UCLA officials asked the UC Board of Regents for an additional
$308 million to complete construction on two new hospitals
Tuesday.
If the funding is approved, the Ronald Reagan Medical Center in
Westwood will receive more than half the money, and the remainder
will go to the UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center.
The two facilities, which together will cost almost $1.4 billion
by the time they are finished, have already had to adjust their
budgets three times from the original projection of just over $800
million.
They are also now slated to open several years behind the
original schedule. The Ronald Reagan Medical Center was supposed to
open in spring 2004, according to Daily Bruin archives, but is now
expected to open its doors in September 2007. The UCLA-Santa Monica
Medical Center is scheduled to open in 2009, rather than fall 2006
as originally projected.
According to a presentation made to the Board of Regents by
university officials, the money for the proposed budget increase
would come from a variety of sources including state funds,
donations, hospital reserves and campus funds.
The board is expected to vote on the budget Thursday during its
meeting in Covel Commons.
Steve Olsen, UCLA’s vice chancellor of finance and budget,
told the Los Angeles Times that much of the requested funds will be
used to redesign parts of the hospitals to accommodate newly
developed medical technologies.
He said since the hospitals’ original budgets were
approved in 1998, medical technology has improved to the point that
the buildings’ designs cannot support the new equipment.
“When a change is made in a piece of equipment, it
requires redesigning part of the building itself,” Olsen
said.
Included in the budget increase request is $7.5 million to
redesign part of the third floor of the Ronald Reagan Medical
Center.
UCLA Health Sciences spokeswoman Dale Tate said much of the
redesign will update structural and electrical systems to help
accommodate newer equipment and technology.
According to the presentation made to the regents, the funding
will also cover rising construction costs, which have been a trend
across California.
Regent Joanne Kozberg told the Los Angeles Times that other UC
campuses, such as UC Davis, have encountered similar problems in
the construction of their hospitals.
“It is a matter of tremendous concern, partly because (the
UC system has) five hospitals and the problems aren’t just at
UCLA,” Kozberg said. “At UCLA the numbers are very
big.”
Remaining funds will be used to purchase medical equipment,
information technology systems, furniture and other furnishings for
the two hospitals, according to the presentation.
Tate said UCLA officials do not expect to have to ask for any
more budget increases before the hospitals open.
“That’s not our anticipation at this point,”
she said.
She added that the redesigns associated with the requested
funding are not expected to delay the currently scheduled opening
of either hospital.
During the meeting Tuesday, the Board of Regents also heard a
presentation from the university president’s Advisory Council
on Future Growth in the Health Professions.
According to the presentation, California is expected to face a
shortage of doctors by 2015 because the increase in population has
not been accompanied by an expansion of medical education programs,
according to a press release from the UC Office of the President.
The state currently ranks near the bottom for nurses and
pharmacists per capita.
The council recommended that UC schools increase enrollment in
some of their health sciences programs, including medical schools
and nursing, veterinary, dental and public health programs.
The council also suggested opening at least one more UC medical
school whose first class would graduate by 2020 at the latest.