Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : County Orders High Desert Hospital to Replace Chief

Responding to charges of mismanagement and low morale at High Desert Hospital, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered the Lancaster hospital to replace its top administrator and submit to weekly progress reports.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who introduced the motion, said the board’s action was necessary to make sure that the hospital corrects 30 violations uncovered in a county audit released last week.

“I am troubled that the problems identified in the report have persisted for so long and that, to date, very little has been done to correct these problems,” Antonovich said in his motion.

Beginning as soon as next week, officials from the county health department will be required to give supervisors weekly updates on what corrective actions High Desert Hospital has taken.

In addition, the 170-bed hospital will also have to replace both its administrator, Roy Fleischman, and its associate administrator, Jerry Harris, in the next several months.

But because the county must conduct an outside search to find a new administrator for the hospital, the health department has recommended Fleischman be allowed to remain in his post for another six months so the hospital is not left without a boss.

Fleischman, who ran the hospital between 1978 to 1989 and assumed the top post again in December, 1993, has agreed to retire in six months, a county official said.

Fleischman was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Last year, an inspection by the county’s Radiation Management Agency uncovered seven violations in the handling of radioactive materials at the hospital. But inspectors concluded that those errors did not threaten the health of patients or employees.

In the most recent investigation at the hospital, however, the health services department audit charged hospital management with “questionable decisions, lack of timely action and poor judgment.”

Among the violations uncovered by the study was that the hospital had taken no action to remove a physician charged with sexual battery from patient care duties.