Funds at Risk Over Use of Taser

For the second time in six months, federal health inspectors have threatened to cut off funding to the troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center for allowing police to use Taser stun guns to subdue psychiatric patients.

In June, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services warned the Los Angeles County-owned hospital that it relied too heavily on county police to shoot aggressive mental patients with incapacitating jolts of electricity. Hospital staff, inspectors said, should try less extreme methods first.

At the time, King/Drew pledged to retrain its staff and limit use of the stun guns to situations in which a patient was breaking the law.

Yet last month, inspectors found, staff again called county police to subdue a patient without having taken adequate steps to control the person beforehand. The police used a Taser gun. No further details on the incident, or the patient involved, were available Saturday, nor could U.S. health officials be reached for comment.

Late Friday, federal inspectors warned the hospital that its actions placed patients in “immediate jeopardy.” By law, King/Drew has 23 days to find a solution to the problem. Otherwise, it could lose about $200 million in federal funding -- more than half its budget.

The warning marks the third time this year that the Medicare agency has threatened to cut off funding to King/Drew, a 233-bed hospital in Willowbrook, south of Watts, that serves a mostly minority population. The first threat was made in March after systemic errors were found in the administration of medications to patients at the hospital.

Fred Leaf, chief operating officer of the county Department of Health Services, said the latest incident was “really disturbing,” because after the June report, staff got 12 hours of training in how to manage aggressive patients.

The staff members were told to copiously document all their actions before calling in safety police, Leaf said, and in this case it appears they did not.

“It was drilled and drilled and drilled,” he said. “It just makes me question even further the commitment of the staff in that particular facility.... You can do all the training you want and you can establish all the protocols and procedures you want, but unless individuals take responsibility and perform properly, you’re going to continue to have these kind of problems.”

In a memo late Friday to the county Board of Supervisors, Leaf said the health department had reassigned the police officer involved in the latest Taser incident and would make other policy changes this week to safeguard the hospital’s federal funding. It is rare for such funding to be pulled; usually the threat is enough to correct a problem.

Supervisor Gloria Molina said Saturday that she wanted the hospital workers involved to tell the board in person why they ignored clear policies.

“I’m tired of listening to our directors,” she said of county health officials. “I need to know who the [hospital] supervisor was of these pinheads, and hopefully get the pinheads in with us.... What is it they don’t understand with this issue?

“I have no idea what is wrong with this crew,” she added. “They are putting us in the utmost of jeopardy here. We could be sanctioned to the point where [federal regulators] could close us down tomorrow if they want to.”

Even before this year, King/Drew had been warned about use of Tasers at the hospital. In April 2002, it banned their use after being cited by state health inspectors.

County officials lifted the moratorium in March 2003 after they determined that the Taser was a useful tool but that police needed additional training.

The latest incident occurred shortly after the hospital’s day-to-day operations were turned over to Navigant Consulting Inc., a group of outside experts being paid $13.2 million to fix King/Drew over the next year. The consultants are assessing the hospital and plan to issue a lengthy reform plan Jan. 3.

The other two threats to funding occurred while Leaf and other county managers were running the hospital.

Taser guns fire two darts connected to thin electrical wires, and can hit someone as far away as 21 feet. The darts can deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity over five seconds, immobilizing a person and causing him or her to fall down.

Use of the Taser has been controversial. Dozens of criminal suspects have died in custody after police employed the device, although the manufacturer maintains that medical examiners have attributed the deaths to other causes, such as drug overdoses. The device causes minor skin burns and can inflict serious injuries if the darts strike the eyes, neck, genitals or open mouth. Violent muscle spasms sometimes cause people to suffer injuries when they fall.

The guns are used primarily by law enforcement to subdue suspected criminals, but the manufacturer, Taser International Inc., has said sales to hospitals are increasing.