EDITORIAL THE DOCTOR IS OUT LACK OF OVERSIGHT AILS COUNTY MEDICAL SYSTEM.

WE hear often about Los Angeles County's ``ailing'' health care system, overwhelmed by soaring costs, poverty and illegal immigration. Yet perhaps one of the system's greatest ailments is its own mismanagement.

A confidential audit suggests that nearly half of the county's public doctors put false information on their timecards. Whether that's due to honest mistakes, deliberate cheating or both, the result is the same - the people of L.A. aren't getting what they're paying for.

The audit, which looked at some 86 of the county's 1,200 public doctors, found that in 47 percent of the cases, the information on physicians' timecards conflicted with staffing schedules.

Considering that county doctors often work 90 hours of overtime a month - and that employees at the scandal-plagued King-Drew Medical Center alone account for 26 of the top 100 highest-paid county employees - the costs of such potential overcharging could be steep.

But it's easy to see why doctors would be lackadaisical about their bookkeeping. After all, in county government, there are seldom if ever serious consequences for failing to play by the rules.

Since 2000, 59 health department employees have been accused of abusing work hours - a figure that seems absurdly low given what we now know about doctors' timecard accuracy. More absurd still is that of that number, just one employee has been terminated.

When rules go unenforced, they tend to go unobserved. No wonder county hospitals find it so hard to balance their books.

They're not alone. In county government, poor accounting and personnel management are the norm.

A January report revealed that more than 3,000 county employees racked up overtime hours equal to 50 percent or more of their salaries. Nearly 350 more than doubled their salaries with overtime - and 16 more than tripled their annual haul.

The mismanagement in the county health care system afflicts all of county government, which is a big part of why county services ``ail'' - and county residents suffer.