It's not easy to find the clinic, tucked away in a separate building off the main lobby of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, through winding corridors and up the elevator one floor.
There lies the troubled hospital's newest addition and perhaps its brightest hope: a long-awaited health center for women.
"We are the envy of our colleagues for the set-up we have," said Kim Thomas, nurse manager of the recently opened Women's Health Center of Excellence at King/Drew.
It is housed one floor above the hospital's former trauma center, which was closed in March so King/Drew could devote more attention to correcting serious lapses in management and patient care.
Thomas manages a team of 20 nurses that tends to female patients from some of the poorest neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles, many with nowhere else to go for services.
At a hospital that has pared back services and lost hundreds of employees through terminations or resignations, this center, which opened June 20, marks a renewed effort to provide better patient care.
"This center has been in planning for many years," said Dr. Rosetta Hassan, director of women's health, department of obstetrics and gynecology. "The opening is coinciding when the hospital is at a point of redefinition. The center is a good opportunity to put the foot in the right direction and show that we can be leaders on women's health in the country."
On any given day, the center serves roughly 70 patients. Hassan wants to see that grow to about 120.
The center's mission statement: "Caring for every need of every woman to provide health care to."
But an assessment of the community's needs paints a daunting picture. Its rate of genetic abnormality is 7% higher than in the rest of the state. About 25% of the patients who visit the hospital's HIV clinic are women. The incidence of low birth weight, at more than 25%, is three times higher than the state's, attributed mainly to widespread substance abuse, doctors said.
"There are very special needs in this area," Hassan said. "You're dealing with patients who are very poor, with dysfunctional lives."
Operating 45 clinics, the center offers many obstetrical and gynecological services at one location, including pap smears, mammograms, mental health services, breast and cervical cancer treatment, sexually transmitted disease and HIV services, birth control and well-baby exams, substance abuse and domestic violence programs.
