The federal government threatened Wednesday to cut off some $200 million in Medicare and Medicaid funding to troubled Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center by Feb. 18 unless administrators and employees prove they can follow regulations for subduing combative patients.
The hospital, which twice last year failed federal tests of the regulations when psychiatric patients were Tasered by hospital police, will be given one last chance to prove itself prior to the February cutoff date, according to a letter sent to the hospital by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
But even if the hospital passes that test, federal officials also informed officials in the letter that they will need to correct other serious deficiencies uncovered in a series of inspections last year.
“If it does result in a loss of funding it would be a calamity for the entire region,” said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Healthcare Association of Southern California, a regional hospital trade group.
The loss of $200 million would amount to nearly half the hospital operating budget, likely closing the facility, though county health officials have been working on contingency funding plans should it lose federal funds.
However, a health department spokesman said department administrators had been in close contact with federal officials and had fully expected to receive the notification letter. He also said county employees have been training hard to pass the unannounced federal inspection when it occurs.
“We have been doing a tremendous amount of staff education. We are conducting drills around the clock,” said spokesman John Wallace. “Our number one concern right now is passing the re-inspection.”
Federal investigators found numerous problems at the hospital in a series of eight inspections, including poor nursing care, crumbling hospital infrastructure and other troubles that have resulted in patient’s deaths.
However, safety police have continued to violate federal regulations by subduing combative psychiatric patients with Tasers, and that has prompted regulators to threaten an immediate loss of funding.
In response to the problems, county officials have pulled safety police officers from the team that responds to combative patients and replaced them with employees who are receiving specific training to assist caregivers in subduing the patients without the use of the weapons, Wallace said.
The hospital also will be required to show it has improved nursing care, pharmaceutical services and addressed a variety of other patient safety issues in order to retain the federal funding in the future.
The letter is second piece of bad new the hospital and county have received in two days. On Tuesday, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations declined a county appeal to reverse its decision to lift its accreditation of the hospital.
The loss of the accreditation by the body, the top private hospital sanctioning agency in the United States, is expected to cost the hospital at least $14 million in annual funding through the loss of Medi-Cal and other patients who no longer will be able to be treated there.
The county last fall hired Navigant Consulting Inc. to operate the hospital and turn it around. The firm is also required to seek JCAHO re-accreditation within 12 months once operations have improved.
