Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Approves Contract With Drew University for Physician Training Programs at King/Drew Medical Center
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to approve a short-term contract with Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science to administer physician-training programs at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports. The board approved the contract after adding "new toughened standards and multiple escape clauses," according to the Times.
Supervisors also heard an advisory panel's report finding that conditions at King/Drew were "fixable." The report stated that "years of neglect have recently hit King/Drew Medical Center like a Class 5 hurricane."
In addition, supervisors at the meeting "found themselves defending" a proposal announced Monday to close the trauma unit at King/Drew, the Times reports (Landsberg/Leovy, Los Angeles Times, 9/15).
KPCC's "Talk of the City" on Tuesday included an interview with Dr. Michael Lekawa, director of trauma and critical care at the University of California-Irvine, and Carol Meyer, director of the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency, about the proposal to close King/Drew's trauma unit and the status of trauma care at hospitals in Southern California (Felde, "Talk of the City," KPCC, 9/14). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.