A remedy for health services
Re “New blood,” Opinion, April 24
Robert Tranquada is qualified to comment on the crisis at Los Angeles County Health Services Department. He has worked in the department as a caregiver and administrator and knows firsthand why the county personnel and budget systems are not responsive to the requirements of a modern medical facility.
As he explains, the only solution to this crisis is to remove the Health Services Department from county administrative control and place it in an independent health authority.
This was also the recommendation of Liston A. Witherill, the department’s founding director. He pointed out that other major jurisdictions, such as New York, divorced their healthcare system from city control and established successful independent hospital corporations.
It may be difficult for the Board of Supervisors to collectively realize that it must completely divest itself from the healthcare field, but until it does, there will be no end to the county’s continual health services crises.
Robert Banning
Pasadena
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