Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital
King-Harbor state license may be pulled
After surviving years of scandals over questionable care, Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital may be out of time. California regulators have set plans to revoke the hospital's license, something they haven't done to any hospital in the state since 2004. The hospital can appeal the decision, a process which could take as long as a year, but at least some of the county supervisors aren't sure they should fight. Two of the five members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors say …
... Read more...Senator questions CMS on King-Harbor
High-profile troubles at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital are bringing the wrath of Congress down on CMS. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has written a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Leslie Norwalk demanding to know how CMS will make sure that the hospital meets Medicare standards in the future. The facility, formerly known as King-Drew, has faced scrutiny over alleged care lapses for some time now. In its prior incarnation as King-Drew, the hospital had lost …
... Read more...SPOTLIGHT: Closing troubled LA hospital isn't the answer
Operational problems at Los Angeles-based Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital--some of which seem to have led to the death of a patient in its emergency department lobby--have grabbed national headlines of late. Without a doubt, the hospital faces some substantial obstacles. But closing the facility could create worse problems for the city's poor, suggests Thomas Scully, a former CMS administrator who previously helped the city with a $1.8 billion health system bailout. Editorial
King-Harbor could lose federal funding after ED crisis
CMS has run out of patience with Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, which it says has put emergency room patients in "immediate jeopardy" of harm or death. The hospital, formerly known as King/Drew, was already on bad terms with CMS, which had threatened to take away the hospital's federal funding certification after serious care problems emerged. This is part of a larger pattern for King-Harbor, which has been cited more than a dozen times for care problems over the past three and a …
... Read more...LA officials grapple with hospital death
Los Angeles county officials are struggling to make sense of how a woman died, allegedly without treatment, at an area hospital. Forty-three year old Edith Isabel Rodriguez had come to Martin Luther... Read more...
Drew U files $125M suit against CA county
Upset at losing its contract with Los Angeles county, Charles R. Drew University School of Medicine and Science has announced that it will sue the county for $125 million. Late last year, county leaders decided to terminate the contract between the school and the county's Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center (now known as Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital). The termination was part of some sweeping changes made to the Watts-area hospital's management after it failed a CMS …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: Louisville heartcenter opens; "Ad police" hit OTC marketing; and much more...
> Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville have opened the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute in downtown Louisville, Ky., a $28 million facility to research new treatments for congestive heart failure. Report
> The "advertising police" are cracking down on OTC marketing from Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories and Pfizer. …
... Read more...Drew U. plans to close residency program
In a move expected to further sap inner-city healthcare resources in Los Angeles, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science has decided to close its 34-year-old residency program. Among other problems, the university is having trouble securing funds to pay its 251 residents' salaries. It has also been unable to find long-term accreditation for the residents, who had been in training at the city's Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. …
... Read more...King/Drew patients may be scattered
Patients at Los Angeles-based Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center may be transferred to any of several public and private hospitals in the area as the troubled hospital is restructured. Under plans proposed by county health administrators, who are hoping to keep the facility open and eligible for federal insurance programs, King/Drew will soon be managed by Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The three-year reorganization process will include phasing out specialized medical services such …
... Read more...Famous surgeon blasts King/Drew
Champion figure skater and orthopedic surgeon Debi Thomas has withdrawn her support of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a public hospital founded in the wake of the 1965 Watts Riots to serve the poorest areas of Los Angeles County. Thomas claims that in the midst of its $12.5 million renovation, administrators closed all but two operating rooms and cut the number of overnight anesthesiologists. Allegedly, many patients--some with open wounds--had to wait days for surgery. In …
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