One million sq. ft. Renovation of Kaiser-Permanente's 50-year-old Los Angeles Med. Center Continues

Demolition at Kaiser on Sunset, seen through a 

display of mobile sculpture inside an already 

completed portion of the hospital.  

(Photo by Republic Of L.A.)

(Facility Billed as Innovative Enough to Serve Patients for Next Half Century)

According to builder Rudolph and Sletten, which is headquartered in Redwood City, once it's finished the hospital will be the first to have a built-in, electronic medical records system.  

In addition, the new Kaiser will feature nurses' stations and procedure rooms with so-called "picture archiving system," which will "effortlessly" route images to flat-panel screens, thus eliminating the need for more expensive, bulky and less envinronmentally friendly X-ray screens.  Another benefit of the "X-ray screen-free system is that mages will be instantly available to surgeons in operating rooms.  


When necessary, patients will be eased into bed by special portable chairs that will hang from the ceiling and move the length of the room on tracks, the company said in a statement to reporters.   Furthermore, the specialty construction company said, beds will be adjustable to a nearly vertical position for easy access from a standing or sitting position. 

Among other benefits of such beds, will be the fact that patients needing dialysis will not have to be moved from testing areas elswhere for treatment.  All services can be provided from one place.  

The new emergency department will be equipped with the many of the patient comfort amenities found in other parts of the hospital. Because the potential for many of the same dangers that vex us now will probably continue to exist, disaster readiness measures will include decontamination showers and a dedicated air conditioning and ventilation system. The new medical center will have 456 patient rooms, 11 labor and delivery rooms, and six cardiac surgery suites.

The hospital will feature numerous green spaces including a garden with a play area for pediatric patients, a garden courtyard on the 4th floor serving the labor and delivery unit, an outside dining patio facing the park, and a tree-lined green-belt at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Edgemont Street. Palm trees will line the north side of the boulevard for a three-block stretch.

L.A.'s Sea of Poppers

I have noticed, and I think there's a story here, wherever I see (driveby see) a major construction project in L.A. I smell what some might know as poppers. One whiff of the air on the southbound side of the 101 in the Cahuenga Pass near Universal at about the time the time of construction completion of the newish L.A. Fitness (you know, the building with the round, purple cardio module now practically suspended over the freeway), and I'm sure of it: Poppers.

If you don't know what poppers are, they (and don't be confused by the plural...a bottle of poppers contains a very odiferous liquid--nothing that will pop out at you) a chemical sold as either "room odorizer" or "video head cleaner," which people sniff for a quick rush, usually while dancing or having sex. Poppers have an odor that is a cross between dirty sox and jet fuel.

Other spots I've smelled the very specific and distinct odor of poppers include one in Reseda, on the corner of Tampa and Victory where an expansion of the Victory-Tampa Medical Square is ongoing, as well as at the new Pavillions construction site in West Hollywood.

If a sea of poppers underlies the City of Angels, there is an opportuntiy here: Cars that run on amyl nitrate!