U.S. Acts to Halt Hospital’s Funds

Federal health officials have moved to strip East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital of its Medicare funding after inspectors charged that patients in the emergency room were neglected and doctors were not properly supervised.

An investigation began last month when health officials received a complaint that an emergency room charge nurse had refused to accept a gunshot wound patient. County health officials concluded in a report released Monday that the “refusal was based upon the patient’s lack of (medical) insurance.”

Acting on the county’s recommendation, federal officials at the Health Care Financing Administration notified the 128-bed hospital on East Whittier Boulevard last week that its Medicare funding will be terminated May 16, unless the hospital can show that conditions have improved.

County health officials charged that an emergency room physician who was subsequently denied privileges at the hospital for providing “inadequate care to patients” was not supervised during the time he was at the facility. In addition, a random check by inspectors of 20 emergency room patients, showed that 12 had their vital signs checked only once during their one- to three-hour stays.

Hospital attorney Patric Hooper said he is confident the hospital will retain federal Medicare funding because “some of the alleged deficiencies are not based on fact.”

He said the hospital receives 70% of its funds from a combination of the federal Medicare and state Medi-Cal programs.