Los Angeles News

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― The county-run hospital derided as "Killer King" is closing, and public health officials are diverting ambulances to other area hospitals.

Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital's emergency room stopped accepting patients at 7 p.m. Friday night, and the rest of the Willowbrook hospital is expected to close over the next two weeks, according the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

No one at the hospital has commented publicly -- employees in the emergency room and on the nursing staff declined speak, saying they were told not to talk to reporters. None mentioned who told them to be quiet.

The hospital, which was known as Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center until it lost its accreditation as a teaching hospital, failed a federal inspection that will result in the suspension of MediCal and Medicare funding -- about $200 million a year or about half of its operating budget.

"I speak on behalf of the entire Department of Health Services when I say how disappointed we all are that the hospital failed to meet the national standards of care despite the best efforts of hundreds and hundreds of dedicated employees," said Dr. Bruce Chernof, county health director.

Though local politicians hope to find a private operator to reopen the hospital, this most recent failure spells the temporary end of the struggling institution, which was built in the wake of the 1965 Watts riots to treat the city's poor, uninsured and undocumented.

Approximately 47,000 people per year went to the facility at 120th Street and Wilmington Avenue, according to public health officials.

One patient -- Edith Isabel Rodriguez -- was ignored by staffers as she writhed in pain on the floor of the emergency room and threw up blood before being handed off to county police, in whose custody she died on May 9. An autopsy showed she died of a perforated bowel.

Around the same time, another patient -- Juan Ponce -- languished for four days in the emergency room before relatives transported him to a different facility, where he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

In late July, a 13-member team from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspected the hospital for more than a week. On Friday the county was told that the hospital failed in eight out 23 areas, officials said.

The federal agency found fault with its governing body, handling of patients rights, quality assessment/performance improvement, nursing services, pharmaceutical services, physical environment, infection control and emergency services.

Hospital CEO Antionette Smith Epps got a letter saying the serious failures included: a lack of supervision for ER patients who are a danger to themselves or others; patients placed at serious risk of exposure to tuberculosis; staffers unable to locate critical equipment and medications on the pediatric emergency cart, and unable to correctly calculate dosages for medication administered to pediatric patients; and staffers failing to analyze pharmacy data adequately for medication errors.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, whose district includes the hospital, said she was disappointed with the results and L.A. County needs to find an alternative to care for tens of thousands of people who rely on public health care.

Trauma patients will be transferred to one of seven private hospitals that will be reimbursed for services by the county -- California Hospital Medical Center, Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center, Downey Regional Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Bellflower, Memorial Hospital of Gardena, St. Francis Medical Center and White Memorial Medical Center.

Local hospitals are already under pressure due to other recent hospital closings.

"Capacity -- hospital and emergency department capacity -- is always a concern," said Jennifer Bayer, director of public affairs for the Hospital Association of Southern California. "Also considering this is the fifth hospital to close in recent times."

MLK-Harbor will now run an urgent care clinic for 16 hours per day. Authorities expect it will handle approximately 180,000 visits per year.

The Department of Health Services will continue to operate three newly refurbished surgical suites at MLK-Harbor.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said the closing of the hospital should serve as an impetus "to reach out to the people in South Central Los Angeles, who've been victimized by this facility, to have the same type of treatment that we're able to provide to those at UCLA-Harbor, USC Medical Center, Olive-View Hospital and Rancho Los Amigos Hospital."

Antonovich blamed political correctness for allowing incompetence to flourish.

"The blame is for allowing political correctness to operate a facility at substandard levels. I get incensed when I see political leaders demonstrating to keep mediocrity in place," he said.

The Board of Supervisors plans to meet Monday at noon to decide on its next plan of action.

The hospital employs about 1,600 people, and it has not been made clear if anyone would lose their job. Most employees were expected to be given jobs at other county medical facilities.

The facility has been the butt of jokes for many years.

From 1972 until last year, residents from Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science trained at hospital. That partnership, however, was ended last year due to accreditation problems, and Drew University has since filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the county.

The county attempted to save the hospital, spending tens of millions of dollars on consultants and firing hundreds of workers. But, in the end, all the efforts failed.

King-Harbor has not been in compliance with Medicare standards since January 2004; a time frame some experts say was unprecedented and would not have been tolerated at other hospitals.

The Los Angeles Times published a five-part series published in December 2004 that displayed how the hospital had become one of the worst in the country, largely because county supervisors failed to take aggressive action for fear of being branded racist.

The city of Atlanta dealt with a similar situation at Grady Memorial Hospital, which was also derided as substandard for decades. However, the nearly 1,000-bed hospital now is considered one of the best public medical centers in the nation. Unfortunately, t is also so mired in debt that its future is in jeopardy.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)