HEALTH WATCH : Reform Overdue

The cure for what ails Martin Luther King Jr./ Drew Medical Center is taking far too long.

The latest revelation-- the transfusion of HIV-tainted blood to a patient who then contracted AIDS-- has prompted the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to create a Crisis Management Task Force and an advisory oversight commission to evaluate and reorganize the troubled hospital. That’s fine as long as the investigation does not get bogged down in deadly delays.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke insists that King/Drew needs a “top to bottom” reform to restore public confidence. That’s certainly true, and has been for years. At least since 1989, when The Times ran a series of articles detailing critical mistakes in patient care, acute staff shortages, poor supervision, funding problems and antiquated equipment, it has been obvious that King/Drew has been plagued with poor county oversight, problematic administration, a lack of leadership and infighting that invited compromised medical care.

King / Drew is among the many challenges facing the new county health director, Mark Finucane. He must prod the reform of the beleaguered hospital and grapple with how to provide quality public health care with diminished county funds.

The new county crisis task force and oversight commission must also deliver or the hospital will lose patients, and the professional exodus will increase.

Prompt reform is needed. Lives hang in the balance.