Hospital opening delayed again

The new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, originally scheduled to open three years ago, has been delayed again. The university has set no official date for the opening, and the hospital may not accept patients until 2008.

The new facility will replace the original UCLA Medical Center, built in 1955 and damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Structural damages caused by the earthquake made the medical center unsafe for patients, and constructing a new one was determined to be more cost-effective than retrofitting the old building.

The Reagan Center will include the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA and Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, according to a medical center fact sheet published by the university.

The Westwood hospital’s opening has been delayed multiple times. It was initially meant to be ready for business by late 2004 or early 2005, said Dale Tate, executive director of UCLA Health Sciences media relations.

But modifications to the construction plans, including new technology and equipment that was required to meet safety guidelines, caused the opening date to be changed again to late summer or early fall 2007, according to Daily Bruin archives.

UCLA officials have attributed previous delays and budget requests to the rising costs of construction materials such as steel and drywall and to design changes to accommodate medical advances, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“UC Regents were told construction would be completed in June and that it’s now more likely to be July,” Tate said.

“Because of even one month of delay, there is a cascade effect. The delay of construction also stops technology and equipment from being installed.”

Following construction, it will then take a minimum of six months to completely outfit the hospital with technology, furniture and other equipment to complete the licensure process, she said in a July interview with the Daily Bruin.

Steven Olsen, UCLA’s Vice Chancellor of Finance, Budget and Capital Programs, said he hopes to have a new opening date in the next few weeks but does not want to rush to a decision.

Tate said more than 6,000 employees who will be working in the hospital must be trained.

She added that the medical center must gain a certificate of occupancy from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

These factors must be taken into consideration before an opening date can be set.

“Rather than say another date and not be able to finish by then, we’d rather wait until we receive that certificate of occupancy to announce a date,” Tate added.

As the opening date has been delayed, the budget for the construction has soared.

The budget was initially estimated at $597.7 million in 1998, according to the Times, and is now projected to cost about $829 million.

The Ronald Reagan Medical Center was built in accordance with new California seismic safety requirements after the 1994 earthquake.

Ten stories high, containing 520 beds and more than one million square feet, the hospital is expected to be able to withstand a magnitude 8.0 quake, according to the fact sheet.

Though the opening date is up in the air, he dedication ceremony for the medical center is scheduled for June 4.