Digital Debut

Surgery Centers Affected by LA Fires Share Their Stories

Area ASCs came together to help each other and their patients

BY SAHELY MUKERJI | FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Risser Surgery Center in Pasadena, California, anticipates opening on February 10, after being shut down on January 8 because of the fires that raged through the Los Angeles area in the second week of January.

“We were lucky that we did not lose our ASC,” says Diane Lampron, RN, CASC, administrator of Risser Surgery Center and Congress Orthopaedic Surgery Center in Pasadena, California. “Everything around us, the nursing home next to us and the senior center behind us, burned down. The bushes around us were on fire but our external sprinkler system kicked in and stopped the fire from reaching our surgery center.”

The Eaton Fire started on the night of January 7 and engulfed the Risser Surgery Center area the same night, Lampron says. “Our surgery schedule ended a little earlier that day at Risser, around 3:00 pm, and I went to Congress Surgery Center from there and stayed until 6:00 pm. Then I went home, let the dog out and noticed the orange glow in the sky,” she says.

Later that night, Lampron received a phone call from Andy Ball, a colleague, and learned that the fire had reached Risser. “That night, I started calling everyone to let them know that we would be closed the next day, until we knew what was going on. The next day, we came to know that the fire had affected Risser, and we were immediately in remediation mode.”

On January 9, Lampron donned an N95 mask and did a walk-through at Risser. “We determined that day that we would be closed until further notice,” she says. “Since then, we have been working daily to get everything cleaned up. We are following our emergency management plan, assessing losses, connecting with our vendors, going through all our pieces of equipment and keeping the board informed.”

Risser has 10 employees, one of whom had to evacuate her apartment, Lampron says. Lampron herself evacuated her house and went to a friend’s place in the foothills of Hollywood Hills. Then she had to evacuate from there, too.

While waiting for the cleanup to be completed and for the ASC to reopen, the employees used the time to complete their competency and education training, Lampron says. “A few of our employees picked up shifts at Congress Surgery Center—which, like Risser, is under Pasadena ASC Venture—and the rest were not furloughed and did their education and training,” she says.

Risser performs about 250 cases per month, Lampron says. “We had to cancel about 100 cases so far, but moved 91 of those to Huntington Ambulatory Surgery Center (HASC) in Pasadena,” she says. “Of the nine remaining, a few decided to wait until Risser was back up and running to get their procedures done, so I would say about five cases got canceled. We are figuring we incurred a loss of $160,000 but we are still gathering information.”

HASC stayed closed January 8–12 because of the fires, says Klara Safaryan, administrator. “The Eaton Fire started on January 7 and escalated at night,” she says. “Many of us lost power. Around 9:00 that night, we decided to cancel cases for the 8th. I called everyone from home to inform them about the cancellations.” The surgery center remained closed on January 9 because about 10 of its physicians lost their homes, Safaryan says. “A lot of the surgeons have kids, our medical director also has kids, and their school burned the first day, so childcare was an issue.”

HASC opted to remain closed beyond January 9 because the air quality was very poor. “We brought in air purifiers over the weekend and opened up on January 13,” Safaryan says. While the center was closed, the ASC staff helped its affiliate hospital staff.

The Huntington Hospital, of which HASC is an affiliate, had an emergency task force, Safaryan says, and the hospital was inundated with patients from the local nursing homes that burned down. The hospital put the patients in conference rooms and the auditorium. “The hospital was understaffed because some of its staff could not come to work. HASC staff stepped in and helped the hospital January 9–12,” she says.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, HASC shut down and all its staff went to work at the hospital, Safaryan says. “This time, when the fires shut down our center, it was almost like we were preconditioned to relocate and do our jobs and be nurse extensions at the hospital. There was never a reason to do that before COVID, but after, it was almost like second nature during this disaster. We got on a disaster call with the hospital, and we jumped into action.”

HASC did not incur much loss, Safaryan says. “We were able to fit in the patients whom we had to cancel after reopening. We were willing to open on weekends to complete all the cases but were able to do it over weekdays. Staff stayed longer, recovery was longer, so our payroll will be higher, and our loss will come in there, but we were able to take care of our cancer patients and pediatric patients.”

The ASC did not charge patients who lost everything to the fires, Safaryan says. “We will take that as a loss. You have to remember the human side of disasters. We have a lot of pediatric patients. You cannot ask a parent for $200 when they have just lost their home. That is the smallest thing we can do for our patients. They have enough physical pain, but if we can alleviate their human pains, then that is what we are going to do.”

The HASC staff handled the disaster very well, Safaryan says. “We are very proud of our staff and our community. We faced a challenge, and we took the bull by the horns and met the challenge. Thankfully, none of our staff lost their homes, all 54 of our employees were saved but some had to relocate.”

Benita Tapia, RN, CASC, administrator and director of nursing of Venture Centers—that includes 90210 Surgery Medical Center, Linden Surgical Center of Beverly Hills, Precision Ambulatory Surgical Center and Spalding Triangle Surgery Center—in Beverly Hills, California, says the lesson learned from this disaster is that preparedness is critical even during years when the risk of wildfires is lower. “Wildfire readiness must remain a priority. We do risk management planning in January, but we did not have a drought in 2022 and 2023, so it was not in last January’s planning agenda. We did have a drought last year and we were going to address it in this year’s planning.”

Regular updates to emergency response plans and scenario drills also are vital, Tapia says. “While preplanned drills facilitated a rapid and effective response during this fire, if you can create a tabletop scenario and walk through it, that will be important. Experiencing how to evacuate patients and doing it in a mock scenario will be very valuable.”

Flexibility in operations is another critical part of facing a disaster effectively, Tapia says. “Temporary redeployment of staff and resources supports local hospitals in managing emergent care,” she says. “Partnering with larger facilities—e.g., Cedars-Sinai—enhances capacity during emergencies, including the potential for ASCs to absorb overflow of emergent cases.”

Last but not least, staff support matters immensely, Tapia says. “Providing emotional, mental and logistical support aids in staff recovery and resilience. Coordinated efforts to address housing, financial and emotional needs were key to a successful response.” The staff gathered donations to numerous shelters and fire stations, she says. In addition, impacted staff were notified of housing resources available to them from Cedars-Sinai.