Medical clinics completion date now end of May

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press March 16, 2001.

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Time and effort needed to correct allegedly "substandard" materials for a new 24-hour health-care clinic under construction by Antelope Valley Hospital has pushed completion of the facility back to the end of May, according to the construction project's manager.

Work on the $5.8 million clinic at 40th Street East and Palmdale Boulevard has slowed because "the modular company that the hospital required us to use has a substandard product, and it's taking us an incredible amount of time to correct deficiencies in that product," said Michael Toepfer, project manager for the Amelco Construction Co. of Gardena.

"The product that we receive from (Modular Structures International) is not acceptable for use in a hospital," Toepfer said. "We've had to make all kinds of changes - revamping the electrical, extensive repairs to the drywall.

"We would have been better off building the project from the ground up rather than accepting a modular package, which is what was required by (Lee Burkhart Liu)," the hospital's Santa Monica-based architectural firm, Toepfer said.

Such a proposal was rejected by the hospital this past year because it would have added about $100,000 to the cost, he said.

The extra costs of changing the modular materials "are going back on the modular company, but it's costing me a fortune in extra administrative costs and time," Toepfer said.

A message seeking comment from Phil Bortz, operations manager for Modular Structures International of Riverside, was not immediately returned.

Amelco will correct the alleged deficiencies and provide a well-built facility, "But it's going to run over (schedule) in construction time," Toepfer said.

Although poor weather has been a contributing factor, it has been minor compared to the repair problems, he said.

Hospital officials selected a modular structure in the belief that it could be erected by October 2000. But delays in obtaining "pre-engineered" building components, followed by changes to the design, pushed the $5.8 million project back first to November, then January, March and now May.

After completion, the building will have to meet the approval of state, county and city inspectors before opening its doors to patients.

Another problem could arise from the financial problems facing the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said Mathew Abraham, AV Hospital's chief executive officer.

"We haven't had any communication from the county as to what their plans might be, but I understand they probably will have to bid out" for the physicians who will work at the new clinic, Abraham said.

Under an agreement between AV Hospital and the county, the hospital will build the facility and provide ancillary services, testing and support staff, while the county will provide the physicians and day-to-day oversight.

Going through the bid process may further delay the opening of the Palmdale clinic, Abraham said.

The county's Department of Health Services is looking for ways to cut costs now in anticipation of an $850 million deficit in five years.

Whether the clinic will be affected by those cuts is unknown at present, Abraham said.

In the short run, a bidding delay could prove beneficial, according to hospital board Chairwoman Deborah Rice.

A minor postponement would allow more time to move current operations from an existing clinic at 15th Street East and Palmdale Boulevard into the new two-story facility at 40th Street East and Palmdale Boulevard, Rice said.

"That would allow us to move those clinics over there and get them up and going and then get the urgent-care part going instead of trying to open everything at once," she said.

The 40th Street East facility, referred to as an "emergent" care clinic, will provide around-the-clock emergency medical care, though it will not be licensed as an emergency room as defined by state health authorities.

The new clinic is intended to be the first step toward construction of a new full-service inpatient hospital by the AV Health Care District, the government entity created to build and operate AV Hospital in Lancaster.