• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

$294 million awarded to medical center for repairs

By Jennifer K. Morita

Daily Bruin Staff

The UCLA Medical Center was awarded $294 million in federal emergency funds to repair damage sustained in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Tuesday.

University officials originally applied for $935 million to repair the entire Center for the Health Sciences, which includes the medical center and the schools of medicine, dentistry, public health and nursing.

"The people of Southern California have come to rely on UCLA Medical Center in an emergency - a fact that was made clear in the Northridge earthquake, when other Westside hospitals were rendered inoperable," said Chancellor Charles Young in a prepared statement. "This award will help UCLA maintain its promise, for many decades to come, to provide the highest-quality care when our community needs it most."

Young added that UCLA officials have been examining various proposals for repairing the medical center. Plans, which should be made by the end of the year, may include a combination of repairing, retrofitting and replacing the center.

Young also stressed that although the medical center was damaged during the earthquake, it is still safe for occupation.

In an interview several weeks before the Federal Emergency Relief Agency (FEMA) announced the $294 million award, UCLA spokesperson Jan Klunder stated that there are a number of proposals for the medical center, including tearing down the hospital and rebuilding it, but that no decision had been made yet.

"It's unclear if we'll be able to do that," Klunder said. "It requires having a certain amount (of funding)."

According to February minutes of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Disability, the medical center's Building and Safety Director Victor Kennedy stated that the estimated costs for building a new hospital is about $450 million.

Negotiations for further funding for the center's "broader uses" are ongoing, according to UCLA officials.

"We continue to be in discussion with FEMA about our earthquake claim," Klunder said in an earlier interview. "It isn't just for the hospital, but several core campus buildings are affected, as well as the Center for Health Sciences."

Dean of the Medical School Gerald Levey added that the medical center is important to Southern California.

"UCLA's medical complex is a critical resource for Southern California, and this FEMA contribution will help it remain so," Levey said in a recent statement. "This process represents an important partnership between the university, the federal and state governments and the private sector."

In addition, UCLA and the relief agency are negotiating damage claims for the recently-acquired Santa Monica/UCLA Hospital.

"We have significant additional issues to address, and UCLA is engaged in ongoing discussions with FEMA leadership to acquire funds to further mitigate the risk to our medical complex in the case of another major quake," he said.

UCLA Medical Center, rated the best hospital in the western United States by the U.S. News and World Report magazine, serves more than 300,000 patients a year.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu