Determination on King/Drew Medical Center Administration Transfer Could Take 12 Months, Report Says
A determination of the feasibility of an option under which Los Angeles County would transfer the administration of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center to a private operator could take six to 12 months, according to a report compiled by Shattuck Hammond Partners, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The transfer of the administration of King/Drew is one of the options for the hospital that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will consider next month. According to the report, to determine the feasibility of the move, the board must:
- Decide which medical services the hospital would offer;
- Determine employment options for current staff members; and
- Establish which financial protections the county would offer to a private operator.
In addition to the possible transfer of the administration of King/Drew, the board also is considering closing the hospital temporarily, reducing services at the facility, ending the relationship between the facility and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and continuing current operations (Ornstein/Leonard, Los Angeles Times, 6/27).
In related news, the Times on Monday examined the opening of the Women's Health Center of Excellence at King/Drew last month. The center serves about 70 patients daily and offers many obstetrical and gynecological services in a single location, according to the Times (Durrani/Thermos, Los Angeles Times, 7/25).
KPCC's "AirTalk" on Monday included an update on King/Drew. The segment includes comments from Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Times reporter Charles Ornstein and Navigant Director Kae Robertson (Mantle, "AirTalk," KPCC, 7/25). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
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