Question for a Keck student

[Brickhouse]

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What's with the new hospital? Is it open or opening soon? Last time I drove buy it was still being built and I'm thinking of doing residency there, would be cool if it were in a new hospital. Thanks.

 

[Sophie]

I heard they're supposed to finish construction by the end of Spring, and that it should be operational by November of this year.

 

[dara678]

Yup, we are switching to the new hospital in November. It's supposed to be really nice and technologically advanced inside. Plus we're all going to do electronic charting.

One downside is that they are incorporating ob-gyn and peds (which had been separate at Women's and Children's Hospital) into the new hospital as well. I am not sure how that's going to work.

 

[DoctorPLASTIC]

Hey how do you guys like it at SC?

 

[dpmd]

The new hospital has less beds than the GH, plus they are adding in the women's and children's hospital. What I had heard was that reduced length of patient stay was supposed to make up for the reduced bed numbers. I had also heard that the switch over would not occur until length of stay was reduced (don't know to what amount). When I started in 2001 we were told that the new hospital would be in use by 2006 or so. I wouldn't hold my breath for the switchover to happen in November.

Just checked the lacusc.org site. No mention of a target opening date.

 

[Brickhouse]

Thanks for the input. I'm a UCLA alum, was there when they were building the new hospital and every year, like clockwork, the "Opening in 200X!!" signs would be changed to the following year. I don't even know if it's open yet, it's been like 4 years.

So I would imagine the opening date will be pushed back. I like the idea of having all services in one hospital, I think ob/gyns would have an easier time consulting on medicine patients if needed while covering their own service without going back and forth between hospitals.

Thanks again. Can't believe I want to be a Trojan.

 

[Sophie]

I wouldn't hold my breath for the switchover to happen in November.

As long as it's finished by the time I start 3rd year I'm happy. 🙂

 

[Uncle Izzy]

I interviewed there recently and Nov remains the current target date... It seemed like even though it's going to be this shiny new technologically advanced hospital, I have this funny feeling it's going to be just as big of a cluster fark as the old LA county.

 

[TY06]

i want to do my residency there too cause of the new hospital. i bet it will be even harder to get into now. darn.

 

[Sophie]

It seemed like even though it's going to be this shiny new technologically advanced hospital, I have this funny feeling it's going to be just as big of a cluster fark as the old LA county.

Yeah, County will always be a crazy place, no matter where you put it. I'm just thankful that the new hospital will have air conditioning - LA, white coats, and stuffy spaces without A/C and with bright light streaming in REALLY don't go together well.

 

[Brickhouse]

There's no A/C at county? What country are we in here?

It's funny how people complain about their hospitals. I get the sense that no hospital functions quite as smoothly as one would think a hospital should. We are always bitching about how inefficient ours are, all of them in the city, not just my school's.

 

[dpmd]

No AC, six man rooms, only a couple of TV's for the entire hospital, mold in the showers, bunk bed call rooms, and rats in the walls. The current county hospital is an interesting place. My favorite was seeing the isolation signs pinned to one (or more) patient's curtain in a six man room-real good isolation.

However, for all its faults, I consider it a great place to train. You see stuff there that no one else sees (natural history of disease processes not treated for a long time, rare ilnesses, crazy injuries). The amount of stuff they let you do there as a student is incredible. How often is a med student so proficient in PEG placement that they walk a rotating resident through it?

 

[Boris Badenov]

Yup, we are switching to the new hospital in November. It's supposed to be really nice and technologically advanced inside. Plus we're all going to do electronic charting.

When I went there for an interview, I interviewed with one of the guys on the EMR committee. It's going to be pseudo-electronic charting.

As I understand it, all inpatient notes will still be written by hand. The only thing is, within 24 hours, they'll scan everything and throw the scanned images onto the computer system.

Which means you'll still have to write crap out, and it'll still be impossible to read anything from a chart.

On the bright side, clinic records for all outpatient clinics will soon be 100% electronic (apparently they're almost there already).

 

[dpmd]

That is the type of charting they have at the university hospital. It's not bad if people try to write a little better. I think it's faster that way, since you can jot down a quick progess note instead of having to log into a system (long stuff like H+Ps can be dictated on the university hospital system).