Supervisors OK Oversight Panel for King/Drew

Taking a step that will reduce the role of Los Angeles County health officials at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to create a panel of independent healthcare experts to supervise patient care at the troubled hospital.

The creation of the new board is a key recommendation of a consulting firm the county hired to turn around the hospital, which lost its accreditation earlier this month over lapses in patient care. The Willowbrook facility, near Watts, has been threatened with losing roughly $200 million in federal funding.

Under the plan, oversight of the hospital’s patient care and physician residency programs will be placed in the hands of volunteers who are experts in finance, business and hospital management and will report directly to the supervisors, bypassing the county’s Department of Health Services.

The 66 makeup of the new board and many other details must still be decided. But supervisors decided Tuesday to push ahead with reforms recommended by Navigant Consultants Inc. for improving patient care at King/Drew.

“I think we have to demonstrate ... that we are trying to get on course to save this hospital,” Supervisor Gloria Molina said. “We might have a lot of questions, and we need a lot of answers, but I think we need to get going and get moving on this model.”

Only Supervisor Mike Antonovich voted against the proposal, saying it created an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. Patient care, he said, could be improved by holding county health officials and hospital management accountable.

“We don’t need a new committee,” he said. “What we do need is to ensure that the people responsible do their job.”

But Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the county Department of Health Services, said he favors experts overseeing the hospital.

“I’m just one person,” he said. “You can demonstrate that more heads are always better than one head.”

His department will continue to have authority over purchasing contracts along with hiring and firing employees. The new board will evaluate and make recommendations to supervisors on patient care, malpractice claims, spending, revenue and the hospital’s compliance with regulators.

Currently, a governing body made up of hospital staff and health department officials evaluates the day-to-day operations at King/Drew.

“It’s sort of the fox watching the hen house at the moment,” Kae Robertson, a director with Navigant Consulting, told supervisors. The new group, she said, “would be more challenging and more critical” because they would be independent.

Robertson proposed that all six members of a separate existing hospital advisory committee form the core of the new oversight board. That committee includes Dr. David Satcher, a former U.S. surgeon general, and Dr. Michael Drake, vice president of health affairs for the University of California system.

The new board will meet at least once a month and report to county supervisors at least once every quarter, Robertson said. Her consulting firm is scheduled to provide more details by Feb. 22 about who will serve on the board and how it will operate.