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NEWS

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            

December 2, 2008                                                                                Contact: James Bolden

 

Board Approves Supervisor Ridley-Thomas’ Request for a Plan to Help ‘Jump Start’ Process to Reopen MLK Medical Center

He calls for a detailed plan to make the facility seismic compliant 

 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY – The Board of Supervisors today approved a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas directing the County’s Chief Executive Office to collaborate with the Departments of Public Works and Health Services to develop a detailed plan to make the Martin Luther King Medical Center seismic compliant.

Earlier in the morning, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas visited the Willowbrook facility to deliver his first public announcement on his initiative to “jump start” the process of restoring full hospital and emergency room services to the area. 

“The loss of hospital services in South Los Angeles has had a profound impact on this community where there continues to be a critical need,” Supervisor Ridley-Thomas stated in his two-page motion. “The closure resulted in increased emergency and inpatient services at surrounding County and private hospitals. My top priority will be to re-open MLK Hospital, which has a long history in the County. The people of South Los Angeles need and deserve first-rate health care.”

 

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But Supervisor Ridley-Thomas made it clear that when the facility is re-opened, “the community must have a hospital in place that will ensure the delivery of first-class health care.”

Prior to its closure on August 15, 2007, MLK Medical Center provided essential emergency and inpatient medical care to the South Los Angeles community. The hospital previously provided an average daily census of approximately 255 patients, 72,000 emergency room visits and 156,000 outpatient visits in 1994-95, to 153 patients and approximately 42,000 emergency room visits and 164,000 outpatient visits in 2005-06. 

Since its closure, MLK Medical Center has functioned as a more limited multi-service ambulatory care center (MACC) providing non-life threatening care in the urgent care center, and general medicine care in the outpatient clinics.

In his motion, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas requested:

• That the L.A. County Chief Executive Officer, the Department of Public Works, and the Department of Health Services develop a plan to meet the seismic standards necessary to provide an initial 120 licensed bed inpatient hospital
• Cost estimates and a time schedule to conform the existing Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center campus facilities or to construct new facilities, to meet earthquake safety standards required under existing law necessary to include the beds, an emergency room, multi-service ambulatory care center and any necessary hospital support services. County staff will report back to the Board in 60 days. 

 

 “This motion is designed to focus attention on the need to develop a facility plan that is scalable to medical service delivery needs and financial consideration in both the immediate and long term, he concluded.”

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