Universal Cares for Lancaster Now, Palmdale in 2010

The Antelope Valley is known for many things but an abundance of healthcare facilities is not among them. At one time the area had five hospitals. Due to closures, that gradually was reduced to just two Lancaster Community Hospital and Antelope Valley Hospital. That is changing, however, with the construction of the new Palmdale Regional Medical Center, a project undertaken by the publicly-traded Universal Health Services, the owner of Lancaster Community. Bob Trautman, the chief executive for the past seven years at Lancaster Community, will also oversee the new medical center. Trautman has more than 30 years experience in hospital administration gained at facilities in Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee as well as California. Question: What is the status of the Palmdale Regional Medical Center? Answer: It’s currently under construction, full speed ahead. We anticipate completion in the fourth quarter of this year. After it’s completed we need to get a certificate of occupancy, then equip it, supply it, orient staff and get it licensed. We anticipate 60 to 90 days for that to happen. Given that timeline we hope to be open by February 2010. Q: How involved have you been with that project? A: I’m getting more so. Universal Health Services, the parent company, has a separate design and construction division that monitors the construction on site. We as operators are more involved as it relates to equipment selection, and the business development aspect of the campus. Now since we are so close we have transition teams set up in various areas. These teams are doing a lot of the in-house work to prepare for the opening in Palmdale. Q: What does it mean for the Antelope Valley to have this new medical center? A: Bringing more bed capacity to the Antelope Valley is important. We have studies that show about 35 percent of hospital admissions by people who live in the Antelope Valley take place outside the area with the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles being the most common locations other than here. There are many reasons for that, one of which is the beds available in the community; also (lack of) primary care and specialty physicians. We are very actively recruiting both and we’ve had success in bringing both to our Palmdale campus, in the medical office complex that is now completed. Given that scenario, access to care is going to be easier. We’re going to have an emergency department with 35 beds that is going to add capacity. Traditionally both hospitals, Lancaster Community and Antelope Valley Hospital, have had bottlenecks at the emergency department levels just because of the volume. We will certainly be able to alleviate some of that with additional beds and physician coverage. Q: There has been a hospital in Palmdale once before, right? A: There was at one time. It closed in 1996. Now Palmdale is the largest city in California without a hospital. Q: What is the business development aspect to the new campus? A: The primary focus there is on physician recruitment. We have a shortage of physicians in both the primary care specialties and surgical specialties. We are looking at various programs to keep people locally. We are hoping to enhance our cardiac program in Palmdale, and looking at some other opportunities, including new services. We will have obstetrics and pediatrics where we don’t have them here now. We will also have neo-natal intensive care. Q: Have you been hearing from the business community about how it is anticipating the new medical center? A: We’re partners with the city of Palmdale on this project. They realized early on that to grow and prosper and draw new industry to the area they needed infrastructure, including health care. So they are very excited about this obviously. Just the fact that it’s going create new jobs, additional tax base and given its location and notoriety it is a very visible project in the business community. Q: The medical offices built by outside developers add to the campus, don’t they? A: We are working closely with those developers. If we can recruit physicians and for some reason they do not want to go into our medical office building, we want them in the proximity of the hospital because it is advantageous to us. We are working with them to fill their space as well. It has been slow, quite frankly. As we get closer to the completion of the hospital the more activity we are seeing. I anticipate throughout this year the interest and activity will pick up. Q: Considering what is going on in the economy, is this a good time to open a new medical center? A: Probably not. The economy goes in cycles. We are seeing some downturn not necessarily in business but in a patient’s ability to pay because of unemployment; even those who do have insurance you see co-pays and deductibles going higher and it’s harder to collect. I think everybody is experiencing that. We feel we have opportunity with the new hospital. The need and the market are there. The strategy of Universal Health is to build in markets such as this, high growth areas. Q: When Palmdale opens you will be chief executive of both that facility and the one in Lancaster? A: We are not certain what we are doing with this hospital yet. We may be selling it. We are talking to a couple of different parties. What we’d like to do here is provide services that are complementary to what we are doing in Palmdale. We have a rehab unit that is going to stay here. We are talking about doing some other things. The reason for that is it gives an area to place our patients when they no longer need an acute inpatient stay. We’ll free up beds at both Palmdale and Antelope Valley Hospital using this hospital as a specialty hospital. Q: Having worked in other states, how does California compare in terms of the health care industry? A: California healthcare is totally different than most areas of the country. Our company has hospitals in most of the Sunbelt states and California is probably one of the toughest markets because of the regulatory requirements, particularly as we build a new hospital. The construction standards are so much more stringent. To give an example, we have a hospital in Nevada that broke ground a month after we did in Palmdale and they are going to be operational before we’re open. Mandatory nurse staffing is unique to California. The wage and hour laws are unique. It is more difficult to function in California than in most states. Q: Speaking of staffing, does Lancaster Community face a shortage of nurses? A: Fortunately because of the notoriety of the new hospital, we’ve been successful at recruitment. We also have a close working relationship with Antelope Valley College and their nursing program. We support, as does Antelope Valley Hospital, faculty positions there. We have a program called Adopt-A-Student where we pay tuition for students and they make a commitment to our hospital. We have a good feeding ground of nurses coming in. We hear there are a lot who live here working in the San Fernando Valley for example who, once the new hospital is open, have an interest in coming back here. Q: Has Lancaster Community needed to make staff cuts like other hospitals in the region? A: We’ve had some, but not on a major scale. Most of the time when we look at layoffs, we redistribute staff into positions where we have vacancies so people aren’t actually losing jobs. It has happened on occasion that we may eliminate programs or something of that nature but we have not done anything because of the economy that we wouldn’t have done in the normal course of operation to keep it efficient. SNAPSHOT: Bob Trautman Title: Chief Executive Officer, Lancaster Community Hospital/Palmdale Regional Medical Center Age: 59 Education: B.S. University of Central Arkansas; Master Healthcare Administration, California State University Northridge Most Admired: My Dad, for his work ethic and sense of humor Career Turning Point: Working for a clinical lab while in graduate school and being exposed to hospital operations Personal: Married, 4 children