LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Following the end of a prescribed 45-day notice and waiting period, The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science today formally filed a lawsuit seeking $125 million in damages against the County of Los Angeles. The suit charges the County with deliberate breaches of contract, breaches of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and discrimination resulting from the County's "abysmal failure" to maintain the accreditation of King-Drew Medical Center (now known as MLK-Harbor Hospital), the County's 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. The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The County's "engineered catastrophe" severely damaged The Charles Drew University, one of the foremost minority-based medical schools in the nation. At the same time, the avoidable closure of the hospital discriminated against 1.7 million poor and medically underserved residents of South Los Angeles, leaving them with worse healthcare options -- access to care and the quality of services -- than existed 40 years ago. The County's actions, as detailed in the suit, left the renowned school without both an accredited teaching hospital and millions of dollars in funding. It also left nearly 250 medical residents without a training home.
"We are eager to have our day in court -- to provide a forum for all the victims of the County's unconscionable disregard for this university's inspired mission, a 35-year partnership, our valued students, faculty, employees and -- most acutely -- the poor and indigent of the community who have no voice and now have unacceptable alternatives for their healthcare," said Dr. Susan Kelly, President and CEO of The Charles Drew University. "We want the County administrators held accountable for their conscious decision to damage this university and the reputation it has built over nearly four decades."
The complaint details the County's "callous decision" to abandon the McCone Commission 1965 recommendations to build a comprehensive medical care hospital in South Los Angeles and a pipeline of medical professionals to serve it and the people. This decision has discriminated against the County's poorest and most medically indigent residents, ultimately inflicting massive "collateral damage" on The Charles Drew University. According to the suit, over the last several years the County has "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." Particularly devastating to the University was the County's hasty decision in the fall of 2006 to drastically downsize the King-Drew Medical Center and close in-hospital residency training opportunities for future doctors to serve the community, following the withdrawal of certification by CMS (U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and the loss of critical resources to support the health needs of the community.
The suit states that the County, "caused this disaster either deliberately or through reckless indifference," which severely damaged the University's fully accredited Graduate Medical Education program of 35 years -- by eliminating the University's 15 Residency and Fellowship programs that provided the majority of health professionals that eventually serve South Los Angeles. The Hospital's loss of JCAHO accreditation and CMS certification, compounded by the County's decision to terminate in-hospital training, forced the University to voluntarily withdraw its accreditation of its residency training programs by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
In the fall of 2006, after closing the trauma center some 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, closure of in-hospital residency training programs, and elimination of comprehensive medical services. Directly affected were an abandoned community in great need of comprehensive medical care and the University's 248 resident physicians from 15 different training programs, who were suddenly thrown into "education limbo."
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 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."
The University's chief legal counsel, Pierce O'Donnell of O'Donnell & Associates in Los Angeles, commented: "Los Angeles County is not above the law. We intend to show a jury that the County's gross mismanagement and deliberate actions breached its contract with the University, leaving in their wake a massive trail of victims -- from the University's medical residents whose lives and education were unfairly interrupted to the residents of this community. The new MetroCare Plan is a hoax. Far from improving citizens' healthcare options, the debilitating decisions of County officials aggravated a major existing healthcare crisis in this County that has not only left 1.7 million citizens of the community without adequate care, but strained capacities at other County hospitals. We believe there is compelling evidence that County administrators acted in a reckless manner with callous indifference to the welfare of the community as a whole and the University in particular."
In response to recommendations from the McCone Commission, 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 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 United States.
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 UCLA/Drew medical students, healthcare professionals and technicians, and for the University's Medical Residents in residency and fellowship programs in various specializations.
The University's unique environment of providing medical education while serving the County's most impoverished citizens has been lauded as a paradigm 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.
Bart H. Williams, Chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, added: "We had no recourse but to seek justice for the betrayal and major damage that will take this University years to overcome and to re-establish itself. The bigger question remains -- if our University is hindered in its mission to produce dedicated, trained physicians and specialists for this acutely underserved community, where will future medical practitioners come from?"
A private non-profit educational institution in the Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles, The Charles Drew University of Medicine and 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, California and the nation. 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, more than 2, 000 physician's assistants and many other high-demand health professionals. The University has also conducted innovative biomedical research, and ranks in the top 10% of 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.
A copy of the complaint may be found on The Charles Drew University website at http://www.cdrewu.edu.