State imposes fines on medical centers

State health officials fined nine California hospitals Thursday for infractions that put patients at imminent risk of injury or death, including a notorious case at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in May in which a woman died after writhing unattended on the floor of the emergency room lobby.

Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, and Kaiser Foundation Hospital Santa Clara were among the hospitals fined. King-Harbor and one other hospital, Feather River Hospital in Paradise, were fined for two infractions each.

Each fine is for $25,000, the most allowed under the first phase of a law that went into effect Jan. 1. The hospitals have 10 days to file a notice of appeal.

The fines are the first the state has levied against hospitals. And the penalties will bring hospitals in line with nursing homes and health plans, which already had been subject to fines. Hospital industry representatives had managed until last year’s legislative session to resist fines, but their opposition was undermined by a series of transplant fiascoes in recent years and by the long history of lapses at King-Harbor, formerly known as King-Drew.

The new law is intended to give state regulators more teeth, said Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the Center for Healthcare Quality at the California Department of Public Health.

With fines, she said, “There is a sense of immediacy and responsiveness on the part of the provider to correct or modify the processes that have led to these quality problems.”

Glenn Melnick, a health economist for Rand Corp., agreed, even though the fine in question -- which can reach $50,000 as the law is phased in -- is half the amount that can be levied against nursing homes.

“The dollar amount of the fine is only one potential source of leverage,” he said. “What is the impact on the hospital’s reputation in the community? What’s the impact on the staff and the people who work there? If they take it seriously, that could be much more important than a $25,000 fine.”

In a statement, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, which was fined for failing to follow policies and procedures for the safe administration of medication, said that hospital officials were taking the matter “very seriously.”

“In collaboration with the California Department of Public Health, we have conducted a thorough investigation of this incident and taken appropriate action to protect all patients’ safety while in our facility,” the statement said.

Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, which was fined for being unaware of a drug’s possible adverse effects, issued a statement that said, “The state notified the hospital late in the day on March 20. . . that its practices did not conform with Medicare standards of participation. Overnight, the hospital developed a plan of corrective action which was accepted by the state the next morning at 9 a.m.”

As for King-Harbor, the Los Angeles County-owned hospital closed its emergency room and in-patient beds in August after failing a string of federal inspections and losing federal funding. It now offers urgent care and out-patient clinics but no hospital services.

“Both of the incidents described are unacceptable and do not reflect the department’s commitment to operate our hospitals in a manner that meets state and federal standards,” said Bruce Chernof, director and chief medical officer of the county Department of Health Services, in a written statement.

The second incident involved a 38-year-old man with a headache and swelling in the brain who languished in the emergency room for four days in February before his family drove him to another hospital, where he received emergency surgery.

The other hospitals fined were: Enloe Medical Center in Chico; Hanford Community Medical Center; Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno; and Universal Health Services of Rancho Springs (Southwest Healthcare Systems) in Murietta.

mary.engel@latimes.com