The chief executive of University of California, Irvine’s teaching hospital in Orange is working to see public healthcare programs extended to more people while targeting those with private insurance with specialty medical practices.
“There’s a number of local initiatives I think are going to take place that are going to get more uninsured individuals on the rolls, and we’re going to be a part of that,” said Terry Belmont, chief executive of UCI Medical Center, the county’s second-largest hospital after Newport Beach’s Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.
The county’s Medical Services Initiative, which provides healthcare to people who aren’t eligible for the state’s Medi-Cal program for the needy, is likely to expand, according to Belmont.
The expansion is expected as part of federal healthcare reform enacted last year and is set to be fully implemented in 2014.
Having more people insured is a key concern for UCI Medical Center.
The hospital got its start in 1962 as a county hospital. UC Irvine took it over in 1976 and shifted its focus to teaching and research.
But UCI Medical Center still sees its share of uninsured patients and often takes some of the most severe emergencies, where the insurance status of the patient isn’t immediately known.
More Uninsured Patients
The hospital serves a larger number of poor and Medi-Cal patients than others here, according to Belmont. All hospitals here have seen care for uninsured or government covered patients grow, he said.
“It seems to be leveling off a little bit,” Belmont said. “But still the unemployment situation is such that there are a lot of individuals (who) don’t have care and they seek their care through the emergency department. We all continue to see that. I don’t think UC Irvine is unique.”
The hospital faces a balancing act of preparing for more patients covered by lower-paying government programs and drawing more lucrative patients covered by private insurers, according to Belmont.
UCI Medical Center is emphasizing “very selective programs that we do that nobody else does” to attract privately insured patients, Belmont said.
The hospital’s specialty programs include a gastrointestinal disease center, a focus on ovarian and cervical cancers, a high-risk maternity and neonatology unit, robotic surgery and weight-control procedures.
“Every hospital wants to serve the entire community, and they have a mixture of uninsured, underinsured, poorly insured and well-insured,” Belmont said.
The second phase of UCI Medical Center’s $556 million expansion recently wrapped up and includes several features that could bring in more privately insured patients.
The phase included a radiology suite with imaging and diagnostic devices, an inpatient orthopedic unit and enhanced labor and delivery and postpartum units.
In 2009, the expansion culminated with the opening of the 482,428-square-foot UC Irvine Douglas Hospital tower.
UCI Medical Center’s number of patients has grown in the past 18 months with the expansion, said Belmont, who was named chief executive in early 2010 after serving as interim leader since early 2009.
The expansion allowed for more private rooms, which patients prefer, he said.
UCI Medical Center has about 4,000 employees, 403 licensed beds and yearly operating revenue of around $600 million.
Like other hospitals, UCI Medical Center has to deal with state regulations on the number of nurses it has amid a nursing shortage.
The hospital’s “continued to be totally in compliance with the nursing ratios,” Belmont said.
California’s nursing ratio law, enacted 12 years ago, requires one nurse for every five patients in medical-surgical units. One for every four patients is required in telemetry, pediatrics and emergency care. One nurse for every two patients is required in labor and delivery and intensive care.
UCI Medical Center is helped by access to graduates of UCI’s School of Nursing.
Belmont has dealt with other issues in the past year. He’s worked to correct issues that were found during several federal inspections of UCI Medical Center, including safety and compliance matters. Those matters have been fixed, according to the hospital.
Belmont earlier ran Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital, part of Fountain Valley’s MemorialCare Medical Centers, before coming to UCI.
His career also included running St. Joseph Hospital-Orange and serving as senior vice president at Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and the Inland Empire.
