City Officials Greenlight Temecula Hospital Project

 

The planned 566,000-square-foot hospital has yet to break ground despite winning approval in 2006.

 

While the council reluctantly agreed to the scaled-down project, it stipulated that if the hospital developer fails to pour building foundations for the first phase by Feb. 2012, it would revoke Universal’s permits and force it to forfeit $5 million to the city.

 

Southwest Riverside County suffers a severe lack of hospital beds, with one of the lowest hospital beds to patient ratios in the state as well as the country. Loma Linda University Medical Center’s planned hospital opening in Murrieta next month will do little to assuage the shortage.

 

Universal’s original plan called for 320 beds, medical offices and cancer and fitness centers to be built in phases. Now, the hospital will have 140 beds in its first phase instead of 170.

 

Whether more beds are added depends on the region’s growth and how often the first 140 beds are used, Universal executive William Seed told the council. Another Universal executive said the first phase needed to be downsized because of uncertainties stemming from healthcare reform and the ailing economy.

 

“That really scared me, what you just said,” Councilman Chuck Washington told Seed. “You’re going to wait for population growth when we’re significantly under-bedded in this community.”

 

Talks between Council members and Universal executives at Tuesday’s meeting focused on the company’s failure to break ground and on problems at its Murrieta and Wildomar hospitals.

 

Councilman Mike Naggar told Universal executives they are “very close to getting a ‘no’ vote.”

 

Although the council finally voted 4-0 to approve Universal’s requested changes, it is requiring Universal to post a $5 million performance bond. The bond will be forfeited and project approvals voided if the company fails to lay the hospital’s foundations by this time next year.

 

Construction of the rest of phase one must start three months after the foundations are laid, and Universal has five years from the opening of phase one to build the 180-bed second phase. Seed told the council Universal could break ground as early as July depending on how quickly the company can get state approval for the project.

 

Universal runs its Murrieta and Wildomar hospitals through its subsidiary, Southwest Healthcare System. State and federal regulators have threatened to shut down Southwest’s hospitals because of a patient safety issues, and the subsidiary has been unable to open two expansions, including a $53 million addition in Murrieta.

 

City officials asked state lawmakers last year to allow the Murrieta hospital to open said since then, they have heard hundreds of negative stories from patients about their experiences at Southwest hospitals.

 

City officials have talked with other hospital developers, including Loma Linda, about building in Temecula.