ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : What the Patient Needs Is a Transfusion

The UCI Medical Center may be on the University of California’s financial critical list, but the Board of Regents, which is meeting today to adopt the new UC budget, shouldn’t pull the plug and kill it.

The hospital is worth saving, not only for the sake of the university and its teaching and research mission, but also for the benefit of the entire Orange County community.

There is no real villain here. Everyone--the university, the Legislature and the county--is suffering financial ills. So is the health-care system nationwide. But in this case, the university system is the victim of misguided priorities. The state has been putting far too little into medical programs, and the county, which ultimately has the legal responsibility for providing indigent care, has done little more than pass along whatever funds the state has allocated.

The result has been a succession of losing years for the university’s medical center, which treats a disproportionate share of the county’s poor. Last year, it took care of 10,000 indigent and uninsured patients, which left it with a $10.9-million deficit for 1990.

The county reimbursement has covered only a fraction of the costs for such care, about 22 cents on the dollar. The prospect for the future is even worse. This year, because of state budget cuts affecting the county, the reimbursement may drop to about 15 cents on the dollar.

It is no wonder the regents are considering drastic action. In addition to outright closure of the medical center in Orange, the other options that likely will be considered include closing the emergency room and dropping indigent medical services, both of which would put a tremendous strain on other hospitals in the area and deny needed medical care to all patients, regardless of their income or insurance coverage.

The university may consider, as some other hospitals reportedly are, a lawsuit to force the county to provide the indigent medical funds it believes the county has a legal responsibility to provide.

The county can make a case for a shortage of local funds, but all counties face the same problem. The difference is that Orange County supervisors have not been as responsive as others and have not reordered their limited spending priorities. That they must do.

In the meantime, the state regents must stop short of closing down the hospital and its emergency care. What’s needed at the medical center is a transfusion of money from the county, not a death sentence.