LA COUNTY NEWS UPDATE

 Dateline:    Los Angeles     April 14, 2008

 County's Health Care System On Life Support

     The number one problem facing the incoming Los Angeles County Supervisor following the upcoming election on June 3, 2008 is the ailing health care system in Los Angeles County, where several private hospitals have already closed and a county hospital Martin Luther King Hospital closed several months ago. Reopening the hospital has been difficult, and in retrospect it is unfortunate that it was closed, in that reducing the flow of patients to the hospital’s emergency room could have circumvented many of the hospitals problems. Statistically, on any given day at any hospital within Los Angeles county, 70-80% of the patients are ambulatory [walked in] and do not have a life threatening emergency.

     While life threatening emergencies must be treated at a hospital emergency room, which has the equipment and highly trained staff to deal with such emergencies, most ambulatory conditions could be easily, and more cost efficiently treated at well equipped urgent care centers.  Dr. Delaney Smith a specialist in Emergency Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology, and Forensic Medicine is a candidate for Los Angeles County Supervisor and has the support of most area hospital CEOs, and a number of physician groups. Dr. Smith says that "if MLK hospital were to reopen tomorrow, if the underlying problem of patient congestion is not corrected, that the hospital could continue to face many of the problems that led to it's closure". Additionally, Dr. Smith reports that the primary issue that caused the closure of the hospital was not reported in the local paper,... only the net effect was reported, whereby a patient died while waiting in the Emergency Department. 

    The one factor that most heavily contributed to the protracted waiting time in the Emergency Room, was the fact that Los Angeles County had made deep cuts in funding to the hospitals, and funding cuts to Martin Luther King Hospital that were disproportionate to funding reductions at other county hospitals. Federal EMTALA laws require that all patients presenting for care at a hospital emergency room must be evaluated and treated, and the failure to do so is a federal crime, which carries a $50,000.00 fine for the involved physician. When this requirement is coupled with the 1:6 nurse/patient ratio required to open up hospital beds on the floor of the hospital,... and that nursing staff was not available to admit patients from the Emergency Room...the hospital was headed for problems such as those most recently reported in the news.

     The fiscal problems of the hospital was the primary factor that led to the hospital's closure, a fact which to date has not been recorded in any newspaper. The overall quality of care at the hospital for acute life threatening traumatic injuries, at times placed Martin Luther King hospital in the top 10% of hospitals across the country, a fact which has enjoyed very limited press. The level of quality care can perhaps be best verified by the fact that the surgeons for the United States military trained there, because surgical residencies in small upscale community hospitals did not provide the pathology, and volume of patients needing acute care for traumatic injuries which made Martin Luther King hospital a jewel for post graduate medical training purposes. The hospital was the base for Charles Drew Medical School, an excellent school that is head by Dean Richard Baker.

       Dean Baker agrees with Dr. Smith's assessment that "reducing the flow of patients to the ER by directing them away from the hospital to strategically placed urgent care centers" would have saved money", while at the same time keeping the flow to the ER to a manageable volume. Dr. Smith adds that "the underlying problem of poor funding to retain nurses will have to be remedied if the hospital is to survive under new management".

PART II     To Be Continued...

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Deal To Reopen MLK Hospital Fails

To Follow;

    Director of County Health Services Resigns and Leaves Sinking Ship Without a Captain

    Impact of News Blackout on Second District County Supervisorial Candidates Related Voter Apathy and Effect on Turnout For Presidential Election

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About Author of LA County New Update:

  Dr. Delaney Smith has worked in the health care delivery system of Los Angeles for the past 30 years and is the author of the first Health care Cooperative Plan for the uninsured,  ever reviewed and approved by the State of California Department of Insurance, a plan which was the forerunner to similar plans now referred to "health care access plans". Dr. Smith a physician and pharmacist is the only candidate who has experience that includes dealing with issues of health care delivery within Los Angeles.  More importantly in addition to his knowledge of the problems, of the county's health care delivery system, Dr. Smith has solutions, the candidate of choice, by most area hospital CEOs, many medical groups, and members of Los Angeles County Medical Association.

   Dr. Smith is a Graduate of USC's School of Pharmacy [1974]. Thereafter he completed a residency in Pharmacy at USC and taught pharmacology as a part time clinical Instructor [1975]. After completing medical school at Loyola University of Chicago where he served as freshman year class president, Dr. Smith continued his training as USC LA County Medical Center in Emergency Medicine [1981]. He served as a staff physician at Cedars Sinai Medical Center [1981-83] before returning to south Los Angeles to open the first freestanding Urgent Care Center in the greater Los Angeles area.

  Focus of campaign finance is directed to contributions from medical providers, hospitals, and ancillary service groups, and on a grassroots level to patients, and residents who live within and outside of Los Angeles county who agree that need at least one County Supervisor who has training and experience in dealing with the day to day issues of healthcare delivery within the county.

   As an educator, and proponent of affordable education Dr. Smith is concerned by rising costs in education and feels that there should be legislation for more state and federal grants to offset the cost of education.  In 1974 pharmacy school tuition was $38.00 per credit hour unit. Dr. Smith worked part time during that year, having previously earned a B.S. degree in Pharmacy from Xavier University and was paid $10.00/hr. By comparison he worked 4 hours to pay for each unit, however a pharmacist today earning $50.00/hr would have to work over 20 hours for each unit, to pay for his child's tuition at today's cost that now exceeds $1,000.00/unit. 

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Campaign Contributions May Be Sent To:

Committee to Elect Dr. Delaney Smith
Los Angeles County
P.O. Box 78-159
Los Angeles, California  90016

Telephone: (323) 395-9911
E-mail: drdelaneysmith@gmail.com
Website:  www.delaneysmith.com

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