DOWNSIZED MLK FACILITY TO STAY OPEN HARBOR-UCLA OFFICIALS TO RUN TROUBLED HOSPITAL.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer

Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to turn Martin Luther King-Drew Medical Center into a smaller community hospital, despite concerns that federal officials will veto the plan and the troubled facility will have to close.

The plan calls for the South Los Angeles hospital to be converted from a 200-bed, full-service facility into a 100-bed community hospital under the management of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance.

The Harbor-Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital would maintain inpatient services, an intensive care unit, a 24-hour emergency room, extended urgent care, plus expanded outpatient services.

Patients requiring a higher level of care would go to Harbor-UCLA.

County officials hope to avert closure of the landmark facility, fearing the resulting patient load would flood other Los Angeles-area hospitals.

``If MLK were to close and its emergency room were to close, the ripple effect on the entire Southern California health-care delivery system would be significant,'' Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

``If the emergency room at MLK closed, the 42,000 people who visit its ER each year would go to other ERs, putting pressure on other facilities, which themselves may close.

``In fact, some ERs have already closed, including some in the San Fernando Valley. The waits are longer and the quality of care ... is compromised.

``So keeping MLK open as a community-based hospital really is in the interest of the Valley and the rest of the county,'' he said.

The turmoil at MLK follows the closure of nine hospitals countywide in the past several years.

It also comes as the county health system is facing a $270 million shortfall next fiscal year, which is expected to rise to $1.16 billion by 2009-10.

MLK has been plagued for years with time-card abuse by workers and a spate of patient deaths attributed to medical errors.

Nearly 500 employees have been discplined since 2004, including 253 who resigned or were fired.

Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified MLK that it did not meet nine of 23 standards required to continue receiving $200 million, federal funding that is expected to end Nov. 30.

CMS has mandated a radical reorganization at the hospital in order to consider restoration of funding.

Although community activists asked the supervisors Tuesday if they would be willing to use county money to keep the hospital open, Yaroslavsky said the county ``simply can't backfill $200 million.''

Without federal funding, Yaroslavsky said, the county would be forced to ``go to plan Z, which nobody is going to like.''

The plan approved Tuesday also requires MLK employees to reapply for their jobs; those not rehired would be reassigned to other hospitals.

``We do have openings and needs in other parts of the system and CMS made it clear they are not going to just allow a King-Drew docs in Harbor smocks kind of thing,'' Supervisor Don Knabe said. ``There has to be a complete change, a reinterview process and, basically, start from scratch.''

L. Wade Rose, vice-president of external and government relations for Catholic Healthcare West, which had been in talks with the county about taking over MLK, said hospitals throughout the county are concerned about a ripple effect if MLK ultimately closes.

But Rose said he hopes CMS will accept the county's plan and continue to fund the downsized hospital.

``CMS has a responsibility to make sure that these patients who utilize Medicare and Medicaid insurance are treated in hospitals that won't harm them,'' Rose said. ``That's a big responsibility. So they have to be sure that the plan the county devises is going to change the situation at MLK.''

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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