Study Slanted to ‘Castrate’ Hospital, Director Says

The director of Burbank Community Hospital Friday denounced a report by county health officials that said the facility did not ensure quality health care for its patients.

“This kind of thing is castrating this hospital and the 350 employees who make their livelihood here,” said Jurral Rhee, administrator of the 103-bed hospital. He called the investigators “overzealous,” adding that he will appeal the report’s conclusion to the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, which conducted the inquiry.

Rhee added that he feels the media have slanted county health officials’ perspective of the hospital’s operation. “There are deficiencies, to be sure, but not enough to merit bad press,” Rhee said. “The damage is irreparable.”

The county health investigators determined that Burbank Community Hospital’s administrators, doctors and board members were negligent in recent months in providing emergency care and in monitoring the quality of medical care provided.

The report, released Thursday, said that Burbank Community “failed to assure that properly trained and qualified personnel were assigned to the emergency department.” It also criticized Rhee’s management of the hospital, saying that the number of deficiencies found by investigators showed that he “had not exercised his responsibility to manage the hospital.” The report said that Rhee had not always informed the board of trustees of problems at the hospital.

Deficiencies Called Not Unusual

Rhee said the deficiencies cited in the report were not unusual. “If a report were done on the Cadillac of hospitals, it would look like this,” he said.

Rhee said he was particularly stung by the county’s criticism of his performance. “This is a personal attack on me,” he said. “I’ve never seen an attack like this. I don’t like to see my reputation besmirched, and then let it go. Nobody asked me about my 32-year successful record running six hospitals.”

The investigation into Burbank Community’s operation intensified last month when a transient, Robert Parks, whom the hospital had treated for lice, was found collapsed outside the hospital the following day. Physicians refused to readmit Parks, saying he already had been properly treated.

Burbank police transported Parks to County-USC Medical Center, where he was admitted in serious condition. Doctors there said Parks was suffering from anemia, dehydration, malnutrition and alcohol withdrawal.

Indigent Care Studied

Investigators had been studying at least four other cases in which indigent patients died at Burbank Community, were denied treatment or needed further hospitalization after doctors there released them. But there was no mention in the report of how those indigent patients were treated.

“What happened to those cases?” Rhee said. “We’re scot clean on them. So why was there the need for this validation report if they determined the treatment was appropriate?”

Rhee also was angry at last week’s order by county health officials that paramedics stop transporting patients to Burbank Community’s emergency room. He said he was not told why the traffic was halted. “If there were no serious problems, they could have just chastised us,” he said. “Why did they have to shut us off?”

He said he will hold a news conference next week to answer specific criticisms in the report.