Plan for 405 shutdown alarms hospital leaders

Four major Los Angeles hospitals are expressing alarm over plans to shut down the 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass for 53 hours next month, saying transportation and law enforcement agencies have not adequately prepared for getting medical employees to work on time.

The unprecedented closure, required to demolish a bridge as part of a widening of the 405, is expected to cause major delays. It has prompted some institutions in the area — including the Getty Center museum and the Skirball Cultural Center — to close during the July 15-18 weekend.

But the hospitals cannot similarly shut their doors, and an administrator this week said the freeway closure could compromise the care of patients unless there is better coordination and planning.

The current plan forces hospitals to “to play roulette with our patients’ lives,” said Posie Carpenter, chief administrative officer at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.

The criticism poses the most serious questions to date about whether officials can successfully pull off the closure of one of the nation’s busiest freeways, one that typically carries half a million vehicles through the affected stretch on weekends.

Carpenter said at a community meeting with project authorities late Thursday that there are “serious gaps” in the emergency preparedness plans, and that there is a significant danger that hospital employees will not be able to get to work on time.

Carpenter, who was representing two UCLA hospitals as well as the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles Medical Center and St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, estimated that at least 1,500 employees work at the four centers during each 12-hour shift.

Hospitals have tried working with transportation and law enforcement agencies to address the concerns, but Carpenter said those discussions have largely hit dead-ends. She said she spoke with officials after Thursday’s meeting and walked away feeling as though she were being talked to like a child.

“It felt sort of paternalistic in a way — ‘It’s your problem, you’ll figure it out, you’ve got the money, you, you, you, you,’ ” Carpenter said. “Their stated goal of safety is not going to be met if they fail to assist the hospitals.”

The hospitals have suggested that authorities set up special convoys that could caravan employees to work, but law enforcement officials say that proposal is flawed.

“You can’t escort them through a blockade, no matter how loud we turn on those sirens,” said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Andy Neiman, who is part of the closure’s unified incident command team.

Neiman said using buses to shuttle employees could backfire if they became gridlocked in traffic.

LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, who is helping shape emergency preparedness efforts during the closure, expressed frustration with Carpenter.

“I’m not sure that her position is now founded with any validity in terms of what’s best for the community, the patients [and] the staff,” he said.

“If you have people like me telling you I cannot move dozens of buses fully loaded with emergency personnel in a timely way, why are we still talking about that?” the deputy chief said.

Transportation and law enforcement officials responded that they were sympathetic to Carpenter’s complaints, and that they have already set up a network of paramedic helicopters to fly emergency medical personnel to any hospital at a moment’s notice.

Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl said Friday that Carpenter’s public complaints have caused emergency preparedness agencies and other officials to begin planning additional outreach efforts to area hospitals.

During the July weekend, the northbound 405 will be closed for 10 miles between the 10 and 101 freeways, and the southbound 405 will be closed for four miles between the 101 and Getty Center Drive. The work is part of a larger $1-billion freeway improvement project that includes constructing a 10-mile northbound carpool lane that will complete a link between Orange County and the San Fernando Valley.

Crews will use the time to demolish the south side of the Mulholland Drive bridge and then spend about 11 months doing bridge reconstruction on the south side. After that, crews will demolish the north side of the bridge, which will require another extended freeway closure.

Neiman suggested that hospital officials use open bed space at their facilities for employees, as well as hotels and housing at nearby universities. They could also ask the Red Cross to set up a tent city, he said.

“You’ve got to put on your critical thinking caps,” Neiman said, acknowledging that it may cost the hospitals money. “Accomplishing the mission [Carpenter] wants to accomplish, which is keeping her patients safe, is doable, but you’ve got to come up with a plan to keep your people there.”

Carpenter said that the hospitals were already looking for overnight housing for employees — one option is dorm rooms not being used during the summer term at UCLA — but that there were not nearly enough empty beds for all of them.

Another LAPD official said Thursday night that hospital officials could just tell employees to leave for work early enough that any delays or traffic jams would not prohibit them from making it to work arriving on time. He said he expects his officers to do the same.

Rosendahl also agreed that a convoy would not be feasible and said the hospitals are going to have to figure out how best to keep their most critical workers close to the job site.

Officials have been working for months to develop emergency procedures during the closure, which is expected to jam freeways and many streets around the affected stretch.

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said officials plan to set up mini police and emergency service stations in several areas around the closed freeway, provide airlift sites for paramedic helicopters and deploy hundreds of extra public safety personnel.

“We’ve been in planning meetings for months now to ensure public safety,” Smith said. “We literally have hundreds of cops and firefighters working in those areas along with the Department of Transportation during the closure.” The teams will also include ambulances at the ready. And for critical situations, such as a heart attack, Smith said, “we are going to land a helicopter to move them.”

Authorities said they are also preparing a small army of motorcycle officers who can cut through traffic and respond to emergency calls. And they are stationing tow trucks throughout the area to remove cars that may be blocking traffic.

Other Westside employers are also trying to figure out how best to get weekend workers to job sites during the closure and how to assist customers.

Los Angeles International Airport is going to increase the number of airport police and traffic officers, and the California Highway Patrol and area police are coordinating a local traffic management plan for major intersections leading to the airport.

Leah Manoss, business manager of the Westwood retirement facility Vintage Westwood Horizons, said employees are going to camp out in the building for the weekend.

“We provide 24/7 care,” she said. “We have to provide residents with three meals per day, as well as other services. We can’t close.”

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

Los Angeles Times staff writers Richard Winton, Kate Mather and Andrew Khouri contributed to this report.