City Star

August 28, 2007

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Evolution of city's oldest nursing home continues

By A. J. Fish

Make it less of a hospital and more of a home.

That’s what critics of Laguna Honda Hospital’s future assisted living component cost projection study said at a Department of Public Health presentation Monday.

As the rebuild of California’s oldest nursing facility marches on, a cost projection study on Laguna Honda Hospital’s future assisted living component – which the study said will house from 140 to 280 beds – is drawing criticism for being too institutional.

The legal vagueness of the phrase “assisted living” is at the center of the disagreement. In short, opinion on how much assistance is needed for assisted living varies wildly.

But all five scenarios described in Laguna Honda’s draft feasibility study published in early August project that each resident – or each bed – must meet the high assistance standards for licensed Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE).

Construction costs of each bed meeting RCFE standards would range between $511,888 and $783,354, the feasibility study draft said. The operating costs would range from $127,728 and $171,806 per bed annually. Total construction costs would range from $148,103,501 to $246,000,532, and annual operating costs would range from $25,427,409 and $40,506,571 annually, the study said.

Before the study’s final draft is released in late September, some citizens present at the Department of Public Health presentation on the subject said they would like to see cost projections of other scenarios, where not all beds require RCFE standards.

“High quality housing can be cheaper than a high quality medical facility,” Long Term Care Coordinating Council Member Marie Jobling said.