Below the Radar: Regents’ Role in Reopening MLK Hospital

It has been a below-the-radar issue – given the pressing developments related to the state budget, tuition, and the pension plan – but the UC Regents agreed with LA County while all those other dramas were occurring to take responsibility of the Martin Luther King hospital. The hospital in South LA was closed due to major operating failures and failures in patient care.

Below are excerpts from an interview the current CEO of the hospital which is due to reopen in 2013:

…Currently under construction on the campus of its former home near the intersection of 120th Street and Wilmington Avenue, the new Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital — or, to give its full name, Martin Luther King Jr./Los Angeles Healthcare Corporation — is scheduled to open in 2013. Licensed for approximately 136 beds, the private, not-for-profit facility will provide in-patient primary and general acute care, basic emergency, medical and surgical services, as well as health education and outreach services. Overseen by a seven-member board, which includes two African-Americans, two Latinos and one Asian-American, the governing body was selected by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and by the University of California Board of Regents.

The Board of Regents has also agreed to provide physician services and play a leading role in developing and maintaining the new facility’s medical care quality standards. Subsequently, it will provide a chief medical officer and work to re-establish a teaching/residency program at the hospital… (V)oicing her confidence in a brighter tomorrow, MLK’s new interim CEO Melayne Yocum, a 25-year veteran of in healthcare management, sat down with The Wave to discuss how the plans for the hospital are coming along.

…How will you guard against the staff failures that led to the hospital’s closure?

…(I)t’s the county and UC system that birthed this organization and the UC’s contract is that they will provide us with a quality assurance system, just as they do in many of their other hospitals. So, we’ve already begun the discussion with them to plan out the timeline as far as getting our quality and reporting metrics sorted out. We’ll undertake an open and fair hiring process, we’ve [still] got to develop all our human resources policies and procedures, but as you may know, community hospitals generally draw their staff from an area that’s close by. For one thing, many of them need to be available fairly quickly. In our hiring, we’ll be working with the UC, so anybody who comes to work for us will need to undergo skills testing and verification and background checks, just like at any other community hospital…

…When you look at the top conditions for hospitalizations, you see they are diabetic and obesity-related. So, it’s the diabetic complications; amputations, Retna problems and chronic heart failure. Believe me, I know. I’m Native American and Native Americans have an extremely high rate of adult onset diabetes. Everyone in my family has diabetes at 55. Well, I’m over 55 and I’ve beat this thing so far, but because I know I’m predisposed to diabetes I know I need to control my weight — and as painful as it can be, I need to get out and exercise.

Full article at http://www.wavenewspapers.com/internal?st=print&id=128359923&path=/news/local/west-edition