Posted Date: 7/8/2008
Kaweah Delta Medical Center's aspirations to earn a trauma designation depend on the hospital's ability to provide speedy care to critically injured patients.
In a rural county with vast expanses of countryside, helicopters are crucial to transporting patients who can't wait for a long ambulance ride to the nearest hospital. Just one problem: Visalia's hospital has no place for helicopters to land.
That's expected to change next year as Kaweah Delta considers the development of a helipad in what is now its east parking lot off Locust Street.
"A helipad is unquestionably part of our future," Kaweah Delta chief executive Lindsay Mann told his hospital board and the Visalia City Council at a joint meeting this week.
Hospital drawings show a new parking lot to be built adjacent to the new hospital tower being erected on Acequia Avenue. In addition to 87 more beds and units for surgery, cardiac care and birthing mothers, the tower will allow the hospital to relocate some services occupying what will be the new parking lot off Floral Street.
Once that 109-space parking lot is open, it will more than make up for the 55 spaces a helipad would displace in the east lot, near the current emergency room entrance, Mann said.
"We don't have a timeline yet. The north expansion has to be completed first," Mann told elected officials. "We don't want to take out those parking spaces until we have a solution [on the other side]."
A new city-owned parking garage that opened last year on the north side of Acequia Avenue also is expected to serve hospital visitors.
A landing site is not only important for patients arriving by helicopter, Mann said it would also be needed for patients who need immediate transport to larger, more specialized trauma hospitals such as Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno after being stabilized in Visalia.
"It's for both patients coming in and patients going out," Mann said.
City Council Member Greg Collins asked whether building an elevated helipad structure could preserve precious parking spaces underneath in the east lot. Mann said that option had been examined but rejected because of costs.
"We could build an elevated structure, but it's much more expensive," Mann said. Raising the helipad off the ground - whether above the parking lot or atop the hospital building itself - would require elevators and involve earthquake safety standards that add up to more money.
"What happens is a project that should be modest immediately runs to $1 million or more in cost," Mann said.
Kaweah Delta announced earlier this year that it is seeking designation as a Level III trauma center - certification that it can provide specialized trauma treatment and surgical services not available at ordinary hospitals.
The only other trauma centers among nearby counties are Community Regional in Fresno and Kern Regional Medical Center in Bakersfield. A Level III trauma designation for Kaweah Delta would enable the hospital to take some patients now flown by helicopter to Fresno or Bakersfield.
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