The troubled Martin Luther King/Charles Drew Medical Center has
suffered yet another setback ““ the loss of accreditation by
the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Heathcare
Organizations.
For a hospital which has already seen its trauma center shut
down and its training programs cut back, this latest blow puts the
facility on the brink of total disaster.
Immediate consequences will include the transfer of some
patients to other hospitals and the refusal of several private
insurance companies to pay for patient care at King/Drew. The
hospital is also in danger of having its residency programs halted,
which would mean new doctors ““ including those from
UCLA’s medical program ““ could not train at the
facility. The change would surely weaken the education of young
doctors who need to be exposed to the harsh health realities of
poor communities.
Worse, $200 million in federal funding could be lost if Medicare
and Medicaid no longer approve of the facility. The closure of
King/Drew would open a gap in an already strained healthcare
network.
The County of Los Angeles must do everything in its power to
save King/Drew and reverse the growing trend of hospital closures
““ and it will need state and federal help to continue to
serve its community.
King/Drew needs to be reformed, but to abandon this much-needed
facility is an unacceptable option.