LA COUNTY NEWS UPDATE

 Dateline:    Los Angeles     April 18, 2008

 Reopening of Martin Luther King Hospital Talks Stall

   Pacific Hospital in Long Beach is a very well run small hospital that probably could have successfully reopened Martin Luther King hospital. However, by April 11, 2008 it was widely reported that the discussion between the hospital and Los Angeles County had broken down. While it was not reported in the local news, Dr. Smith reported in his earlier newsletter that insiders at MLK had told him that the primary reason the hospital failed was due to fiscal problems. The hospital had been targeted for sharply reduced funding, that was disproportionate to funding cuts at the other county hospitals. Furthermore it was argued that deep cuts, would have been more appropriate for neighboring Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. While Harbor like Martin Luther King is also plagued with problems of overcrowding, there are nearby hospitals that can absorb the patients, if Harbor was to close.

    To the contrary many of the services offered by MLK....  such as radiotherapy, for cancer patients is not offered by any nearby hospitals, the nearest of which is  St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, a several hour long [round trip] tortuous bus ride for ailing cancer patients, who have no other means of transportation. Trauma victims must be transported to distant ERs at great risk to patients... when every minute counts. The prospect that the hospital would soon reopen under the management of Pacific hospital, was good news to the areas local citizens, but was cause for unfair criticism, from decision makers, who questioned whether a small ho-spital could run a hospital the size of MLK. The precise reasons for the breakdown in talks between LA County and Pacific Hospital is not clear, but about the same time of the collapse of the discussions with Pacific Hospital, LA County department of Health Services Director Bruce Chernoff, abruptly resigned. Part of Dr. Chernoff's responsibility was to oversee the county's healthcare system of 3 large public hospitals, and multiple clinics that treat over 700,000 patients annually, with an annual budget of over $ 3 billion dollars.

   Federal EMTALA laws require hospital emergency rooms to treat all patients who present for treatment. State regulations require that hospitals must have a 1:6 patient / nurse ratio in the hospital to admit patients to the floor. Recent financial cuts to the health care system, estimated to be in excess of $500,000,000.00, much of which was levied against MLK resulted in the hospital not being able to meet the quota of nurses needed, to fill their beds and so the patients languished for as long as nearly 20 hours in the ER in some cases.  Hospital ERs cannot turn patients away without treatment arrangements, and so the recent fines by the State of California, because of ER crowding at neighboring UCLA  -Harbor Hospital is puzzling. In any case as Dr. Smith has previously discussed, the problem of overcrowding at county ERs can be immediately remedied by triaging such patients to nearby "urgent care centers".

  Many of the health care issues faced by LA county supervisors are quite complex and require knowledge of related laws. One such law that stands in the way of affordable health care is the State of California Knox Keene Act, which is legislation that is used to regulate the HMO's, but at the same time limits competition against HMOs by physicians. A state attorney once told Dr. Smith that he could not implement a low health care plan for the poor because he did not have a multimillion-dollar Knox-Keene license. He explained that a physician couldn’t charge patients periodically, such as a monthly insurance plan... of even as little as "one penny per month" and "one penny per visit" without a Knox-Keene license. Dr. Smith states that low cost health care plans in conjunction with urgent care centers, backed with multi specialty medical groups is the way that medicine will be practiced in future years if he is elected as county supervisor. Strategically placed, well equipped urgent care centers will relieve the patient congestion problem of our ERs and MLK would be open today if such clinic networks had been implemented as set forth in the 1992 plan for the uninsured created by Dr. Delaney Smith...the "Community Health care Cooperative Pilot Project Plan"

Together we can create healthcare access for everyone!

Help me, as a physician, to go to work and reopen MLK hospital, as the only reasonable choice of candidates by experience, education and training!

Delaney Smith Jr.,Pharm.D.,M.D.

Candidate for Los Angeles County Supervisor

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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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