The public files on City of Angels do show subsequent inspections, but they were prompted by new complaints that were unrelated to the hospital's admissions policies.
A state official said that when the health department reviews a hospital in response to a complaint, investigators look only at the complaint that prompted the investigation. Most subsequent complaints at the hospital were not substantiated during inspections, records show.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, August 22, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 43 words Type of Material: Correction
City of Angels: An article in Saturday's California section about City of Angels Medical Center identified John V. Fenton, the hospital's former chief executive, as James V. Fenton. The article also said that Fenton left the hospital last year. He left in 2005.
California Department of Public Health spokeswoman Suanne Buggy said in a prepared statement that the department "is currently undertaking an investigation at City of Angels. As such, we are not commenting further at this time."
The county, said Ellen Satkin, program director of the Patients' Rights Office at the Department of Mental Health, was "unable to do much" because the problems were in City of Angels' medical-surgical unit and not in its psychiatric unit, where the department has authority.
Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, an owner and chief executive of City of Angels Medical Center, and Estill Mitts, an alleged patient recruiter who operated a storefront facility called the Assessment Center in the heart of skid row, were arrested last week on federal charges of healthcare fraud and receiving illegal kickbacks.
In addition, the Los Angeles city attorney sued the two men, along with City of Angels, Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, Tustin Hospital and Medical Center in Orange County, their operators and several others, alleging that the hospitals used unfair business practices to fill empty beds in a bid to boost their finances.
Legal documents filed as part of the civil suit describe a pattern in which patients allegedly were recruited at Mitts' skid row storefront and offered cash to be admitted to a hospital.
The center, the city alleges, typically arranged for the patients to be transported to the hospital by ambulance.
The skid row recruits, the documents allege, "did not see their treating physician (if at all) until well after admission and typically shortly before discharge. They were, however, treated for various medical conditions, some real and some not."
Satkin said the 2004 inspections were prompted by calls the Department of Mental Health received about inappropriate admissions and discharge of patients on the fifth floor of the hospital.
