A national accrediting group Wednesday recommended pulling its seal of approval from beleaguered Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, an extremely rare step that further threatens the public hospital's survival.
Signaling that the medical center has failed to correct severe lapses in patient care, the national Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations voted to begin the process of revoking King/Drew's accreditation.
The proposed move is primarily a huge public relations blow for the Los Angeles County-owned hospital. But it also could have crippling practical effects, including the potential loss of physician-training programs and $14.8 million in private insurance contracts. Another less likely possibility is losing $200 million in annual federal funding if the hospital cannot assure government regulators that it meets their safety standards.
Los Angeles County supervisors vowed to appeal the decision. If the appeal were not successful -- as few are in these cases -- at least one supervisor said he feared that the loss of accreditation would ultimately lead to the hospital's closure.
"How could we face the community in running a hospital if its accreditation had been pulled?" said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "How could the county or anybody take the risk?"
If King/Drew did lose its accreditation, it could reapply to get it back as one Washington, D.C., hospital did last year.
The deluge of bad news at King/Drew amounted to a "meltdown" that could imperil the large number of poor people in South Los Angeles who depend on its services, said Los Angeles City Councilman Martin Ludlow. "I don't think people are grasping at how massive and catastrophic this is."
In itself, losing approval from the Joint Commission would not force King/Drew to close because hospitals are licensed by state and federal regulators.
But it would add to tremendous pressures on the Willowbrook hospital, south of Watts.
The threat came in the same week that county supervisors announced a controversial proposal to close King/Drew's trauma center, and federal regulators demanded new, outside management at the hospital. Supervisors said they had to shut down the costly trauma service to save the rest of the hospital.
Opposition has been mounting to the plan. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to oppose the closure of the trauma center, which treated 2,150 gunshot wounds and other life-threatening injuries last year.
