Use of Taser Spurs Change

Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center plans to stop using police officers to deal with agitated psychiatric patients, in response to a threat by federal health regulators to pull the hospital’s funding.

Last week, for the second time in six months, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services warned the Los Angeles County-owned hospital that it relied too heavily on county police to subdue aggressive mental patients with Taser stun guns.

Because King/Drew staff did not try less extreme methods first, federal inspectors determined, they placed patients in “immediate jeopardy.”

King/Drew plans to replace police with mental health workers to calm patients, hospital officials wrote to the Medicare agency Wednesday.

Until the new workers can be hired, the hospital said, it would forbid police officers from bringing weapons when they’re called, unless a patient commits a crime.

Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the county Department of Health Services, said similar changes also would be made at the county’s other public hospitals.

King/Drew’s plan of correction has been accepted by the federal agency, but inspectors plan to return to ensure that it has been implemented.

If they are not satisfied that patients are out of harm’s way, King/Drew could lose about $200 million in federal funding -- more than half its budget.

It is rare for such funding to be pulled; usually the threat is enough to correct a problem.

The Medicare agency has three times this year threatened to cut off funding to King/Drew, a 233-bed hospital in Willowbrook, south of Watts, that serves a mostly minority population.

The first threat was made in March after systemic errors were found in the administration of medications to patients.

The second came in June, related to Taser use.

Taser guns fire two darts connected to thin electrical wires, which can reach 21 feet.

The darts can deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity over five seconds, immobilizing a person and causing him or her to fall.

Use of the Taser has been controversial.

Dozens of criminal suspects have died in custody after police used the device.

The manufacturer, however, maintains that medical examiners have attributed the deaths to other causes, such as drug overdoses.