Los Angeles County Health Director Withdraws Proposal To Close Wards at King/Drew Medical Center
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday canceled a hearing scheduled for next week to discuss a plan to close the obstetrics, neonatology and pediatrics units at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports (Oldham, Los Angeles Times, 10/12).
County officials on Aug. 4 recommended closing the wards, which have 38 patients daily on average, or about 22% of King/Drew's 176 daily patients on average (California Healthline, 8/17).
County Department of Health Services Director Thomas Garthwaite withdrew the proposed plan on Friday after learning that closing the units could have jeopardized about $29 million in government funding for King/Drew (Los Angeles Times, 10/12).
County DHS officials on Friday also said that King/Drew would not be prepared to reapply for accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations until March. Previously, county officials said King/Drew would seek accreditation in December (Ornstein, Los Angeles Times, 10/11).
KPCC's "AirTalk" on Tuesday included a discussion of King/Drew. Guests on the program included Los Angeles Times staff writer Charles Ornstein and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (Mantle, "AirTalk," KPCC, 10/11). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer. In addition, KPCC's "Talk of the City" on Tuesday discussed King/Drew with Nick Roman, senior news editor at KPCC (Morrison, "Talk of the City," KPCC, 10/11). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
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