Los Angeles County Supervisors Order ‘Corrective Action Plan’ for King-Drew Medical Center

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered the county Department of Health Services to prepare a "corrective action plan" by Jan. 7 to "ensure the maintenance" of graduate education and residency programs at Martin Luther King-Drew Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports (Los Angeles Times, 12/11). County officials on Monday announced that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has withdrawn the accreditation of a diagnostic radiology program at King-Drew. The council found a number of problems in the program, such as inadequate supervision of residents in the emergency room. The council also found that between 1997 and 2001, only 15.4% of residents who took oral board certification examinations passed the first time that they took the exams. King-Drew plans to appeal the withdrawal of accreditation, which takes effect in June 2004, but the hospital will no longer accept new radiology residents. The council plans to review the graduate medical education office at King-Drew in April (California Healthline, 12/10).