“People working there, for example, eat in nearby restaurants” and patronize nearby businesses, Lott said. In addition to providing employment, the hospital’s indirect economic influence will ripple throughout the Northeast Valley, Lott said. The Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center will be an economic boon to the Valley, said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Southern California Hospital Association. They want a thorough environmental impact report completed under the California Environmental Quality Act. Plans include adding 136 beds to the 254-bed center.īut opponents and some city officials cite concerns about the impact on the community, including traffic and parking. Officials there want to build a four-story addition of nearly 120,000 square feet to the site at 15031 Rinaldi St. Other hospitals face community opposition to expansion, including Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. The Valley has seen its share of hospitals close, including the Granada Hills Community Hospital, which went bankrupt and shut down in July 2003, and Northridge Hospital Medical Center’s Sherman Way campus, closed in 2004 under financial pressure. Unlike community and public hospitals, which are largely government-funded, Kaiser’s statewide membership of 6million people – 3.3 million of them in Southern California – has allowed it to buck a dismal trend in the hospital industry.Ī nonprofit health maintenance organization, Kaiser plans to open 11 facilities statewide this year, part of a $4 billion expansion and modernization project.īut some hospitals continue to face stiff challenges – staying afloat amid low medicare reimbursements, a rise in uninsured patients and costly seismic retrofitting requirements.
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