King/Drew Doctor Got Free Care

Weeks before the highest-paid doctor at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center was allowed to retire, auditors found that he had racked up nearly $11,000 in surgeries and medical tests that he didn’t pay for and, month after month, exaggerated the hours he worked.

Dr. George E. Locke, former chairman of neurosciences, resigned in February after reaching a confidential deal with Los Angeles County, which owns the hospital. He has since joined the medical staff at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center in Orange County.

As part of the deal, Locke repaid Los Angeles County in full for the medical services he received while employed at King/Drew, according to a private memo sent to the county Board of Supervisors on Thursday. The January audit estimated that his two personal surgeries and dozens of medical tests cost $10,644.

The county also agreed to provide a “neutral response” to any inquiries from Locke’s prospective employers, according to the memo from Fred Leaf, chief operating officer of the county Department of Health Services.

Locke’s attorney, Lawrence Silver, called the audit “erroneous” and said Locke had medical insurance through the county that would have covered the medical treatments. “Apparently King failed to process the claim on a timely basis, and the insurer refused to pay because the hospital made a late claim,” Silver said in an e-mail Thursday.

Locke, a longtime King/Drew leader who had worked there since 1974, was featured in a five-part Times investigation in December detailing a variety of failings at the public hospital in Willowbrook, just south of Watts.

The Times investigation found several instances in which Locke’s timecards showed him working more hours than he apparently had, including a 24-hour period in which he reportedly worked or was on-call for 26 hours.

During the 2003 and 2004 fiscal years, Locke earned more than $1 million, including his hospital salary and a stipend he received from King/Drew’s affiliated medical school, records show.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who criticized Locke’s productivity last year, said in a statement that he was “very concerned that deals were made” with Locke and called on the Medical Board of California to investigate him.

The neurosurgeon is among several hospital employees who have been allowed to resign in recent months after auditors accused them of wrongdoing.

Dr. William Long, an orthopedic surgeon, resigned last year after auditors alleged that he had falsified his timecards and referred insured King/Drew patients to his private practice. Long has denied the allegations and said the county had dropped them before he resigned.

Dr. Lawrence D. Robinson Jr., the former head of pediatrics at King/Drew, resigned under pressure in April after auditors determined that he had been working in his private practice in Lancaster while being paid to be at King/Drew. Robinson has said the moonlighting allegations resulted from misunderstandings and innocent mistakes.

Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the county health department, said he supported holding employees accountable for their actions but that it was often much more expensive to terminate staffers than to allow them to resign.

He declined to say why Locke was not fired or reported to prosecutors.

“There are trade-offs,” he said. “There is an enormous expense to defend personnel actions, especially dismissals.”

County health department auditors, in their report about Locke, determined that he did not pay for 40 services, including laboratory and other tests valued at $4,430. He also received spinal surgery in July 2000 and carpal tunnel surgery in November 2004 -- costing $6,214 -- without paying for them.

A physician who reviewed Locke’s medical records for the auditors also questioned the quality of care received by Locke from physicians that reported to him. During his carpal tunnel surgery, Locke was given five sedatives that would have been “significant in their dosing” for any patient, but particularly for Locke, who the reviewer said was “elderly and relatively thin.”

The reviewer also questioned why Locke, 70, was given a potent “sedative, hypnotic agent” after the surgery, according to the audit.

The medication “is probably a documentation error because if it is not a documentation error, then Dr. Locke was without proper monitoring and oxygen for 30 minutes,” the reviewer said, according to the audit.

The doctors involved with Locke’s care have been disciplined, county health department spokesman John Wallace said.

Despite his sedation and instructions to limit his activities for 24 hours, Locke billed for 19.5 hours of on-call pay that day -- including the hours after the surgery, the audit said.

Locke later repaid the county for those hours, according to the memo sent to supervisors Thursday.

Auditors also investigated allegations that Locke had billed for additional hours that he did not work.

The auditors randomly selected a nine-month period, January through September 2003, and compared the hours Locke logged on his timecards with records of card-key use for the parking lot he used, according to the audit. They were unable to corroborate all of the hours he reported.

Auditors found that Locke arrived at the hospital one to four hours after he indicated on his timecard. On some dates there was no record of his entering the parking lot.

County officials said that tracking employee hours in this way was not foolproof because the gate, at times, is left open.

County rules require physicians to be working at the hospital during the hours logged on their timecards.

At the Fountain Valley hospital where Locke now is on staff, Natalie Maton, director of business development, says the hospital applies “strict criteria and a careful review process” to every doctor who applies to be on staff.

“Dr. George Locke is a member in good standing of the medical staff,” appointed on May 4, 2005, she said.