UCLA outlines plan for new hospital

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."