LIBERAL HEALTH CARE--EVERY HOSPITAL A KING!:

County Might Outsource Hospital: A critical King/Drew audit builds support for the idea. Also, the state could force its closure. (Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, June 28, 2005, LA Times)

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors may hand over Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center to a private company after nearly two years of failed attempts to correct patient care lapses and mismanagement at the beleaguered public hospital.

County supervisors, who ordered a study of the idea last month, now are giving it new urgency after yet another federal government inspection found medical errors, misconduct and a troubling death at the 33-year-old hospital south of Watts. A vote could take place as early as August, and at least three of the five supervisors — Mike Antonovich, Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky — express some support for the idea.

Antonovich said county health department leaders for months have assured the board that the millions spent to overhaul King/Drew were paying off.

"And then the [health] inspector comes in and tells the authorities that this is an illusion, you're delusionary," he said Monday. "The only way to save the facility is to outsource it."

Knabe said: "We need to have a Plan B. We've tried everything."

"The only way" to completely fix King/Drew, he added, "is to shut it down for a while, to get new people in there, and to change the culture of the entire hospital."