Measure B Revenue Could Protect Trauma, Emergency Care at UCLA Medical Centers, Report Finds

A ballot measure approved by Los Angeles County voters on Nov. 5 to raise property taxes to fund the county's trauma care centers and emergency rooms could allow Harbor-UCLA and Olive View-UCLA medical centers to continue to provide trauma and emergency care, according to a report released Monday, the Copley/Torrance Daily Breeze reports. The report, issued by county Department of Health Services Director Thomas Garthwaite, included "scant details" on the allocation of the estimated $168 million in revenue that Measure B will raise each year but provided the first "clear indication" that the county would use funds to place Harbor-UCLA and Olive View-UCLA "out of harm's way," the Copley/Daily Breeze reports (Uranga, Copley/Torrance Daily Breeze, 11/27). The county Board of Supervisors plans to vote on Jan. 21 on whether to convert Harbor-UCLA and Olive View-UCLA to outpatient facilities to help cover a budget deficit in the county's health system. The system faces an estimated $750 million budget deficit by 2005 (California Healthline, 11/21). Garthwaite, who presented the report to supervisors yesterday, said that the county should spend most of the revenue raised through Measure B on "stabilizing and strengthening" the county's emergency and trauma care system. He added that 10 private trauma care centers in the county should receive some of the funds (Copley/Torrance Daily Breeze, 11/27).