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Troubles at King-Harbor: Full coverage of hospital in crisis
L.A.'s Public Health Crisis
Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital is set to close down soon after failing a federal inspection. The action comes after a new round of questions about care, including one in which a woman writhed on the floor of the emergency room lobby for 45 minutes before dying of a perforated bowel. No one stepped in to help her. The Willowbrook hospital, once known as King/Drew, has been plagued by allegations of poor treatment almost since its inception 35 years ago. Scroll down for the latest coverage plus The Times' 2004 series on King/Drew.Anatomy of a hospital in crisis: Check out Times Staff Writer Charles Ornstein's running timeline of problems at King-Harbor.
L.A. County supervisors act to close the hospital but hope to reopen it, and a federal report on its woes is made public.
Coverage of the events surrounding the decision to shutter the troubled medical facility.
A videotape and two 911 calls cast light on a case that might've been ignored.
With King/Drew's failure of a final federal inspection, some say it might be time for a private firm to take over the embattled facility.
The hospital will lose all federal money by year's end, throwing its fate in doubt. Supervisors will hold an emergency meeting Monday.
EDITORIAL
On the day he lost the coveted endorsement of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn called a news conference on the groomed grounds of the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center and vowed to save the struggling hospital. What he really set out to rescue was his own reelection campaign. The act was desperate and shameful.
Frustrated over recent deaths at King/Drew, supervisors order the agency's leader to move his office to the hospital and increase oversight.
Nurses didn't notice deteriorating vital signs on a patient's monitor, a county memo says.
EDITORIAL
Fixing the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center is turning out to be more difficult and costly than Los Angeles County political leaders had anticipated. To make it possible at all, the Board of Supervisors will have to go beyond its $13-million contract with a company that specializes in turning around troubled hospitals. It is going to have to set a realistic goal.
Supervisors talk of breaking ties with the university that trains its doctors. Yaroslavsky asks, 'Can this hospital survive?'
Officials believe the March cases involved critical errors, despite vows of change at the hospital. The patients were all seriously ill.
U.S. inspectors find that King/Drew nurses were ordered to lie and key drugs weren't given. Criminal inquiries could be launched.
CALIFORNIA
Politicians and residents crowd hearing to oppose the county's proposal to shut down trauma unit.
The congresswoman brings her organizing skills and trademark passion to the battle over whether the trauma unit will be closed.
Protests and appeals fail to sway four of the five county supervisors. The vote to shut the trauma center will probably happen on Tuesday.
THE STATE
Supervisors say the closure will help them save the troubled hospital, and they adopt the goal of eventually reopening the unit.
CALIFORNIA
A federal judge on Thursday allowed Los Angeles County to continue with its plan to phase out the trauma center at Martin Luther King, Jr./Drew Medical Center by denying a temporary restraining order sought by a group of doctors and residents.
The hospital could lose its accreditation, along with insurance contracts and training programs.
Politicians and others fighting to save the endangered trauma center at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center have called it "a model for the country" and "the crown jewel" of the hospital.
Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, Los Angeles County's foundering public hospital, will move to shut its prized trauma unit and hire outside turnaround experts in the biggest overhaul in its 32-year history, health officials announced today.
First 911 call: "My wife is dying, and the nurses don't want to help her out."
Second 911 call: "There's a lady on the ground ... and they are overlooking her."
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