LOS ANGELES, March 6, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Citing deliberate breaches of contract that resulted in an "engineered catastrophe" for one of the foremost minority-based medical schools in the nation and 1.7 million poor and medically underserved residents of South Los Angeles, The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science today put the County of Los Angeles on notice of its intent to file a multi-million lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Under California law, The Charles Drew University must give the County 45 days' notice before filing a lawsuit.
The suit - charging breach of written and implied-in-fact contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing- will seek damages of more than $125 million caused by the County's "abysmal failure" to maintain the accreditation of King-Drew Medical Center (now known as MLK-Harbor Hospital), its loss of $200 million in annual Medicare funding to support the South Los Angeles community, and its decision to effectively close the 537-bed facility. This "callous decision" to abandon the McCone Commission recommendations and discriminate against the County's poorest and most medically indigent residents ultimately inflicted massive "collateral damage" on The Charles Drew University - leaving the renowned medical school without an accredited teaching hospital, millions of dollars in necessary funding, and with hundreds of the University's Medical Residents "callously set adrift."
Commenting on the filing, Charles Drew University's legal counsel, Pierce O'Donnell of O'Donnell & Associates, stated, "Los Angeles County's flagrant breach of its clear contractual obligations has not only severely crippled the University, but the County's chronic, gross mismanagement of the hospital and the resulting loss of accreditation and federal Medicare funds has left 1.7 million other victims in its wake. These are the chronically underserved and uninsured residents of South Los Angeles, for whom access to, and the quality of, healthcare will only worsen."
The complaint states that over the last several years the County has again "betrayed its poorest citizens and sabotaged its partnership with The Charles Drew University by continually failing to operate the Hospital in compliance with the standards of federal, state and accrediting agencies." The suit details the devastating effects on the University resulting from County's decision in the fall of 2006 to drastically downsize the King-Drew Medical Center, following the hospital's loss of accreditation by JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the national accrediting body in health care) and the withdrawal of certification by CMS (U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services), which will result in a loss of approximately $200 million in annual federal funds for the Hospital.
The suit states that the County "caused this disaster either deliberately or through reckless indifference," which mortally damaged the University's fully accredited Graduate Medical Education program of 35 years- specifically eliminating its 15 Residency and Fellowship programs that provided the majority of health professionals that eventually serve South Los Angeles. It forced the University to voluntarily withdraw its accreditation of its residency training programs by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
"The County has aggravated its insult to injury by continuing to seek to make the University the scapegoat for the County's betrayal of its obligations to the impoverished and medically underserved in the community," O'Donnell added.
Dr. Susan Kelly, President and CEO of the University, stated, "All of us feel betrayed. There is tragic irony in the fact that this University, along with the hospital, were literally created from the ashes of community unrest 42 years ago. The Watts Rebellion shone a much-needed light on what was a severely underserved community in terms of healthcare. Sadly, this is still an acutely underserved community now made worse by the County's arbitrary decision to effectively close the hospital and destroy 35 years of work by our University to produce excellent and dedicated physicians and specialists."
A private non-profit educational institution in the Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles, The Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science has provided quality college, graduate and post-graduate education and training to thousands of qualified minority and other students since 1971. As part of its mission, the University's graduates have provided urgently needed healthcare services to millions of chronically underserved residents of the poorest communities in Los Angeles County. The acclaimed medical school was founded in the wake of the Watts Rebellion in 1965, in response to the celebrated McCone Commission report that called for solutions to the lack of medical care for the historically underserved area.
The University is widely regarded as an innovative medical education university pioneering in the education of doctors and other healthcare professionals and conducting culturally appropriate research that rapidly turns findings into improved clinical practice. According to a California Wellness Foundation report, more than one-third of all underrepresented minority doctors practicing in Los Angeles County received training at The Charles Drew University. It has graduated more than 2,500 specialist physicians, 400 medical doctors, and more than 2,000 physician's assistants and many other health professionals. The University also conducts innovative biomedical research, and ranks in the top institutions for research funding from the National Institutes of Health and among the top 50 private universities for research.
While advocating progressive health policies in its community, the University's faculty and residents have received accolades for their excellence, including three recipients of the "Best Doctors Award for 2005-2006." In addition, eight faculty members in the last nine years have received UCLA's Award for Excellence in medical education.
For over 35 years, the University partnered with the County under a series of contracts to provide King-Drew Medical Center with faculty doctors, medical students, interns and residents to serve the 1.7 million citizens in King-Drew Medical Center's 94-square -mile service area. (If this service area were a municipality, it would be the fifth largest city in the U.S.).
As part of this longstanding agreement, the County was obligated to maintain King-Drew Medical Center as an accredited and licensed teaching facility for the Drew/UCLA medical students, healthcare professionals and technicians, and for the University's medical Residents in residency and fellowship programs in various specializations. The County was also required to maintain the facility in a manner that would support residency training programs at the University. The University's unique environment of providing medical education while serving the County's most impoverished citizens was lauded as a model for significantly increasing medical students' commitment to practice medicine in underserved areas. Research shows that 10 years after graduation, 70% of Charles Drew University trained physicians are still working with underserved populations.
Among other failings by Los Angeles County, the complaint cites the fact that "the County at all times was fully aware that it was essential to the very existence of The Charles Drew University's graduate medical education and Residency programs that the Hospital not lose its CMS certification." Yet the County's Department of Health Services Director acknowledged in a letter to the University that "...the deficiencies cited (in the September 22, 2006 195-pg CMS report) did not directly relate to the operation of the training programs, the quality of physicians oversight of the residents, or the residents' conduct in the hospital." Thus, the complaint continues, "...by the County's own admission, The Charles Drew University has fulfilled its longstanding contractual responsibility to provide the hospital with quality personnel and physician training services, and the County alone is responsible for the Hospital's loss of Medicare certification."
In the fall of last year, after closing the trauma center a few years earlier, the County, rather than seeking more time from CMS to remedy cited deficiencies, precipitously announced the effective closing of the hospital, reducing its 537-bed capacity to a small community facility with only 42 beds and absolutely no residency training programs. Directly affected were the University's 248 resident physicians from 15 different training programs, who were suddenly thrown into "education limbo."
"In one draconian move, the South Los Angeles community was reduced to the universally-condemned situation we saw in 1965 - without any convenient, accessible, comprehensive hospital and the real threat of a worsening situation," Dr. Kelly said. "We know that 70% of Residents stay on to work where they train. Where will the new doctors and specialists come from? The physician-to-citizen ratio in the community is already as bad as it was at the time of the Watts Rebellion. The County has turned the clock back 40-plus years on healthcare in this community. This will only worsen a bad situation."
Bart H. Williams, Chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, further commented, "This is a tragedy on so many levels -- not the least of which is that our local officials, under the pretext of 'renovating the hospital,' are trying to balance the budget on the backs of some of the most needy, indigent, vulnerable and neglected residents in the country."
"We intend to show, through the public forum of this legal action, the County's audacious disregard for its contractual obligations and, in the broader consequences, its discrimination against the poor, indigent minorities, the seriously ill and injured - the least powerful citizens who have little or no recourse," he added.
Community support for the University has been widespread. Loretta Jones, Executive Director of Healthy African American Families II, said, "The County has done great damage to this university and the community it serves. With this legal action, The Charles Drew University is standing in the gap left by the County's inexcusable behavior and giving voice to the voiceless. Fewer doctors will now be trained here, making the gap between the healthcare that this community can access and that of communities almost anywhere else much wider. There will be increases in the number of premature deaths."
Commented Martha Valverde, President of Medifam of California, a non-profit organization that finds healthcare for uninsured and underinsured people: "The Latino community has been devastated by the County's failure to address our health care disparities. The County's betrayal of its obligations to the medically underserved in our community will result in poor health access and reduced use of health services which will adversely affect the health status of 1.7 million residents of South Los Angeles. The County's acts and omissions have also resulted in the total destruction of The Charles Drew University's resident program. The University has a history of graduating minority students to be coming doctors and allied health professionals who come back to our community to serve the underserved populations. The County took away our hospital. Don't let them take our University."
A copy of the notice and attached complaint may be found on The Charles Drew University website at http://www.cdrewu.edu.