Los Angeles, Ca - Health Care

Before it was recently closed, Martin Luther Kingtrauma center was located over ten miles away.
Jr.-Harbor Hospital was a public hospital in LosIn 1966, a medical task force was formed to
Angeles, CA that was run by the Los Angelesexamine the matter. Actual construction began in
County Department of Health Services. For aApril 1968. It opened in 1972 as a full-service
while, there had been widely discussed problemsmedical center and was viewed as a source of
related to endemic incompetence andpride and jobs in the community.
mismanagement, which ultimately caused theDespite this excellent start, after 2000 an array
available number of hospital beds to be decreasedof problems rocked the hospital. It was known by
to only 42. In the past three years, over 200the dubious nickname of 'Killer King' and was the
hospital employees had either been terminated orobject of a number of special investigations by
resigned for disciplinary reasons.local newspapers.
In 2000, before its crisis and closing, the hospitalOn August 10, after failing a comprehensive
possessed 537 beds and was the teaching hospitalreview by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and
for Charles R. Drew University of Medicine andMedicaid Services, 200 million dollars in federal
Science. Located near high crime areas, thefunding was canceled. The emergency room was
hospital had a very involved trauma unit. Duringclosed later that day and the rest of the hospital
2003, it treated over 2,000 gunshot wounds andby August 27. Employees were reassigned to
other such life-threatening injuries.jobs at other county facilities.
Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital'sAt a later Los Angeles County board meeting, a
establishment was due to the 1965 Watts Riots124-page report by federal inspectors was
when it was determined that poor access torevealed that detailed dozens of errors and
adequate healthcare was one of the contributingfailures by hospital employees during the fateful
factors to the unrest. Tellingly, the closest publicreview.