Shake-Up Possible at King Hospital

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday scheduled a closed-door meeting for next week to discuss a possible personnel shake-up at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in response to what they described as “reports of poor administration and substandard patient care” at the county-run hospital in Watts.

“The hospital’s reputation has been seriously damaged, and its ability to provide quality patient care for the people of South-Central Los Angles is being questioned,” Supervisor Pete Schabarum said in requesting the meeting.

“It is necessary for the Board of Supervisors to take swift and aggressive action to make administrative changes at the hospital to deal with various shortcomings that have been alleged . . . and to restore community trust,” he said.

Supervisors earlier this month ordered a health department investigation of the hospital after a series of articles appeared in The Times, which the county board said pointed out problems of “poor administration, a lack of highly skilled medical staff and a severe shortage of space, staff and funding” at King.