At Last . . .

Los Angeles County officials are at last moving to reorganize the administration of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. Time will determine whether they have moved fast enough to preserve the federal and state funding that are essential to the operation.

The reorganization seems to have come reluctantly and belatedly, as much as a year after facts had made clear that the hospital was not meeting basic standards and that patients’ lives were at risk. Indeed, the central action of the reform, transferring the administrator, reportedly was weighed months ago but abandoned in the face of community support for the incumbent. Now there will be an interim administrator while a national search is conducted for a permanent leader.

The action followed word from the U.S. Health Care Finance Administration that the hospital would lose about $60 million in annual federal funding effective Dec. 21 unless the egregious problems at the hospital had been corrected.

That warning came after state officials had uncovered serious defects in all of the major areas of operation, indicating a deplorable breakdown in supervision and administration. The county will respond to the state report on Friday and to the federal report within two weeks. Those responses will measure the seriousness of the reform plan.

In the meantime, the audit inspection unit of the County Department of Health Services is completing an internal investigation, with a report promised within two weeks. Unfortunately, the county appears to be resisting bringing in expert, independent, outside professionals to monitor the reform process. Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner is on record as favoring expansion of the Board of Supervisors’ own investigation to include medical and health-care experts outside the County Department of Health Services. California abounds with nationally recognized authorities in all of the affected areas. Their expertise needs to be mobilized, and quickly.

The special meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday was called because county officials “have known for a long time that there are operational problems at King--that it’s not just a funding problem, but that there’s a need for a shift and change in management,” according to the senior deputy of Supervisor Pete Schabarum. That’s an extraordinary admission, seeming to confirm the earlier finding of state investigators that the supervisors had failed in their legally mandated responsibility to supervise the hospital and assure its quality.

The medical center is one of the most important links in the fragile health-care system of the county. Its staff includes many outstanding professionals who have served there at personal sacrifice and with distinction. Their commitment, and the commitment of the hospital to provide quality care to South Central Los Angeles have been betrayed by those who have failed to provide prudent, appropriate leadership and supervision and support.