The New York company that fumigated an Oxnard hospital for mold is being paid about $24 million for the job, according to a top administrator at Catholic Healthcare West.

Sabre Technical Services used chlorine dioxide gas to fumigate St. John's Regional Medical Center all day Sunday in a highly orchestrated process that involved 140 workers, several miles of cable and piping, months of planning and laboratory trailers filled with monitoring equipment. The temporarily closed hospital could reopen Friday pending state approval.

Neither St. John's nor Sabre officials have disclosed details of the fumigation contract, but Bill Fuchs of St. John's parent company, Catholic Healthcare West, revealed the $24 million price during a walkthrough of the fumigation process last week. As group operations president, Fuchs oversees St. John's in Oxnard and more than a dozen other hospitals.

The amount is about $8 million more than it cost to build a new emergency room at Catholic Healthcare's Camarillo hospital, St. John's Pleasant Valley. It's equal to about 8.5 percent of the Oxnard hospital's $282 million operating budget.

"I was floored by the number," said Michael Geyer, a Bakersfield environmental engineer with nearly 30 years of experience. He speculated the money paid to Sabre is only part of St. John's costs in shutting down the hospital as well as continuing work on the moisture problems that caused the mold.

"In my opinion, this could cost Catholic Healthcare West $100 million when you consider all the ancillary costs," he said.

St. John's President T. Michael Murray wouldn't comment on any figures but said the chlorine dioxide fumigation represents a tremendous savings of money and time over the alternative of continuing to close down sections of the hospital, tear down wallboard and remove contaminants.

"The differential is tens of millions of dollars and five years of reduced capacity, 45 beds-plus," he said, adding that the hospital now hopes to finish fixing the hospital's leaks in eight months.

John Mason, president of Sabre Technical Services, called the $24 million estimate "in the range" and said the fee covers all of the company's services, time and materials.

The money reflects the amount of planning needed to fumigate a 350,000-square-foot hospital on a Sunday and turn it back over to hospital officials that same week. Additionally, Sabre used $35 million or more in equipment and other assets.

"We had 18 semitrailers worth of stuff," Mason said.

Dr. Cary Savitch, an infectious disease specialist on staff at St. John's, has made it his cause to prove the fumigation was unnecessary. He argues the hospital's Stachybotrys mold is the kind found in many buildings and homes and hasn't caused health hazards.

Savitch suggested Sabre's fee was paid for by litigation over the source of the mold and shouldered by insurers who pass the cost on to homeowners and others. St. John's sued the general contractor and several subcontractors and last year reached a settlement of about $28 million. Litigation continues against an engineering and consulting firm.

"The money was not (St. John's) money. It was my money and your money," Savitch said of the fee paid to Sabre. "We're all paying for it."

Mason said preliminary tests show that the fumigation was a "complete success." Results of test spore strips that will offer more evidence won't be known for several weeks.

Murray said he was also confident the fumigation worked. Because the mold was entombed behind wallpaper there was no visible change, though some of the carpeting was bleached a lighter blue.

No equipment was corroded, Murray said.

Delays in the fumigation meant the hospital fell as much as 18 hours behind in its timetable, Murray said. But the time is being made up, and the hospital still expects to open sometime Friday if it passes an inspection by the California Department of Public Health. That inspection is set for late Thursday afternoon.