King/Drew Trauma Unit Faces Closure
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Monday unexpectedly moved to shut down the trauma unit at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, immediately drawing the ire of physicians, politicians and community activists.
The only public hospital serving a large swath of South Los Angeles, King/Drew treats more trauma patients than any other hospital in the region except County-USC Medical Center.
The proposed trauma closure, expected to take effect in about 90 days, amounts to a last-ditch scramble to save a foundering hospital that repeatedly has been cited by regulators for harming patients and in some cases contributing to their deaths.
Under pressure from federal health officials, the supervisors also agreed to hire outside managers to run the hospital -- replacing the team of county health leaders who have run it for nearly a year.
The reaction from community leaders was swift and mostly negative. Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton), who has led legislative hearings on the future of King/Drew, was outraged.
"I could see if they were going to close some other department, but not the trauma center. My God, this is a crisis," he said.
But Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), applauded the board's latest actions, saying they were long overdue.
"It's about time that the Board of Supervisors faced up to their responsibility, and has chosen to take appropriate action, albeit unpopular," he said. "There's no expert in the area of public healthcare worth his or her salt who would deny that Martin Luther King hospital was in need of radical intervention."
The proposal to shut the hospital's trauma unit is subject to final approval by the county supervisors after a public hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.
County health officials were quick to point out that King/Drew's emergency room will still be open, just not the trauma unit. The ER treats about 45,000 patients a year for such ailments as chest pain, infections and pneumonia.
The trauma unit, dedicated to treating life-threatening injuries from such incidents as shootings and car accidents, served 2,150 patients last year.
At a news conference Monday, all five supervisors endorsed the changes -- an unusual showing of unanimity on an issue that has frequently divided the board.
