Simi Valley Hospital recently announced that it will suspend its Transitional Care Center (TCC) services. The intake of new admissions has already stopped.

The center is in the hospital’s old North Campus Building. The 44-bed unit has an average of 16 patients a day.

It is occupied by patients who require a longer stay in order to continue the course of treatment started in the acute care setting. Patients usually stay in the unit for about 14 days.

There are now only two patients in the unit. The hospital has communicated with the affected patients and their families. The patients will continue to receive care, and the unit will remain open until all patients are ready for discharge.

The hospital made the decision to suspend the service after reviewing the construction and renovation needs of the North Campus building. Built in 1969, the building needs a number of repairs, including a new roof, windows, room construction and mold remediation.

The future of the North Campus building is pending further analysis, said Alicia Gonzalez, spokesperson for the hospital, because the cost to repair the old building is steep.

“The cost to fix the building is more than about $2 million, so the hospital is looking at all its options and evaluating the future of that building,” Gonzalez said. “At this point what they’re really looking at is they want the North Campus building to have the same feel and quality as the new patient care tower.”

The new patient care tower cannot accommodate transitional care patients, not because there is not enough room, Gonzalez said, but because of licensing regulations.

“TCC unit patients are encouraged to mix and mingle with other patients; they have a rec room and eat together. That is not possible in an acute care center,” she said.

The transitional care nursing staff, about 48 employees, will be able to transfer to other positions within the hospital. No jobs will be lost, Gonzalez said.

The North Campus administrative offices will move to another location close to the hospital.

Eighteen skilled nursing facilities are located within a 20- mile radius to serve patients needing the level of care that will no longer be provided by the hospital’s TCC. Gonzalez said there is only one within the city, the Simi Valley Care Center at 5270 E. Los Angeles Avenue.

Lesley Powell, administrator of the Simi Valley Care Center, said the facility has a total of 99 beds, of which about 15 are available currently, though that number fluctuates as short-term patients come and go.

Powell said she doesn’t view the TCC’s temporary closing as a bad thing.

“It’s not going to affect the care for the people in the community because skilled nursing facilities provide the same service,” she said.

—Carissa Marsh