Supervisors glum on King-Harbor

Los Angeles County supervisors expressed serious doubts Tuesday that Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital would pass a federal inspection next month that could determine its survival as a public hospital.

Board members also accused county health officials of providing misleading information about recent reform efforts at the long-troubled Willowbrook facility.

“I believe the guillotine’s going to fall in 11 days,” Supervisor Mike Antonovich said, echoing the dismay of other board members.

The supervisors’ comments, among the most dire yet about King-Harbor, followed reports in The Times on Tuesday indicating that substandard care continues to put patients at risk and that a large number of staff members can’t pass basic skills tests.

A recent report by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, made public Monday, found that out of 60 emergency room cases reviewed, 17 had been mishandled. As a result, federal regulators found that the hospital puts ER patients in “immediate jeopardy” of harm or death.

Separately, about 60% of the hospital’s registered and licensed vocational nurses recently failed parts of competency examinations.

Last year, county health officials persuaded regulators to hold off on plans to pull critical federal funding by promising wholesale changes. They included purging most of the staff and handing over control to the highly respected Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

In recent days, however, health officials have conceded that most staffers remained in place. And some supervisors have said that Harbor’s role appears to be less aggressive than they had envisioned.

“I’m losing hope,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told county health officials summoned to the hearing. “Can you tell me why ... I should have any level of confidence that we’re going to pass this” upcoming review?

Supervisor Gloria Molina scolded health officials for failing to understand -- and convey -- the gravity of the situation.

“Somehow I feel that you don’t sense the urgency that we feel,” Molina said to King-Harbor’s chief executive, Antionette Smith Epps.

King-Harbor, formerly known as King/Drew, has failed to meet minimum federal standards for patient care since January 2004.

A series of patient deaths has been linked to lapses in care and outright negligence. Despite millions of dollars spent on reform efforts, the hospital has failed more than a dozen federal inspections.

Smith Epps and other top brass, including Dr. Bruce Chernof, director of the County Health Services Department, listened somberly as supervisors expressed their frustration.

“Nobody is more troubled than I am. Nobody,” Chernof said.

He insisted that King-Harbor staffers have taken “definitive action” to address some of the shortcomings highlighted by federal inspectors and said the hospital would be ready for the inspection.

Among the changes cited by Chernof: Physician assistants no longer will conduct medical screenings. (Seven of the 17 patient-care cases cited in the federal report involved physician assistants.)

With the exception of Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, whose district includes King-Harbor, the other four supervisors remained skeptical that the changes touted by Chernof would be enough.

Several said reports from health officials had provided a false impression that the hospital was on the path to reform.

“We were misleading the public,” Antonovich said. “We were being misled.”

The lapses in patient care and problems with competency by nurses and other medical staff “did not comport with what we were being told,” Yaroslavsky said. “There’s a credibility gap.”

Molina demanded to know whether standards were lower for King-Harbor employees than for workers at other county hospitals.

Miguel Ortiz-Marroquin, interim chief executive at Harbor-UCLA, said fewer than 5% of that hospital’s staff members failed their competency tests.

“Why is that not the same standard [at King-Harbor]?” Molina said. “I don’t think we’re utilizing the same standard of care” at both hospitals.

Smith Epps said nurses who failed various skills areas were prohibited from performing those functions until they passed. Although she did not provide specific figures, she said most of the nurses passed on subsequent tries.

But these and other responses plainly did not satisfy some supervisors.

“We’ve been ... told that we’re on the road to recovery,” Antonovich said. “Now we find it was a cul-de-sac.”

robert.lopez@latimes.com

susannah.Rosenblatt@ latimes.com