Private hospitals near Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital acknowledge the troubled public facility needs radical reform after the latest shocking incident a patient who writhed in agony from a perforated bowel on its emergency room floor but died after never receiving treatment.
But so far no local hospital executive has called for its closure, and the preference of the local hospital industry seems clear: keep it open because a shut down would overwhelm private sector emergency rooms and inpatient facilities.
“We’re all willing to take our fair share, but we’d prefer to do whatever is possible to keep MLK functioning because it’s a vital piece of the safety net in the community,” said Michael Rembis, chief executive at Centinela Freeman Regional Health System.
On Thursday, the state of California announced that it would start the process of revoking the hospital’s license, which if it occurred would force the hospital to close. The action follows the death of Edith Isabel Rodriguez of a perforated bowel on May 9, which prompted a meeting of the Board of Supervisors this week. The board is expected to consider a range of options, from closure to contracting operations with a private company.
Worried about a possible closure, the Hospital Association of Southern California has commissioned a a hospital impact study, which should be completed before the board’s Tuesday meeting. Centinela is among eight hospitals within a 12-mile radius likely to be affected by a closure. Others close by are St. Francis Medical Center, California Hospital Medical Center and Downey Regional Medical Center.
Already, these and other hospitals have been picking up the load after the county downsized the facility and closed its trauma center. But with a lack of progress in reforming the Willowbrook hospital, some fear it’s only a matter of time before a larger wave of patients will flood their facilities.
“The county over time has turned their back on the indigent, the poor and the needy and dumped it on the private sector,” said Allen Korneff, chief executive of Downey Regional, one of three private hospitals the county contracted with to handle inpatient care when King-Harbor was downsized last fall.
The big question now remains: was Rodriguez’s death enough to cause a closure after three years of investigations, management and staff changes and other efforts to reform have failed? Talk of closure has always been dismissed given the hospital’s special place in L.A.’s African American community; it was founded after the Watt’s riots of 1964.
But county health officials had promised after previous high profile patient deaths that problem employees would be fired and others would receive better training. And last October, the board put the hospital, formerly known as King-Drew Medical Center, under the supervision of the county’s Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Even now, the official position of the county Department of Health Services is that the reform process is not complete. However, closure talks have gained ground among county officials, including Supervisor Don Knabe, who has backed reform efforts.
“Mistakes can happen at any hospital, but King is at a point where they can’t make a mistake,” said Knabe, whose district includes several private hospitals. “I’m not optimistic.”
