COUNTY-USC: Fate Of Facility Still Under Debate

      Today's Los Angeles Times reports that "as late as Monday," efforts at a compromise between Los Angeles County supervisors and state legislators over the size of the new County-USC Medical Center "have foundered." Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke, "in a last-ditch attempt to broker yet another compromise" between the state and county, suggested building a 600-bed facility with an accompanying "outpatient annex" and then conducting a "follow-up" study on the need for more beds. Under Burke's proposal, "the county would agree to convert the annex to an inpatient facility -- or forfeit the state money it had accepted" to build the new facility. While Supervisor Gloria Molina -- the lone county official siding with the state legislators demanding a larger, 750-bed facility -- believed the state officials "would go along with" this idea, she found out Monday "that the rest of the supervisors would not." For their part, the supervisors have threatened to build a 500-bed hospital if no additional funds are forthcoming from the state Legislature. A "showdown vote" on the County-USC issue is scheduled for today," at which point, the Times reports "the supervisors are expected back off from their threat and approve the 600-bed facility -- hoping that a future Legislature will eventually decide to help them out" (Rohrlich, 9/15). Click USC-County for past CHL coverage of the dispute.