County-USC admits overcrowding is worse

Overcrowding grew worse this summer at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, hospital officials acknowledged Tuesday.

During July, emergency room overcrowding at the county’s flagship hospital was considered “dangerous” eight hours each day, according to Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who cited a report on conditions presented by the Department of Health Services.

In contrast, in June, the emergency room was “dangerously overcrowded” less than four hours a day.

The deteriorating situation at the 600-bed County- USC, located northeast of downtown L.A., coincides with county officials’ confirmation Tuesday that federal officials threatened to revoke government Medicare funding because of an overcrowding-related issue.

The government inspection occurred on May 13 and 14, just days after an emergency room patient alleged that patients faced excessively long emergency room waits.

Government inspectors found one patient on May 13 who arrived complaining of weakness and confusion and waited more than 15 hours before getting a medical screening examination. That patient had had brain surgery earlier that month and was taken to the emergency room by ambulance after passing out in her parents’ arms, the report said.

Another patient, who had previously had a stroke and complained of a headache and weakness in her upper and lower extremities, was scheduled to wait almost seven hours before receiving a medical screening exam after she arrived at the emergency room on May 4. She left without being seen.

County-USC chief executive officer Pete Delgado said government inspectors found no cases of patients harmed.

Officials agreed that long waiting times were not ideal. But County-USC’s chronic overcrowding has no easy solution. The hospital moved to a new but smaller facility in 2008, losing more than 220 inpatient beds.

“Currently, we have eked out high efficiency in a facility that has reached its maximum capacity,” said Dr. Stephanie Hall, the hospital chief medical officer. “Until we have additional capacity, we predict this will continue.... Our capacity remains finite.”

Molina expressed displeasure with plans to pay another hospital to take more County-USC patients, noting that the contract calls for only 15 additional beds.

“That’s not going to fix it,” she said.

In July, Molina and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas introduced a proposal to study adding 150 more beds to County-USC.

But funding such an addition could prove difficult for the county, which has a projected deficit of nearly $600 million for its health services agency for the current and previous fiscal years.

“We have no money. We have no financial resources to expand our services in order to meet this growing demand,” said Carol Meyer, chief network officer for the Department of Health Services.

ron.lin@latimes.com