King-Harbor inspection report released

[Lionel Mandrake]

Source: LA Times

L.A. County supervisors act to close the hospital but hope to reopen it, and a federal report on its woes is made public.

Los Angeles County supervisors put their seal on the closure of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital on Monday, voting unanimously to shut inpatient services and promising to pay up to $16.3 million to nearby private hospitals and doctors bracing for a deluge of patients.

At a specially convened board meeting, supervisors also released a 124-page report by federal inspectors that detailed dozens of errors and failures by the hospital during a make-or-break review last month. In the last four years, the hospital has been cited more than a dozen times for patient care lapses and blamed for a series of patient deaths.

One patient complained of severe chest pain but was not given pain medication for 4 1/2 hours, the report said. Medical equipment was not sterilized properly, potentially exposing patients to infections. Under the scrutiny of inspectors, three nurses took more than three minutes to find a vial of medicine. Another didn't know how to mix medication during an emergency drill.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-king14aug14,1,3849288.story?coll=la-headlines-california

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For the full report, browse

bos.co.la.ca.us/Categories/Agenda/cms1_071137.htm

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. After seeing that miserable report...

I do not see how they could even consider reopening the hospital.........

They've tried hiring new staff, but somehow even that didn't work...

It's a shame...

We need all our hospitals, but they must be top-ranked.

This one just wasn't, for whatever reason.

[Lionel Mandrake]

2. I agree with everything you say, except

that I think the hospital (including the ER) should eventually be reopened. I think it is possible to identify the reason for past failures and avoid making the same mistakes next time. Call me an optimist if you will. This is a complex issue on which reasonable people can disagree.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Ah, you are an optimist!

And perhaps you are right...

It is a very complex issue.

And certainly the area needs it open...

[Lionel Mandrake]

7. Oops, I just noticed something that makes me less optimistic.

Here is an excerpt from a letter sent from the director of LA County Department of Health Services (DHS) to the county supervisors on August 13:

(beginning of quote)
1. DHS has developed a staffing plan for ... required diagnostic services,
support staff, plant operations and maintenance personnel which maintains the current
outpatient clinic volume and retains staff to operate a 20,000 visit per year urgent care
center.
2. Clinical staff not required to maintain services will be reassigned first to meet staffing
needs for the replacement beds at Harbor-UCLA and Rancho. After these needs are
met, remaining clinical staff will be reassigned to other County health facilities.
3. Administrative and support staff not needed to run the outpatient services or to
implement this significant transition will be subject to the workforce reduction plan.
4. DHS has retained Health Management Associates (HMA), a clinic redesign consultant,
to develop a new patient flow staffing plan for outpatient, diagnostic and urgent care and
identify appropriate staffing levels for these clinics.
5. DHS has established the MLK-H Transition Team that includes leadership from Health
Services Administration and MLK-H. This team will oversee the closing of inpatient
services at MLK-H, the implementation ... staff reassignments and other on-
site actions required.
(end of quote)

I wonder why the clinical staff (item 2) is being treated differently from the administrative and support staff (item 3). It looks as if the nurses who neglected patients and the doctors who falsified their time cards will be inflicted on other County hospitals, while less exalted employees are being fired. Or am I missing something?

The entire letter can be browsed at http://lacounty.info/bos/sop/supdocs/34092.pdf

[goclark]

3. It's closure will spell the end of any quality health care

for the surrounding hospitals as well.

It's a mess at all LA hospital other than St. Johns and Cedars.

[Lionel Mandrake]

5. Emergency Rooms are in especially bad shape

in and around Los Angeles. Other ERs were already closed before the melt-down at King-Harbor. The next year will be very difficult, and not just in the neighborhood of King-Harbor, as you correctly pointed out. Maybe, just maybe, things will improve after that.

[goclark]

6. Brotman in Culver City is a mess

The Nursing staff is at the breaking point IMO.
The last time a relative of mine was in Brotman, I had to hire a Private Duty Nurse because I was afraid to leave them without
a Nurse that checked the room when the buzzer rang. No service, I mean No Service.

This by the way was a Blue Cross/ Medicare patient.

It doesn't matter -- the care is terrible in a once lovely hospital.

So sad.
It's SICKO!!

[Lionel Mandrake]

8. That's terrible.

When there aren't enough nurses, service usually deteriorates but doesn't go to zero. If what you say is correct, then laws have been broken and the hospital deserves to lose its accreditation. I have to wonder how it stays in business.

[sandnsea]

9. Who's planning to buy it

If they can figure out how to make it profitable, they can figure out how to make it functional. They know what's wrong, they just won't fix it because they want to sell it.

[Lionel Mandrake]

10. AFAIK Nobody wants to buy it.

The five county supervisors haven't made up their minds what they want to do with it. They may have a hard time agreeing to a long-range plan.

[sandnsea]

11. Yes, there is talk of privatization

I've read it in other articles. Some company will buy this and solve whatever the problem is, and then that will be proof of the dangers of 'government health care'. Wait and see.