gerald Levey is not too worried about raising the necessary funds.

"We believe that we will be successful," Levey said Wednesday. Officials at the UCLA Medical Center, comprised of the main hospital, the Neuropsychiatric Hospital and the Children's Hospital, are already planning to put that money to good use.

Levey described two conceptual research buildings to be built along Circle Drive South ­ one possibly on the current sight of the botany department's greenhouses.

Judith Brill, a professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology at the Children's Hospital, is hoping for a new facility that is more flexible to families' needs.

"Parents are either in cots in the play room or cramped with their children ­ we can do better in a new facility," Brill said, explaining the need for "rooms designed to anticipate that family members will stay over with their kids when they're sick."

Frank Maas, the medical center's emergency room manager, hopes the new emergency room will physically improve their efficiency.

"The (current) construction and layout is very bad for staffing and patients," Maas said. "We want a place that's more free-flowing, that the staff can see around the room, that it's easy to communicate, easy to observe if there are changes, the monitoring can be watched readily ... That's a benefit to the patients and to the facility."

Yet all these improvements come at a cost. UCLA already secured a $432 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and $44 million from state authorities, but $500 million is still needed.

"It will come from private philanthropy, the state and probably will require some kind of financing that we will have to develop ourselves," Levey said. "But we have plenty of time to do the project. The hospital is largely in place with the money secured from FEMA."

Levey and Medical Center Director Michael Karpf explained that there are a variety of "traditional ways of raising philanthropic funding," ranging from placing donors' names on lecture halls and endowed chairs to putting a plaque on a wall.

"We have individuals in this community who are committed to the success of the UCLA School of Medicine and Medical Center," Levey said.

All of these improvements are ultimately to the patients' benefit, experts stressed, noting that the new center will serve two overarching goals.

"We want to ensure that the academic program of the medical school remains coordinated with the clinical program of the hospital. The site ... really fulfills that. The second major goal is that the hospital and medical school have to continue to be fully integrated with the rest of the campus at UCLA," Levey said.

That will be achieved physically and architecturally, explained Sarah Jensen, an associate director of UCLA Capital Programs' design and construction department. She predicted the proposed plans would incorporate "coherence" and "campus character" seen in other buildings.

But because of a hospital's importance in treating injuries after a future tremor, it must follow stricter seismic codes than other buildings.

"The state has determined that certain types of structures should be built to higher standards because of the nature of their occupants," explained Robert Stallings, a public administration and sociology professor at the University of Southern California, who specializes in public policy issues relating to the threat of earthquakes.

He recalled that following the 1994 Northridge quake, patients at one San Fernando Valley hospital were treated in its parking lot because of structural damage.

In other hospitals, Stallings said, "there was concern about potential injuries from objects flying around, such as television sets. Televisions fell down in many patient rooms. Equipment went flying around, such as IV stands. They were shooting around the hospital like spears."

But at UCLA, Karpf explained that the hospital played a critical role after the Northridge quake.

"We were the central focus for the health care of this community during that major catastrophe. We were the only level one trauma center ... in West Los Angeles. Should we have another major event, we can support the health care of this community," Karpf said.

As of yet, regents have approved only concepts and proposals. Next, they will review financial plans and environmental impact studies, most likely at their May meeting at UCLA.

University officials said that while other hospitals have long been upgrading their facilities, UCLA is just now building for the 21st century.

"This positions us to have the best basic science program in the United States," Karpf said. Levey echoed, "We believe it will position us better than we've ever been before."

Comments

Post a comment