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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

CARE Considers Lawsuit to Force Holy Cross EIR

The most contentious issue in the Valley this year was arguably the expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. While the Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved the $146 million expansion in July, a collective of organizations called Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion at Providence Holy Cross (CARE) opposed the building of the 101-bed South Addition on the grounds that an environmental impact report had not been performed, a measure that the hospital did not have to make by law. Other hospitals in Los Angeles County have expanded their campuses without completing an EIR. Although Holy Cross is located in Mission Hills, the debate over its plans to expand reached all corners of Los Angeles, finding its way to Los Angeles newspapers, television and even National Public Radio. As the year draws to a close, however, it appears that the battle between Holy Cross and CARE is also reaching an end. CARE’s appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision to approve the hospital expansion did not dissuade the Mayor and the City Council from recently giving their approval to the expansion, leaving CARE no choice but to sue the city if it wishes to halt the project. “There’s obviously a potential for a lawsuit,” said Greg Good of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a member of the CARE coalition. In addition to suing the city, CARE is also exploring petitioning the community and elected leaders and continuing to encourage Providence to perform an EIR, Good elaborated. “The coalition is exploring all of these things,” he said. Though CARE is disappointed that the City has given its support to the expansion without an EIR, Good said that the coalition does not hold any one public entity responsible. Instead, “we really hold more than anything Providence accountable for again refusing to do what we think is appropriate for this community,” he explained. “That’s where we lay the blame. They have engaged in an aggressive spin campaign and a misinformation campaign. They were fairly successful at that.” Hospital administrator Kerry Carmody, on the other hand, said that Holy Cross developed relationships with the community when it explained the necessity for building the South Addition. “We actually bonded very closely with our Mission Hills Neighborhood Council,” he said. “We met a lot of civic and business groups. We did a lot of education on the acute shortage of hospital beds.” Throughout this year, though, there have been insinuations made that the hospital’s opponents are targeting Holy Cross because of an ongoing dispute between Providence Health & Services and the SEIU. Carmody said that the labor union has openly used its legislative and political pull to slow down the Holy Cross project because hospital staffers voted not to be represented by SEIU. It’s a charge that Good denies. “Certainly, SEIU is an important and vital part of this coalition. They have lot of members who live in the communities that are affected by this expansion, and they care about health care issues.” But he added, “It is a disservice to all the folks, ranging from Pacoima Beautiful, to the Sylmar Neighborhood Council to the Valley Neighborhood Coalition to simply call this a labor front. This is a coalition that existed before SEIU-UHW became involved, and they have very legitimate concerns around the environmental impacts and community impacts.” Bart Reed, executive director of the Transit Coalition which is also a member of the CARE coalition, has concerns about the project that are non-union related. “Our view was always that we needed to have adequate parking for hospitals,” Reed said. “I think parking still remains an issue, and I’m not sure it’s been solved, personally. That was our issue from day one, parking and transit to the hospital.” Reed feels that emergency vehicle access on the hospital grounds needs to be improved, calling the narrow two-lane road that such vehicles must currently navigate inadequate. “That doesn’t really go well when you’re trying to save lives,” he said. If Holy Cross addressed parking and transit issues to his satisfaction, Reed said that he would give his support to the expansion. While concerns about the project linger, Carmody said that the hospital will move forward regardless. Ground could be broken on the project as early as February. “We’re not going to slow down,” Carmody said. The project will take approximately two to two-and-a-half years to complete. In addition to 101 acute care beds, there will be a 120-bed neonatal intensive care unit. “That’s very, very critical for us,” Carmody said. “We deliver 250 babies per month and many of those are high-risk mothers with high-risk babies.” Carmody believes that each bed the hospital adds is crucial because, in the last four years, 446 acute beds have closed within a six-mile radius of Holy Cross. The hospital won’t just add beds but operating rooms as well. “We do a phenomenal number of surgeries. We’re the second busiest private trauma hospital in Los Angeles County,” Carmody said. The additional operating rooms are key because Holy Cross also treats a significant number of trauma patients from the Antelope Valley, Carmody continued. Rounding out the new project will be a new chapel. “We have not had a true chapel here in this hospital since the 1994 earthquake,” Carmody said. “Being a faith-based Catholic Hospital, having a chapel here is important to our community.”

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