California health officials on Thursday notified Los Angeles County that it plans to start a process that could lead to revoking the license of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, which would force the troubled county hospital to close.

The California Department of Health Services action — in which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was closely involved according to state officials — comes after a determination by federal health officials earlier this month that patients were “immediate jeopardy” of harm or death due the lack of improvement in hospital operations.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could take its own action as soon as June 30 to pull federal funding unless the county convinces an inspection team that the “immediate jeopardy” has passed. In addition, the federal agency is scheduled to make a final determination by Aug. 15 on whether the county has made additional changes it promised last fall.

King-Harbor is not necessarily in immediate danger of closure, unless the federal agency pulls the funding plug this summer, and the county decides it can’t afford to cover 100 percent of the hospital’s operating costs. Revoking the state license could take up to a year if the county decides to appeal, and state inspectors likely would be guided by what their federal counterparts decide to do.

King-Harbor has failed to meet minimum federal standards for patient care for more than three years. But until now closure has been considered out of the question because of the hospital special place in South L.A.’s African-American community.

But some high profile incidents, including the May 9 death of a female patient with a perforated bowel who was left writhing on the emergency room floor for nearly an hour, have highlighted the lack of progress by county health officials in improving hospital operations and removing problem employees.