As Los Angeles County officials struggle to solve the problems of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, the hospital's affiliated medical school is under increasing pressure and is losing the support of some longtime backers.
County supervisors directed their health department chief this week to recommend by May 10 whether the county should cut long-standing ties to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
County officials have linked many of the persistent problems in King/Drew patients' care, including several recent deaths, to doctor trainees who have not received proper oversight from Drew University faculty.
As a result, the school's future is uncertain as county officials and consultants try to overhaul the public hospital.
The university's supporters say it is a vital institution in the community and the only historically black medical school west of the Mississippi. Its critics, including several members of the county Board of Supervisors, have been openly skeptical of the university's ability to improve after years of broken promises.
The county pays Drew about $12 million a year to oversee the training of doctors and provide some clinical care to patients at the hospital in Willowbrook, just south of Watts.
Drew's is the only medical teaching program in the nation to have received the lowest possible rating in its last two reviews by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The school faces another review in October, and if it doesn't improve, it could lose all of its training programs.
As that deadline looms, the medical school has other serious internal challenges. Its president was ousted in January 2004 after a national task force criticized his leadership, and the Drew board of trustees is still searching for a replacement.
Many physicians who head clinical departments at King/Drew have criticized Drew's medical school dean, Dr. Marcelle Willock, but have stopped short of formally calling for her removal.
And at Tuesday's meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, some black community activists encouraged board members to cut ties with Drew.
"It kind of pains me to be here today, because of what I have to say," said Celes King IV, vice chairman of the California Congress of Racial Equality. "We have come to the conclusion that Charles R. Drew University does not function in a manner that is sufficient to be able to maintain a quality of care that is necessary at the hospital."
