KHH1

In a changing healthcare landscape, MLK will focus on preventive care.

BY SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA AND ANGEL JENNINGS
For several decades, King/Drew hospital in South Los Angeles served one of the neediest parts of Los Angeles, treating patients who didn’t have insurance or anywhere else to turn for care.
Its opening in 1972 was viewed as a victory of the civil rights era and a source of p***e for black Los Angeles. But plagued in later years by poor medical care, staff errors and a series of controversial patient deaths, it came to be viewed by many as a place of peril, nicknamed K**ler King.
On Tuesday, delivering on a long-delayed promise to replace the facility, officials will open the doors on the new, state-of-the-art Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital. It shares the site of the original medical center, but it has a new management structure and operating philosophy as it enters a dramatically different healthcare landscape than the one exited by its predecessor.
At about one-third the size of the old medical center, the 131-bed MLK Community Hospital will emphasize the tenets of the recent healthcare system overhaul under Obamacare, focusing on preventive care to reduce the need for emergency room visits and hospitalization.
And unlike the old hospital that was run by an arm of the huge L.A. County government bureaucracy, the new hospital will be managed by a special governing authority overseen by healthcare, business and law professionals focused solely on the facility.
“It really is a new beginning with new people,” said Dr. Oscar Casillas, the hospital’s director of emergency medicine. “The only thing that’s the same is our physical location.”
Though the downsizing of the facility has drawn some criticism, health experts say that the new hospital aligns with the latest thinking in healthcare, particularly for underserved urban communities.
Its design dovetails with the Affordable Care Act and supports the idea that hospitals and emergency rooms should be healthcare options of last resort, instead of default treatment centers for basic care and unattended maladies.
MLK Community Hospital is flanked by an expanded outpatient clinic, a new urgent-care psychiatric center and a new public health clinic, where patients can get STD testing, immunizations and other preventive care.
Jennifer Bayer, a vice president with the Hospital Assn. of Southern California, said the campus is a model for the direction healthcare is taking as patients use hospitals less and less.
According to state data, the number of patients admitted to California hospitals from 2008 to 2012 declined, as did the average length of stays and the occupancy rate.
Still, given the needs in the surrounding community, which has high rates of chronic disease and relatively few doctors and specialists, Bayer said she thinks South L.A. might still need additional hospital beds in the short term, as the healthcare system makes the t***sition to more robust preventive care.
“Time will say,” she said.
One of the most immediate challenges for the hospital will be distancing itself from the past and rebuilding the best parts of the old hospital’s relationship with area residents.
Despite King/Drew’s problems, many in the community were upset when the federal government pulled the facility’s funding, forcing it to shut down in 2007.
Watts resident Mary Brooks had hip surgery there in 2003, and remembers laying in a pool of her own blood for hours while she was in recovery. Still, she said the hospital generally took good care of her, and when it closed, she worried it would never reopen.
“I felt like ‘Where are we going to go?,” said the 64-year-old. Earlier this year, Brooks slipped in her home and had to wait seven hours at a nearby emergency room for treatment, she said.

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

With a one payer system, Mary Brooks would be entitled to the same care as the rest of America. When will we stop k*****g a good portion of our population for the bottom line of our failing health care industry? I am happy for the people of this community to at least have somewhere to be treated. I just feel all hospitals should treat all Americans. This lady deserves the same choices the rest of America has.

Doc110 Loc: York PA

Good, morning KHH1,

Very good article, do you have the URL for the whole article.

You see there are three types of Health Care, in this country.

For Profit, Not for profit and Government health care such as Military, veterans and the Indian Health care systems, which are socialized medicine systems.

One aspect is the redistribution of funding from Medicare and setting up a fourth type of health care (special governing authority) (ASGA).
It is a new type of hospital healthcare system and uses the ACA health care funding arm of the U.S. Government.

This is a pilot health care program, if the board members stay clean from the corruption and want to distance them selves from the LA county establishment and the California regulating health system, then its a good thing by kicking out the bureaucrats in public health.

I'm not sure about the funding and the repayment system, In Vista California there is a very successful clinic and a shared hospital system there.

It provides near free health care, or pay as much as you can, health care system. Person x makes this much money and has these general expenses, = the amount the person can pay and for hospitalization.

In the end it is a realistic pay as you go system, that puts the responsibility on both the patient and in medical care system for payment.


Just some thoughts, the article was good, but left me h*****g and did not compare the different medical systems out there.

Peace be with you.

KHH1

Good Afternoon Doc...thanks and Peace be with you also. here is the link I read it from:

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83940414/

KHH1

This is the same article but looks a little longer than what I posted. Must have left some of it off.

Doc110 Loc: York PA

Thanks, for the URL. Since I'm in the health care system I keep my ears and eyes open and try and learn every day.

If your open to some advice ? Don't paint your self as a target.

It's good that you give your prospective and view on life.

My point is, I like facts and logic to support my opinions, and you gave facts and opinions, to these ignorant people, who will never understand anything.
And you gave them a different perspective than they could never understand.


Here's example, to explain what I mean.

I have a older sister, one of ten sisters in my family. I'm not talking about you Okay.

She married a multi-milionair, for his money, she has been told by her husband that he wants nothing to do with my family, this was said over 35, years ago.
I can respect his wishes, she married the SOB, I didn't, and now I keep my distance.

Well a family problem developed, and involved everyone. In the problem and discussions, She was arrogant and brash to half of the remaining siblings. As being the oldest sister and all knowing, superiority stuff, type 1A personality, knows everything, can't tell her anything... Know what i'm talking about.

In my own way, I asked her a question, a one simple comment. I Asked If she knew diplomacy and did she ever want to try and build a amicable consensus, of family members and try to be persuasive in her opinions and comments to others ?

Her response kinda left me h*****g, for a minute before I said something, Silence is a powerful weapon.

She said in her reply, to me, as cold as Ice: They wouldn't listen to me anyways, why should I even try to be diplomatic. Their response would be just the same.

She continued to feel her opinions were superior, yet she was unable to be rational and use any type of tone and and emotion, or to persuade the day, no effort on her part. All I could say was that I tried and left it off at that.

Well in the end, her opinion, logic, critical thinking sk**ls were non-relevant to the problem, all she accomplished was to bully and alienate five sisters and brothers.

The situation was handled by the legal system which was basically, told her to take a seat over there, and your opinions don't matter here, by the Judge.

Her opinion was dismissed at the wave of a hand. Much to my chagrin.


KHH1 you gave the OPP readers in this thread, a much different perspective than they could never understand. To see the h**e the arrogance, I try to stay away from that stuff.

The world is a wonderful teacher at time's the good and the bad.

My question is ?

Does the sledge hammer win, or does the tone and reflection of your words win the day ?

Just a thought . . . . . .

Peace and blessings, brother. Be Good.

KHH1

** i hear you but i approach others as they approach me...I get along fine with many in here because we communicate with a level of mutual respect....but those who want to be nasty and demean and say r****t schit? Phuck em....I won't change to appease them and instead will work to push them deeper into their resentment and hatred....I give what I get..but give more of it...and let the other person set the tone....so i hear you and if I ever disrespect anypone who did not do the same to me first...i will GLADLY offer my humble apologies.....the nasties? phuck them in their venomous azzes.....