Hospital lets patient die in front of them

LA Hospitals have been under fire for mistreatment of patients for quite a few years now. They were also recently caught dropping homeless people back on the streets and wouldn't give them medical care.

Not to be insensitive this victims situation, but this happens because people are taking advantage of the system. Hospitals are going bankrupt and are having to shut down or run with an under staffed unit.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LOS ANGELES—Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, once a symbol of hope in the inner city, struggled Wednesday to survive amid new reports of breakdowns in patient care, the replacement of its chief medical officer and an ultimatum to correct long-running problems or close.

The treatment of a woman who was ignored as she died on the floor of the emergency room last month "was callous, it was a horrible thing," Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke said.

Earlier this week, the county Board of Supervisors grilled health officials about conditions at the public hospital and ordered them to return in two weeks with a plan to deal with a hospital shutdown if it is unable to correct deficiencies laid out in a federal inspection that concluded emergency room patients were in "immediate jeopardy."

The federal decision was based, in part, on a report that in February a man with a brain tumor waited four days in the emergency room when he needed to be transferred to another facility for lifesaving brain surgery.

After the inspection last week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave the hospital 23 days to correct problems or face a loss of federal funding that provides much of its budget. That could force it to close.

Burke said the county-run hospital, which handles 49,000 emergency patients a year, is a crucial facility and efforts should be made to keep it open because nearby hospitals could not handle the load.

"I can't tell you whether it can be fixed but ... the community can not stand to lose another emergency room," she said.

Dr. Roger Peeks, the hospital's chief medical officer, was placed on "ordered absence" Monday and replaced on an interim basis by Dr. Robert Splawn, the county Department of Health Services' senior medical director. Health department spokesman Michael Wilson confirmed the change but declined to elaborate Wednesday, citing privacy requirements involving personnel matters.

Health officials are "doing everything in our power to help MLK-Harbor meet national standards," Dr. Bruce Chernof, director and chief medical officer of health department, said in a statement.

In a report to the supervisors on Tuesday, Chernof said quality of care had improved but warned that there was no "roadmap" for what he called the most difficult effort to "reinvent a failing hospital" ever undertaken in the United States.

The hospital has served "thousands of patients well and a few very poorly," he said.

Weeding out poor nursing has been a major issue. Chernof reported that 47 percent of the hospital's licensed vocational nurses failed recent nursing skills tests initially, although most passed after retraining.

The hospital, formerly known as Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center, was built in unincorporated Willowbrook several years after the 1965 Watts riot to provide badly needed medical care in the South Los Angeles area. However, it has been cited more than a dozen times in 3 1/2 years for inadequate care that has led to patient deaths and injuries.

The facility, already downsized in a multimillion-dollar reform effort, came under renewed scrutiny with release of 911 calls seeking help for a woman who lay dying and unattended on the floor of the emergency room last month.

Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, died of a perforated bowel on May 9. Her death was ruled accidental by the county coroner's office.

Relatives said she lay in pain for 45 minutes before dying, and Chernof has termed the delay "inexcusable."

A security camera may have recorded the scene but the tape was not being made public because of state laws on patient privacy, Wilson said Wednesday.

"We know we have the responsibility to make sure justice is done for our mother," said Rodriguez's son, Edmundo Rodriguez, 25.

In his report to county supervisors, Chernof said the hospital violated requirements to medically screen the woman. The person who failed to arrange the examination resigned and others in the emergency room were "counseled and written findings placed in their personnel files," his report said.

Rodriguez's boyfriend, Jose Prado, used a pay phone outside the hospital to call 911 and told a dispatcher, through a Spanish interpreter: "My wife is dying and the nurses don't want to help her out."

A second 911 call was placed eight minutes later by a woman bystander. The dispatcher argued with the woman over whether there really was an emergency, refused to call paramedics to take Rodriguez to another hospital and eventually cut off the call.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department was reviewing the handling of the 911 calls by two dispatchers from its Century station. </div>

Pressure to shut LA's King hospital after woman dies on ER floor

So now there's a possibilty for this hospital to be shutdown which will effect another 49,000 patients.

 

That's ridiculous. Last time I checked, 49,000 people were a hell of a lot more important than 1 person.