UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Hospital ““Â the largest
investment in the history of the world’s most prestigious
public university system ““ is currently in need of hundreds
of millions of dollars in private donations.
The funds are needed to purchase medical equipment so that the
hospital will be ready to serve patients by the expected opening
date of 2005. The hospital is still receiving contributions and
pledges for the equipment, and an unnamed sponsor is running a
campaign to raise $150 million, said Sergio Melgar, chief financial
officer of the UCLA Medical Center. The other $50 million is to
come from other donors.
While the need for equipment funds is the hospital’s
biggest monetary deficiency, other areas of construction and
renovation are more adequately funded. Of the $1.3 billion budget,
used for the building and renovation of the Reagan and Santa Monica
Hospitals, as well as three research centers, $672.7 million has
been allocated to the reconstruction of the Reagan Hospital, Melgar
said.
If the campaign is not able to fulfill its goal of raising $150
million for the equipment, its sponsor will likely cover the rest,
said Melgar. He added that no date has been specified to complete
the campaign.
Melgar, however, does not fear the possibility of not having the
full $200 million needed for equipment because “interest
rates are at an all-time low.”Â
Equipment can be leased with an interest rate as low as 4
percent. Additionally, the hospital still has two years in which it
will be completed, and it has between now and then to collect
sufficient funds.
Loans are expected to be taken out, regardless of whether or not
the equipment will be leased, because most donations are made in
annual installments.
For example, Mattel’s $25 million donation to the hospital
is made in five annual payments. Since the money is needed during
the construction, loans are taken out, so, in actuality, the money
used from the donation is more like $23 million or $24 million with
the rest going to interest, according to Melgar.
The replacement hospital will feature a skin made of Ambralight
travertine marble mined in Tivoli, Italy. The building of the skin
began with the completion of the steel structure and is scheduled
to be finished in June 2003.
The marble represents a gift of gratitude from Carlo Mariotti, a
patient at the UCLA Medical Center who underwent surgeries for bone
cancer and gall bladder removal.
About 90 to 95 percent of the money needed for “brick and
mortar” has been donated or pledged.
Although money received through pledges is not necessarily
secured, the hospital can receive bank loans on the credit of
pledge letters as they are law-binding documents, which in essence
guarantee that the hospital will receive the money promised to them
by contributors.
The steel structural frame of the hospital was completed less
than three weeks ago, and the entire process took a mere ten months
to complete, said Project Director of UCLA Capital Programs Alvin
Lee.
Lee further expects that this hospital will be the strongest
building in California in terms of earthquake resistance and,
perhaps, one of the most structurally sound in the United
States.
The Reagan Hospital was designed to withstand an earthquake with
a magnitude as high as 8.4, and will be one of the first hospitals
to meet the new 2008 California seismic safety standards, which are
among the most stringent in the country.
The hospital’s general contractor is Tutor-Saliba-Perini,
and they presently maintain about 500 people on the job site of the
million-square-foot structure.
That number is likely to rise as high as 700 or 800 workers as
the contractor diligently strives to finish construction within the
next two years, Lee said.
Although completion is scheduled for 2004, the hospital
won’t open until 2005 because a four to six month period is
anticipated to move in $21 million worth of furniture, including
5000 office chairs for the more than 3500 offices, and 525 large
hospital beds.
The hospital’s reconstruction project came about as a
result of the damage done in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, but
the 40-year-old hospital had already been in need of
retrofitting.
Instead of repairing the damage done by the quake, it was
decided that the hospital be reconstructed in order for it to
become one of the premier hospitals in the area.
It was named after former president Ronald Reagan in response to
a group led by Univision CEO Jerry Perenchio making a $150 million
donation in Reagan’s name.
The UCLA Medical Center has made large strides in progress
within the last year as it has been ranked as the best hospital
west of the Mississippi for the last 12 years, according to a U.S.
News & World Report survey.