County Usc

Severe and dangerous overcrowding is getting worse at the emergency room at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, the county's flagship hospital, despite increased transfers of patients to other hospitals, according to a report presented Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors. Already, County- USC's emergency room is considered overcrowded more than 80% of the time, a percentage that rose slightly from May to June. But during that period, dangerous overcrowding rose from about 11% to 15%, and severe overcrowding rose from about 38% to 47%. As a result, waiting times — already very long — continue to increase.

It's tough enough to be without health insurance. But do healthcare providers have to make it even worse by treating you like a moron? Santa Monica resident Tom Wilde recently received bills from a downtown Los Angeles clinic and the L.A. County/USC Medical Center totaling almost $2,500. What exactly were the charges for? The bills didn't say. There was no itemizing of procedures and prices. No diagnosis. No treatment date. No nothing. Just a notation of "new charges" and the amount due. "They certainly wouldn't send such a bill to an insurance company," Wilde, 51, told me. "Insurance companies want to know exactly what they're paying for. " So you'd think.

Two Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday introduced a proposal to study the addition of 150 beds to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, the county's overcrowded flagship hospital. The proposal comes about a week and a half after The Los Angeles Times reported that severe overcrowding was routine at County- USC, which in 2008 moved into a new $1.02-billion facility with 224 fewer beds. In May, the hospital's emergency room was deemed overcrowded about 80% of the time, with conditions considered severe or dangerous for half of that month.

A former California Highway Patrol officer fell to the floor overcome by emotion in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Monday as a jury convicted her of murder in the shooting death of her husband. In a case filled with allegations of anger management and domestic violence, the verdict in the rare prosecution of a law enforcement officer on murder charges proved to be dramatic. As the guilty verdict was read, veteran CHP Officer Tomiekia Johnson shook, then slid under the table where she had been seated alongside her attorneys.

Even before the doors opened on the $1.02-billion Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center many observers warned that the new hospital was too small. Now, more than a year and a half of experience appears to confirm it. The overcrowding has become so intense that health officials asked county Supervisor Gloria Molina eight months ago what she would think if the hospital began placing patients in the hallways, the supervisor recalled in an interview. "I said, 'Absolutely not. We will not have patients in the hallway,' " Molina said.

Of the three county-run hospitals with emergency rooms, Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center is the only one too small to meet patient demand, according to an independent draft report prepared for the Board of Supervisors. At least 97 new beds already are needed at the $1.02-billion hospital that opened less than two years ago, according to the report. In contrast, the report obtained by the Los Angeles Times found that the county's two other hospitals with emergency rooms have the space, but not the money, to add additional beds to meet patient demand.

By way of introduction may I explain that I am the incoming President of Salerni Collegium, the 1,500-member support society of USC School of Medicine and the L.A. County-USC Medical Center. I spent 10 years in training at County USC and have taught there for the past 11 years. You can therefore imagine my keen interest in the extensive articles by Peter H. King (Jan. 27-30) on the L.A. County-USC Medical Center. In my opinion, and those of many of my professional colleagues, his articles were the most honest and extensive depiction of the realities, of the heart and the soul of life at the medical center, that we've ever seen.

The emergency room at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center was "dangerously overcrowded" for more than 10% of the month of May, according to a report submitted Tuesday to the county Board of Supervisors. The overcrowding — up from less than 2% of the time in April — drew a sharp rebuke from Supervisor Gloria Molina. "I think we're having a real problem. This is a serious situation," said Molina, whose district includes County-USC, just east of downtown in Boyle Heights.

Los Angeles County health officials launched an investigation this week into allegations that the emergency room at County-USC Medical Center is so crowded, patients wait an average of 35 hours to be seen — sometimes without any vital signs being taken — and hospital workers fail to protect patient privacy. Within hours of receiving the complaint Tuesday, John Schunhoff, interim director of the county Department of Health Services, contacted the Board of Supervisors to say his department had begun an inquiry.

Overcrowding persists at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center's emergency room, but hospital officials have improved how they manage the crowds, decreasing patient wait times and the number of patients who leave without being seen, according to county officials. The average wait time decreased from 11 hours and 10 minutes in September to 10 hours and 20 minutes in October, county health officials wrote in a report submitted Tuesday to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Only 24 weeks into her pregnancy, Haydee Ibarra's doctors told her that her baby wasn't getting the blood and oxygen she needed to survive. If she stayed inside the womb, the baby would certainly die. If she was born, her chances weren't much better and she could face a lifetime of health complications. Ibarra, 22, and Yovani Guido, 24, implored the doctors to do everything possible to save their daughter. And they did. PHOTOS: The third smallest baby on record On Aug. 30, Melinda Guido was born four months premature at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center.

There's more to a state Re "A win-win strategy at the U.N.," Opinion, Sept. 30 Barbara F. Walter and Andrew Kydd hail President Mahmoud Abbas' move to place Palestinian statehood on the international agenda. However, this is a case of "been there, done that. " Yasser Arafat, the former leader of the Palestinian cause, issued a "declaration of independence" in 1988. The Palestinian state was recognized by more than 100 countries. A state exists only insofar as it is recognized by others; Palestine meets this and other standards of statehood.

A wall-mounted computer screen in the call center at L.A. County/USC Medical Center showed the emergency room was full. Ambulances were supposed to take patients elsewhere on this Friday night. But they kept coming — some because it was the closest ER, others because the injuries were so severe only a trauma center could handle them. "We get them from outside hospitals, from clinics, from the field, from the jail, from police, from everywhere — everywhere," said Alma Aviles, a nurse supervisor.

State public health officials have fined 12 California hospitals for medical errors that hurt or killed patients, according to a report released Wednesday. Three of the hospitals — L.A. County/USC Medical Center, Torrance Memorial Medical Center and Brotman Medical Center — are in Los Angeles County. The penalties were issued for errors such as leaving foreign objects in patients' bodies during surgery and administrating the wrong medication. They occurred in 2009 and 2010.

Dr. Max Harry Weil, an influential pioneer of critical-care medicine and the founding president of the Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine in Rancho Mirage, has died. He was 84. Weil died of prostate cancer July 29 at his home in Rancho Mirage, said his daughter, Dr. Susan Weil. The Swiss-born Weil was known as one of the world's leading clinicians, educators and researchers in critical-care medicine, a multidisciplinary specialty dealing with the care and treatment of the most acutely ill and injured patients.

Overcrowding persists at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center's emergency room, but hospital officials have improved how they manage the crowds, decreasing patient wait times and the number of patients who leave without being seen, according to county officials. The average wait time decreased from 11 hours and 10 minutes in September to 10 hours and 20 minutes in October, county health officials wrote in a report submitted Tuesday to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Overcrowding remains a persistent problem at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center's emergency room even as conditions deemed dangerous have eased in the last two months, county officials said Tuesday. "Dangerously" overcrowded conditions in the 600-bed hospital's emergency room decreased to an average of about five hours a day in October, down from a high of 16 hours a day in August, county health officials told supervisors Tuesday. Carol Meyer, the county health services department's chief network officer, said over the last two months the hospital built a "rapid early medical evaluation" area in the emergency room so that every patient sees a doctor or nurse within an hour of arrival, similar to a system in place for about two years at the county's Harbor- UCLA Medical Center emergency room.

Overcrowding remains a persistent problem at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center's emergency room even as conditions deemed dangerous have eased in the last two months, county officials said Tuesday. "Dangerously" overcrowded conditions in the 600-bed hospital's emergency room decreased to an average of about five hours a day in October, down from a high of 16 hours a day in August, county health officials told supervisors Tuesday. Carol Meyer, the county health services department's chief network officer, said over the last two months the hospital built a "rapid early medical evaluation" area in the emergency room so that every patient sees a doctor or nurse within an hour of arrival, similar to a system in place for about two years at the county's Harbor- UCLA Medical Center emergency room.