Former King Hospital Administrator Calls His Removal Unfair

William Delgardo, who was replaced as administrator of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, said Thursday that the action by county supervisors was unfair and blamed health care problems at the hospital on inadequate funding.

“I was asked a question of did I think it’s fair?” Delgardo told reporters after giving the county a status report on the Watts hospital. “Certainly, I don’t think it’s fair.”

Members of the Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital Authority, which issues bonds to finance construction at the hospital but is not empowered to act as an advisory board, expressed support for Delgardo, who was transferred by the supervisors Tuesday to an administrative position at the Department of Health Services.

“We’d all like to see Mr. Delgardo running the hospital, but what can we do?” asked Terence Lee, the panel’s president.

Delgardo told the panel that the county hospital, which shoulders an enormous patient load, including about 1,200 emergency ambulance runs a month, lacks sufficient funding and staffing to handle its heavy caseload.

He said the health care problem cited in a series of state and federal reports exists at other county hospitals, and he charged that King had been unfairly singled out.

Asked by Commissioner Jerry Godell whether he believed that the charges were racially motivated--as South Los Angeles community activists have alleged--Delgardo said, “You’ll have to draw your own conclusions.”

The decision to replace Delgardo with Ed Renford, former chief of staff for administration for the Health Department’s hospital division, was made by supervisors at the urging of Health Department Director Robert Gates.

Earlier this month, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn called for a county investigation of “serious charges of substandard health care” based on a series of articles in The Times. The articles, he said, pointed out “poor administration, a lack of highly skilled medical staff and a severe shortage of space, staff and funding to adequately deal with the hospital’s increasing load.”

The move came a day after federal officials notified hospital officials of plans to cut off $60 million in public health care funds to King on Dec. 21, effectively closing the hospital unless the health care deficiencies are corrected.

Two reports prepared by state health officials earlier this month cited the hospital for massive, wide-ranging deficiencies in administrative leadership, quality assurance, infection controls, nursing, dietary services and physical environment.