Growing Demand For Surgical Space Drives Expansion Effort

Despite a failed first attempt to gain approval for the expansion of Loma Linda University Medical Center’s Heart and Surgical Hospital, there is little doubt the hospital will need to grow.

The hospital has been looking at an expansion of the surgical center, as a way to ease overcrowding at their existing facilities. Barely in its preliminary planning stages, the expansion has already hit a snag as the city's Historical Society rejected a draft of the proposed master plan because it would have disturbed the historic Mill Creek Zanja.

A cordial but passionate debate took place during Monday’s Historical Commission meeting about the need to balance business growth with the need to preserve landmarks.

The 193-year-old zanja, known as sankey by some, runs along side of the surgical center. It’s one of the oldest existing structures in the valley, its supporters said.

“It’s part of our history,” said James Ramos, tribal chairman The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. "An entire Guachma village dug that zanja.”

The tribe has been trying to promote the importance of the zanja through education and ads, including a television commercial depicting the digging of the zanja.

“I think that people need to know more about their history,” Ramos said.

On the other hand, more than a million people rely on the Loma Linda Medical Center and the city’s medical facilities annually, said Richard Schaefer, medical center staff member and historian. He is also a member of the city Historical Commission.

Schaefer abstained from voting because of a conflict of interest, but reminded the commission how important the surgical center’s expansion is.

“When I started working here, we had a 186-bed community hospital on the hill,” he said.

, they will have a total of 1,076 beds and still there is a need for more. They began expanding after a 2004 survey detailed just how impacted they had become, Schaefer said.

“We were so crowded,” he said. “Our facilities were maxed out. We were at more than 100 percent occupied. The neonatal intensive care unit, for example, is one of the biggest in the world.”

The hospital does not just serve its small community, he said.

“There are a million people coming here for outpatient care,” he said. Thousands more will need inpatient care.

The hospital is also undergoing seismic retrofitting that will temporarily take down operating rooms, Schaefer said.

“So this was a blessing for us to get this heart and surgical center,” he said. “This is news to me that they are planning to enlarge it. But the surgeries that cannot be done in the medical center can be done at the heart and surgical hospital.”

“I value the zanja,” he said. “There must be some way we can work together.”

Meantime, the city’s interest is in creating more offices that cater to physicians and medical services. Konrad Bolowhich, Director of Information Systems for Loma Linda, said he has had troubles luring some business into the area because “every inch of commercial space has a doctor's office in it. Not many businesses want to move next to a (medical) officer,” he said. “So we need to build some doctors offices and get them out of our stores.”