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LONG BEACH - The newly formed Long Beach Health Coalition met Friday to discuss a long list of issues, including health-care financial pressures and the lack of facility capacity in light of recent changes made at Long Beach Memorial Hospital.
State Sen. Alan Lowenthal and County Supervisor Don Knabe were among 30 local community stakeholders who took part in the two-hour roundtable discussion at Miller Family Health Education Center.
The group focused on putting together a number of action items they will focus on bringing to the Legislature and community within the next year.
One of those items included working to extend the state's deadline requirements set by the seismic standards in Senate Bill1953.
The bill requires hospitals in the state to rebuild or retrofit by 2013 those acute-care inpatient buildings that are at risk of collapsing during a strong earthquake.
Hospitals feel pressure
Marcy Zwelling, a local physician who moderated the discussion, noted hospitals like Memorial are under extreme financial pressure to meet the bill's deadline while also dealing with overburdened emergency rooms and a growing number of uninsured patients.
"These hospitals will be spending billions on budgeting for this. We need to have it pushed aside for now," said Zwelling. "Hospitals need to concentrate their budgets and their time on care."
Zwelling noted Memorial's concerns of having to pay up to $2billion
This month, Memorial began implementing a number of changes they say will help them prepare to meet SB1953, and deal with a rapid increase in out-of-town patients being transported to their facility following the closure of King-Harbor Medical Center in Willowbrook.
Memorial plans on reducing the number of medical beds from 453 to 392 and will create rooms for its specialty patients. They are also working with local ambulance companies on a plan to stop the bypassing of other local hospitals by the end of this month.
Zwelling said other hospitals in the region have been dealing with similar issues. She commended Memorial for being proactive about its concerns.
"They have to become a business wise facility, and they have to be viable," said Zwelling.
Clinics to the rescue?
At the meeting, officials said they would also work to push lawmakers to change regulations to allow ambulances to transport patients to local urgent care and community clinics.
Dr. Helene Calvet, city health officer with the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, recommended hospitals in the region begin to look into creating a communication plan to educate people on alternatives to the emergency room.
Calvet said the plan could help facilities significantly reduce wait times and provide faster care for people with non-life threatening medical issues.
"A phone triage could be developed so people can call and get that type of information," Calvet said.
Assessing local needs
Others, like Elisa Nicholas of the Children's Clinic in Long Beach, suggested developing a needs analysis that determines gaps in the region and an inventory of available resources.
The compiled data would help officials articulate their health-care needs to the Legislature, said Nicholas.
"It's going to take community reorganizing, some financing, but we will be on our way," said Nicholas.
Among other topics, officials also discussed addressing the shortage of nurses and mid-
level clinicians, and possibly posting retail prices of services at medical groups and hospitals to facilitate transparency and allow patients to make informed choices.
Supervisor Knabe said he felt the meeting was a productive way to brainstorm for the benefit of all health-care providers in the region.
"When we march together and talk to various legislatures that is what is going to have an impact," Knabe said.
Knabe said that both the seismic mandate issue and data collection should be the group's top priorities in the coming months.
Zwelling said the coalition will meet again in February.
In the next few months, the group plans on working with the Los Angeles County Medical Association in developing a caucus to meet with the Legislature to determine the next steps.
brenda.duran@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1297
