The tentaive agreement to reopen the Martin Luther King Jr. hospital is great news for Los Angeles. This will be a new opportunity to provide quality healthcare to a segment of the population that needs these services urgently.
This is an example of what can be achieved with collaboration between county and state authorities and the University of California.
King-Drew Hospital was created decades ago with hope of serving as recognition of the area’s African-American community. Over time, the level of care deteriorated to such a point that a patient was left to die in the waiting room, in full view of hospital staff who did nothing to help her.
The facility could not continue to operate this way, but the loss of the hospital would be too significant and detrimental to the Central L.A. community.
The agreement reached to reopen the hospital came after long negotiations that cleared the way for shared responsibilities in this new phase between county authorities and the University of California. The thorny issue of who will take charge of the hospital’s day-to-day operations remains unresolved.
What we know is that the new King Hospital will be a joint public-private project and that new staff will be hired to avoid bad habits of the past, among other changes. It remains to be seen whether this new arrangement will be attractive enough to secure a new management team.
The hospital is expected to resume operations in 2012. We hope the coming years are used to prepare the infrastructure necessary to serve a community that needs the medical care that only a hospital of its own can provide.
