Another Los Angeles county hospital emergency department appears to be facing serious care problems, in an unfortunate echo the problems faced the now-deceased Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor hospital. Inspectors working on behalf of CMS have concluded that overcrowding in the emergency department at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is placing patients in immediate jeopardy. The hospital, which is expected to receive a formal citation, was investigated after the December death of a patient who left the ED before treatment was finished and was found dead in a parking lot across the street from the facility. The Los Angeles County health services director has said that it's already working on a plan of correction to submit to the inspectors.
The citation follows well-publicized problems at the county's King-Harbor facility, where a woman died in the ED after waiting for 45 minutes in pain on the floor. The county's Olive View-UCLA hospital is also under scrutiny after a patient complaining of chest pains died without being given a test to determine if he was having a heart attack.
To learn more about the citation:
- read this Los Angeles Times article
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