ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Healthy Move

The agreement of Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center to develop a 52-bed children’s hospital in Mission Viejo says much about the phenomenal growth of South County in recent years. With the increased population, the time has come to provide specialized children’s services closer to a rising need.

For many years, CHOC’s Orange facility has stretched to serve South County residents. But as noted by Reynold R. Welch, Mission Hospital’s president and chief executive officer, the demand for services from physicians and families has been growing. By the end of this century, it is projected, more than 500,000 people will live in South County alone.

A 52-bed children’s hospital occupying the fifth floor of a five-story building in Mission Viejo will not be a large facility but it will be welcome.

And the even better news is that the facility is expected to have much the same equipment, and to perform most of the same procedures, as the Orange hospital. CHOC is the only hospital in the county that treats only children. Every illness now treated in Orange is expected to be treated in the new facility, with the exception of bone-marrow transplants.

Under the new arrangement, the hospital will operate as a separate, not-for-profit business under the auspices of CHOC’s board of directors. It will provide the expertise of the existing facility.

The new hospital reflects a recognition of the importance of the growing communities of South County.