Ucla Medical Center

After struggling for months with wobbly finances and internal dissension, the director of UCLA Medical Center announced Tuesday that he will leave his job to take a top post at the University of Kentucky's medical center. Dr. Michael Karpf, 58, has been with UCLA since 1995 and oversaw the school's three hospitals and 18 primary-care clinics.

Ted Kamp wanted to make sure his daughter received the medical treatment she needed. That was his first priority. His second was making sure his insurance would cover things and that he'd pay a fair price for any procedures. The fact that this proved so difficult highlights one of the crazier aspects of the U.S. healthcare system: the inability of patients to know how much their treatment really costs. "It's infuriating and it's exhausting," Kamp, 50, told me. "It's clear that the entire system is designed to bully you into submission.

A national report card on patient safety gave a failing grade to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, one of the country's most prestigious hospitals and one of only 25 nationwide to receive such low marks. In a report issued Wednesday, the Leapfrog Group, an employer-backed nonprofit group focused on healthcare quality, gave a letter grade of F to UCLA Medical Center for performing poorly on several measures tied to preventing medical errors, patient infections and deaths. Leapfrog withheld a failing grade for UCLA in June when it released its first-ever hospital safety scores to give low-performing hospitals time to show improvement.

A national report card on patient safety gave a failing grade to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, one of the country's most prestigious hospitals and one of only 25 nationwide to receive such low marks. In a report issued Wednesday, the Leapfrog Group, an employer-backed nonprofit group focused on healthcare quality, gave a letter grade of F to UCLA Medical Center for performing poorly on several measures tied to preventing medical errors, patient infections and deaths. Leapfrog withheld a failing grade for UCLA in June when it released its first-ever hospital safety scores to give low-performing hospitals time to show improvement.

Siegfried and Roy illusionist Roy Horn has been transferred from Las Vegas' University Medical Center trauma unit to the UCLA Medical Center. "This is the next step in the recovery process," said the magicians' spokesman, David Kirvin. Kirvin declined to comment specifically on Horn's condition. The illusionist was mauled onstage by a tiger during an Oct. 3 performance at the Mirage Hotel and Casino, where the duo has been performing since 1990.

A former UCLA Medical Center employee was convicted of murder Friday in the slaying of a co-worker and the wounding of his supervisor in the hospital's patient escort center last February. A Superior Court jury deliberated just over two days before convicting Brian Keith Major, 19, of the first-degree murder of Diondra Ann Pichou, 22, of Gardena and the attempted murder of Nora S. Arellano, 30, of Los Angeles. The two women were shot shortly before 6 a.m. Feb.

Tennis Hall of Famer Rod Laver, 59, suffered a stroke Monday shortly after taping a television interview in Los Angeles and was taken to UCLA Medical Center. A nursing supervisor said late Monday night that Laver had undergone diagnostic procedures, that his family was with him and he was resting comfortably. The supervisor said the family requested that no other information be released.

West Los Angeles families are being asked to provide free temporary lodging to UCLA Medical Center patients and relatives as part of a special program designed to help out-of-town patients avoid the high cost of housing. UCLA's Host Home Program, sponsored by the medical center's Clinical Social Work and Pastoral Care departments and University Religious Conference, is trying to identify about 50 families a year willing to open their doors to patients and families for brief stays. The Rev.

A caravan of more than 80 bikers left here Sunday with toys in tow to help bring some holiday cheer to sick children undergoing treatment at UCLA Medical Center. The event was sponsored by the Fullerton chapter of the Harley Owners Group--or HOG. It began at 9:30 a.m. as the bikers hit the Riverside Freeway from Magnolia Avenue, heading east for the 45-minute ride to the medical center.

The FBI and internal auditors at UCLA are investigating allegations that an employee in the department of radiological sciences embezzled funds by using outside companies to bill the UCLA Medical Center for services that were never performed, sources told The Times on Monday. UCLA issued a statement to The Times acknowledging an ongoing probe into "possible financial irregularities" but gave no details.

The psychiatric emergency services at two county-run hospitals are so overcrowded that mentally ill patients have to sleep on mattresses on the floor, health officials acknowledged this week. The packed conditions at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center make it more difficult to de-escalate the emotions of patients who arrive at the hospital agitated and anxious, said Christina Ghaly, deputy director of strategic planning for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

A contract dispute between one of California's largest health insurers and UCLA could force thousands of patients at the university's medical centers to seek treatment elsewhere if the disagreement is not resolved by the end of December. Executives from Blue Shield of California and the University of California's health system are quarreling over reimbursement rates for medical treatment at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood and nearby Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital.

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center has failed to keep its operating rooms clean and safe and to protect its patients from possible infection, according to federal inspection reports recently released to The Times. Inspectors found rooms that had holes in the ceilings or that were dusty and cluttered. Operating rooms were kept at the wrong humidity level, which can lead to the spread of germs, the reports said. Hospital staff members also weren't washing their hands according to policy. "The hospital failed to maintain a sanitary environment for the provision of surgical services," the reports said.

The chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center may not have followed proper procedures for credentialing doctors at the hospital and is being investigated by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. Gail V. Anderson Jr., who is also an associate dean at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, was placed on paid administrative leave from the county hospital earlier this week and was escorted out of his office. His locks were changed and his computer secured, sources said.

These days, the battle for economic justice is fought daily in a thousand obscure skirmishes in boardrooms and executive suites across the country. It's a conflict usually waged under the cover of smugly technocratic euphemisms such as outsourcing, right-sizing and resource rationalization. To the extent they're counted at all, the human casualties are reckoned as collateral damage. As early as Tuesday, one of those skirmishes may occur in the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, where the Board of Supervisors will consider whether to outsource the janitorial work at its Olive View-UCLA and Harbor-UCLA medical centers to Sodexo, a multinational corporation based in France.

A young mother has become the first person to receive a hand transplant at UCLA’s new hand transplantation center, hospital officials reported Monday. The Northern California woman, 26, whose name was not released, had lost her right hand in a traffic accident five years ago. She was recovering Monday following a 14-hour procedure that concluded around 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The operation was the 13th hand transplant in the United States and the first for the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, which opened its hand transplant unit last year.

UCLA Medical Center's new hospital admitted its first patients Sunday after successfully moving patients across the street from its old facility in a delicate, tightly scheduled operation. The transfer occurred even as new mothers delivered their babies and doctors performed organ transplants. The 335 patients were moved at the rate of one every two minutes. The move capped years of planning that began after the 1994 Northridge earthquake badly damaged the old site.

Keri Phebus knew she should not have been out of bed Saturday morning, let alone spending 2 hours and 45 minutes chasing tennis balls. So Phebus, a senior at Corona del Mar High School this fall, was one of the few people who wasn't surprised when she was upset in the first round of the U.S. Olympic Festival women's singles competition.

Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, whose teams won 10 national titles, was in grave condition Thursday, school sources confirmed. Wooden, 99, is being treated at UCLA Medical Center, according to the sources who were not authorized to speak publicly. A UCLA athletic department official declined to comment on the situation. Wooden's health has been an issue in recent weeks and he was briefly hospitalized about a month ago, a school source said. Wooden won 620 games during his coaching career, which began at UCLA in 1948.

In a written response to allegations of substandard care at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center's neonatal intensive care unit, Los Angeles County health officials said they found "little about the allegations" to be correct. County health officials addressing an anonymous complaint to an accreditation agency said seven of 11 allegations made could not be substantiated. Officials found that hospital staff provided and received cosmetic services at Olive View, but said "the investigation has dispelled the claim that an organized cosmetic operation on the scale of a 'beauty salon' has existed in the NICU."