Four months into a radical overhaul of the former Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center near Watts, the long-troubled hospital shrinks to its smallest size today.
The restructured medical center, renamed Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, has been scaled down to just 48 beds, including six for obstetrics. Plans call for the hospital to grow to 120 beds -- far fewer than the 233 it once had.
All its employees were required to undergo interviews, after which more than half were allowed to stay while the rest were transferred to other county facilities.
The shift comes as county health officials await word on a requested extension of federal funding to keep afloat the reorganization, which also involves Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance.
MLK-Harbor was forced to dramatically reduce services after failing a crucial inspection last fall, jeopardizing $200 million in federal funding -- a large chunk of its annual operating budget.
Chronic mismanagement had plagued the hospital for decades, in some instances leading to patient deaths. The medical center had been established to serve what was then a largely African American community a few years after the 1965 Watts riots.
To save the hospital after the federal government warned that it would cut off funding, supervisors approved a radical restructuring plan. It eliminated the hospital's specialty services and placed it under the management of Harbor-UCLA.
As management changes unfolded, some patients have been gradually shuffled to other area hospitals, public and private.
Since the transformation began in November, the county has interviewed and placed 1,786 hospital employees. Almost 1,400 remain at MLK-Harbor, down from 2,286 previously. Nearly 400 workers were transferred to other county health facilities last month. The remaining employees were unavailable for interviews or were medical residents at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science; the hospital severed ties with the medical school late last year as part of the downsizing.
Since 2004, 260 hospital staffers, including 41 doctors, had been fired or had resigned as a result of disciplinary proceedings.
