Accreditation Council Revokes Certification for Neonatology Residency Program at King/Drew Medical Center
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has revoked certification for the neonatology residency program at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports. The neonatology program, which effectively will be shut down in June 2005, is the third training program at the hospital to lose its certification in recent months (Ornstein, Los Angeles Times, 5/6). ACGME first recommended closing the neonatal program last December (California Healthline, 1/13). According to the Times, ACGME "rarely takes such action against one training program at a hospital, let alone three." Harry Douglas, interim president of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, which administers residency programs at King/Drew, said that ACGME closed the program because it did not treat enough sick infants to train physicians adequately, "among other things," the Times reports. He added, "It was sort of expected, but we were looking for a different kind of decision." Dr. Roberta Bruni, a neonatologist, said that she thought ACGME "was out to shut down the entire hospital," according to the Times. Bruni added that ACGME "referr[ed] to numbers and data that don't have any base in reality. I think it's just a game they're playing with us" (Los Angles Times, 5/6).
This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.