Medical Center Revamp to Be Decided Tonight

The Los Alamitos Medical Center’s 25-year expansion proposal heads back to the city council tonight just three weeks after city leaders questioned major elements of the project such as its funding and timeline.

The $50 million or more hospital expansion is the largest project to ever go before the city. If approved, it would give the hospital planning and zoning approval to build five new structures including a four-story medical office building, two hospital towers and two parking structures. The project calls for decades of construction work for a medical campus that would anchor Katella Avenue.

It’s the timeline that concerns many residents and city council members.

At the January council meeting, officials also wondered if the hospital’s parent company Tenet Healthcare would be able to fund the entire project – namely the hospital towers that would be built in the later phases.

“One of the biggest things we’ve heard about is the need for patient care, so why are we doing an office building first and not a building for patient care,” asked Councilwoman Marilyn Poe. “I have real concerns, that if we give the latitude of 25 years, that this would ever be created.”

In the city staff report for tonight’s meeting, hospital officials attempted to address the city’s concerns.

In his staff report to the City Council, Community Development Director Steven Mendoza wrote, “Any attempt to condense Phases I and II, as suggested by members of the community and City Council, would result in the total loss of site circulation and on-campus parking, thus requiring 100% off-campus parking for hospital and medical office building employees, physicians, patients and visitors. Accordingly, that alternative is not feasible because it would unduly disrupt access to care and business operations. The new Medical Office Building needs to be completed before the doctors in the existing and “to be demolished” building may be relocated.”

Hospital officials also strove to allay concerns that the plan neglected the more urgent need to build more hospital beds to serve the community by putting the hospital towers after the medical office building.

According to the city staff report, an ongoing interior remodel will increase the hospitals emergency room capacity by this summer. Hospital officials also offered another 1 and a half-year interior remodel to increase the hospital’s bed and surgical capacity until the new towers could be built.

At the last council meeting, more than 30 people offered their opinions about the project. Most were in favor of it including several local doctors and hospital staff.

Critics of the project argued that the city would be granting too much to the medical center without receiving any guarantees that hospital officials would follow through with the hospital buildings that would benefit the community most.

Divided into three phases of construction over 25 years, the proposal calls for the demolition of two existing buildings at the medical center and the construction of two hospital towers, a medical office building and a parking structure for paid parking. The 18.3-acre project would eventually add 164 more hospital beds and 849 parking spaces, while creating an estimated 1,665 jobs and generating as many as 3,900 daily car trips down Katella Avenue.

The initial phase of the project calls for a four-story medical office building and a parking structure. The second phase would include the construction of a hospital building for patient care, and the third phase would include a second hospital tower and parking structure.

According to Michele Finney, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer, the hospital served more than 6,600 Los Alamitos residents alone last year.