Uh oh, Drew/King closing trauma center?

[Sessamoid]

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According to the Los Angeles Times MLK/Drew Medical Center is planning on closing it's trauma center in 3 months. Where exactly are all these traumas supposed to go? I figure that a fair number of GSWs are still going to get dropped off there by private vehicle, but now they all have to be driven to Harbor?

Harbor's ED is already overflowing. I get plenty of patients who are followed at Harbor's outpatient clinics in my ED just because they don't want to wait the customary geological age to even get triaged. Too many patients, too few EDs. I can't imagine taking all of MLK's trauma business is going to do good things to the wait times at Harbor.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Harbor's wait times is one of the main reasons I didn't rank them. I couldn't imagine having to apologize to all my non-critical patients for the fact they've been waiting 12-24 hours. 6 hours is bad at my place.

 

[Sessamoid]

The article goes into a little detail. The problems at the hospital have become so bad that the regional administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services got involved, forcing the hospital to enter a one year contract in which they must hire "outside experts" to run the hospital. Hopefully they can keep MLK off the front page headlines of the LA Times.

Man, you must have been one hella strong candidate to decide not to rank Harbor. Long wait times sure, but a big name reputation when you graduate.

 

[Chris_Topher]

Yet another drop in the bucket. Docs can't get insurance and subsequently can't practice, others won't see medicare/medicaid patients, and hospitals are closing to trauma. Health care costs to employers rose 30% last year. Tick...tick....tick....

Bummer for the residents. At least they will still see "such problems as chest pain, infections and headaches."

BTW, Sessamoid - I always like your signature lines. Keep the faith, Brother. 👍

 

[The White Coat Investor]

The article goes into a little detail. The problems at the hospital have become so bad that the regional administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services got involved, forcing the hospital to enter a one year contract in which they must hire "outside experts" to run the hospital. Hopefully they can keep MLK off the front page headlines of the LA Times.

Man, you must have been one hella strong candidate to decide not to rank Harbor. Long wait times sure, but a big name reputation when you graduate.

You know, we're always telling people big names don't matter. I actually believe that.🙂 🙂

 

[Sessamoid]

You know, we're always telling people big names don't matter. I actually believe that.🙂 🙂

Fair enough, though I think it matters if you want to go into academics, or if you happen to want to practice at a particular hospital in Santa Barbara, which is staffed almost exclusively with Harbor and Olive View grads.

But the proximity to the beach is hard to beat. The beach, man!

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Fair enough, though I think it matters if you want to go into academics, or if you happen to want to practice at a particular hospital in Santa Barbara, which is staffed almost exclusively with Harbor and Olive View grads.

But the proximity to the beach is hard to beat. The beach, man!

Yeah, I just did a selective at UCI. I thoroughly enjoyed the beach.

 

[MilesWho]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kingdrew16sep16,1,6795152.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Looks like MLK might lose accreditation. What exactly does this mean for current and future residents?

 

[governaitor]

It means they will have to go elsewhere.

Sucks for them, especially the optho, radiology, ortho gunner types who had good records and had to be in LA but couldn't get into UCLA, Cedars etc..

 

[doctor7]

Harbor's wait times is one of the main reasons I didn't rank them. I couldn't imagine having to apologize to all my non-critical patients for the fact they've been waiting 12-24 hours. 6 hours is bad at my place.

send 'em over to County-USC...no wait here!! 🙄

 

[margaritaboy]

Fair enough, though I think it matters if you want to go into academics, or if you happen to want to practice at a particular hospital in Santa Barbara, which is staffed almost exclusively with Harbor and Olive View grads.

But the proximity to the beach is hard to beat. The beach, man!

Dude, for what its worth I really enjoyed my interview at Harbor. The faculty and residents were cool as shiznit, and the training in trauma and ultrasound are excellent. The beach and weather don't hurt either. 🙂

 

[mountebank]

Closing MLK to trauma is terrible for patient care. That's a large portion of the community that will miss timely care. As declared from Shock Trauma, there's often a "golden hour" of trauma treatment, and being 10 mins by air and 45 mins by land away from the nearest trauma center is worrisome.

I truly believe that if MLK was on the border of Watts instead in the middle of Watts it wouldn't have this problem. When 100% of your patient population is poor, those with money do not care.

If the funding and leadership was there, this could have become one of the premier EM residencies for Trauma. This is really sad