Troubles Persist at Hospital

Two recent cases in which disturbed patients endangered themselves at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center have highlighted problems with mental health services at the troubled public hospital.

Last Friday, a 16-year-old patient ran out of the pediatrics ward, kicked out a glass window in a fifth-floor office and threatened to jump from a building ledge. After 45 minutes, he was persuaded to return inside after talking to his mother, according to a report from the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety. The hospital, in Willowbrook, near Watts, is owned by the county.

On Christmas Day, a suicidal patient was left alone in a psychiatric room and tied a shoelace to the fire sprinkler system in what staff members considered a suicidal gesture. The patient was found before he hurt himself, but the unit was flooded, according to the county Department of Health Services.

The two incidents come at a precarious time for the hospital. The federal government has threatened to cut off funds -- about $200 million a year -- as of next Friday because of King/Drew’s inappropriate handling of psychiatric patients.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has concluded that hospital staff relied too heavily on county police to shoot aggressive mental patients with Taser stun guns instead of trying less extreme methods first. (The officers work for the county Office of Public Safety and are stationed at the hospital.)

The threat to King/Drew’s funding will be lifted if the hospital passes an inspection before that date, regulators said.

Representatives of Navigant Consulting, which is running day-to-day operations at King/Drew, declined to provide details on the suicidal gestures, citing patient privacy.

But Kae Robertson, a Navigant director, said the hospital was increasing oversight of physician trainees and attempting to hire temporary psychiatrists to improve coverage on some shifts. County supervisors have also allocated $1.5 million to renovate psychiatric patient rooms to make them safer.

“There should not be a sprinkler system that’s exposed in a psychiatric unit,” Robertson said. “It never should have been there to begin with.... You shouldn’t have anything that is protruding in a way that anyone can cause harm to themselves.”

After the Dec. 25 incident, the hospital took disciplinary action against a resident physician and a nurse, Robertson said.

In addition, the hospital changed its policies so that staff members keep constant watch over suicidal patients and take away any potentially harmful clothing objects -- such as belts and shoelaces. Those policies should have been in place in the past but were not, Robertson said.

The hospital reported the most recent suicidal gesture, as required, to the federal Medicare agency, and regulators are investigating it, said Jeff Flick, the agency’s regional administrator.