Martin Luther King Jr Drew Medical Center

As if the enormous financial problems facing the nation's second largest public health care system weren't enough to deal with, Los Angeles County's new health services director has been thrust into the middle of a long simmering legal and political battle over the racial makeup of his department's work force. Pressed by a recent county Civil Service Commission decision--and under the watchful eye of the U.S.

In the latest step toward creating a new Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital, Los Angeles County supervisors unanimously approved an agreement Tuesday to partner with the UC Board of Regents to reopen the hospital by 2013. "This is going to be a good partnership for them and, more importantly, for the clients we serve," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. The regents voted Nov. 19 to approve the agreement and provide 14 to 20 full-time physicians in addition to medical oversight for the proposed inpatient hospital.

The county Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to create a panel of independent healthcare experts to oversee the management of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. The creation of the 13-member advisory board is a key recommendation of a consulting firm hired to fix patient care problems at the hospital. The county health department now oversees the hospital. Its director, Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, will serve on the panel.

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science has agreed to drop a $125-million claim that alleged Los Angeles County breached its contract by halting inpatient services at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. In return, the university will receive county building space under favorable rental terms, a long-term payment schedule for its share of a multimillion-dollar age discrimination lawsuit payout and the ability to forge a new relationship with the county as the Board of Supervisors moves to reopen the hospital.

A group trying to prevent closure of the trauma center at troubled King/Drew Medical Center sued the county for discrimination Wednesday, alleging it intentionally has tried to dismantle the hospital near Watts. The nonprofit group, Friends of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center Inc., which includes patients, doctors and community members, accused the county of violating the Constitution's equal protection clause.

Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center was forced to divert ambulances away from its emergency room Friday after all 13 of its emergency room nurses called in sick, officials said. The one-day sickout, which union leaders said was organized by the nurses, reflects labor unrest at a county hospital that saw 130 doctors and other health workers dismissed Monday as a cost-cutting measure.

About 100 community members listened intently Thursday as consultants outlined their plan to transfer oversight of troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center from the county health department to a "more independent and knowledgeable board." The consultants, who held the meeting in the hospital auditorium, had documented problems at the hospital's outpatient clinics. They also predicted that the hospital's trauma unit won't be able to reopen until July 2006 at the earliest.

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science filed a $125-million lawsuit Monday against Los Angeles County, claiming breach of contract when the county cut its ties between the medical school and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center last year. The suit accuses the county of failing to maintain standards at the hospital, resulting in the federal government's threat last fall to pull $200 million in funding.

Los Angeles County officials announced Thursday that the first step has been taken toward construction of a $65-million trauma center at Martin Luther King Jr. / Drew Medical Center. The Board of Supervisors this week approved the expenditure of almost $1 million for design plans for the center, which will be financed through the sale of county bonds. Construction of the six-level facility is expected to begin in 1993.

Five years after Sheriff's Deputy Nelson Yamamoto died at the county's Martin Luther King Jr. / Drew Medical Center, the county Claims Board approved a tentative settlement this week that would pay his family $97,083 to drop their wrongful-death lawsuit. Under the agreement, which still must be approved by the Board of Supervisors, the county would also pay the Yamamoto family's lawyers $55,417, plus $22,500 for the cost of litigation to date.

Since county officials shuttered Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center's trauma unit three years ago, rising numbers of severely injured patients have been transported to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a 10-mile drive away. The closure of the busy trauma center in Willowbrook, just south of Watts, raised concern that it would take longer to move patients and put them at greater risk of death.

Antionette Smith Epps, who was brought in to help save Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center but wound up instead presiding over its closing, left Friday, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services officials said. The county characterized Smith Epps' departure as a resignation, saying in a brief statement that she wanted "to pursue other career opportunities."

South Los Angeles activist Virginia Franklin wept before Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday, recalling how her mother, a psychiatric nursing professor, would bring her students to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center to train. Holding her 5-month-old nephew Kelly, Franklin asked the four board members present, "When he wants to go to school, where's he going to do his internship?"

Two Los Angeles County prosecutors unsuccessfully sought a grand jury investigation in 2005 into deaths at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, igniting a behind-the-scenes debate about whether alleged misconduct merited a wide-ranging criminal investigation. The prosecutors' recommendation, which was outlined in a confidential April 8, 2005, memo, grew out of frustration with the slow pace of their inquiry into two patient deaths.

Two years ago, Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke answered talk about closing the long-troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center with an emphatic declaration: "That hospital will be closed over my dead body." But today, as the hospital faces state action to revoke its license and supervisors weigh whether to shutter the facility themselves, Burke is alive yet conspicuously silent.

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science filed a $125-million lawsuit Monday against Los Angeles County, claiming breach of contract when the county cut its ties between the medical school and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center last year. The suit accuses the county of failing to maintain standards at the hospital, resulting in the federal government's threat last fall to pull $200 million in funding.

The hospital authority of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center voted unanimously Thursday to float a $5-million bond issue to finance construction of a new trauma center at the large county hospital in Watts. The action, which must be approved by Los Angeles County supervisors, would enable the county to raise money from the private sector to build a single-story, 22-bed trauma center designed to accommodate the hospital's growing load of emergency patients.

Staff members at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center have a mystery patient on their hands. He was dropped off at the hospital's emergency room Sept. 12 by an unknown individual. He had no apparent injuries when he was examined but was in a confused state, hospital officials said. The patient is about 60 with brown eyes, dark brown complexion and several moles on his face, officials said. His hair is thick, straight and gray, with traces of black, and he is 5-feet-9 and about 145 pounds.

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.

A former radiologist at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of failing to pay state taxes in 2004, when he was billing the county for marathon shifts at the troubled public hospital. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Horwitz sentenced Dr. Harold A. Tate, 47, to three years' probation and ordered him to pay back taxes of $35,138 and a $10,000 fine. Dist. Atty.