After years of care problems--and the wrenching death of a woman who died, ignored, on the hospital's waiting room floor--Los Angeles-based Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital was forced to close. Los Angeles County government leaders blamed their employees for many of the problems that forced the facility to scale down and close its inpatient services, and promised to rid the facility of problem employees. However, since the hospital ended inpatient and emergency services last August, it appears that they haven't fulfilled their promises. According to a review by the Los Angeles Times, at least 22 employees with significant disciplinary histories either still work at what remains of King-Harbor or have been reassigned to other county hospitals. When asked how the disciplined employees could end up scattered throughout the system to unknown destinations, county officials apparently said that computer problems had destroyed electronic records that tracked their disposition.
Employees still on the payroll include a nursing attendant suspended for sleeping while assigned to watch over patient heart monitors, another nursing attendant who missed more than 400 hours of work through unauthorized absences and tardiness, and a morgue attendant who allegedly accepted payments from a private mortuary for steering families of the deceased to that mortuary.
To learn more about this issue:
- read this Los Angeles Times piece
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Senate questions CMS on King-Harbor
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