California inspectors pay surprise visit to County-USC Medical Center after complaint about ER waits

In a surprise visit Thursday, state inspectors arrived at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center to investigate allegations made this week that patients face excessively long emergency room waits – sometimes without any vital signs being taken – and that hospital workers fail to protect patient privacy.

“They arrived today and will be there tomorrow,  too,” said Michael Wilson, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, which runs the 600-bed hospital.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed that there was an active investigation at the county-run facility. Wilson said county officials will have no information about the inspectors' findings until Friday at the earliest.

The unannounced inspection came a day after the county confirmed that it was investigating allegations made by a healthcare professional who visited County-USC’s emergency room May 4 seeking treatment for abdominal pain.

In a complaint sent to government regulators and the county, the woman said she waited eight hours before deciding to seek treatment at another hospital. In that time, according to a copy of the complaint reviewed by The Times, no nurse took her vital signs, a practice she alleged put patients in danger.

She also said a nurse told her that the average wait was 35 hours.

Wilson had previously disputed the claim of 35-hour waits, saying the average time is less than nine hours and varies depending on the patient’s condition.

The woman who filed the complaint also wrote that she was “surprised to witness an institutional disregard for basic standards of care.”

She said patients’ names and symptoms, such as “John Doe, penile abscess,” and dates of birth were posted on monitors facing a waiting room.

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Rong-Gong Lin II

Photo: The new County-USC hospital, a state-of-the-art, $1.02-billion facility, opened in 2008. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[keith]

wow, a 2 day wait for medical care/attention. I suggest calling one of the local clinics instead, like St Johns, I've been seen right away there

[Marcy]

"Less than 9 hours"? Gee...what an improvement. I'm sure that comes as a comfort to someone with a broken bone. Only 6 hours in agony!

[bigdad59]

Yah, they knew they were coming!

[William Mallon]

Molly Hennessy-Fiske et al of the LA Times,

Shoddy reporting, no evidence of fact checking, and a completely one-sided report from a disgruntled patient. If I told the LA Times that the "sky was falling" and that I am an astrophysisist, your reporters would publish it as fact. The wait is not 35 hours, there are no big boards posting patient conditions, and I will bet the complainant had nothing much wrong with them.

What the investigation will show is long waits, an overcrowded ER, and less than optimal privacy. Big Surprise at the largest county hospital for the poor in Los Angeles. (just like Cook County in Chicago, Grady Hospital in Atlanta, and Bellevue in NYC).

Thats because of a real story: over 86 Emergency Departments have closed since the mid 90's in California, and the number of visits is increasing, and LA County has a huge burden of indigent patients with no where else to go. And yet LAC+USC remains the trauma center of choice for fireman, nurses, paramedics, physicians, and even reporters (if they know their facts) and that is because the medical center is a tremendous community resource doing its best to cope with an overburdened and underfunded system.

[js SoCal]

Maybe if the ER wasn't packed, day-in and day-out, with illegal immigrants getting free medical services, conditions would improve.

[Nora Knight]

You'd think you could trust the "liberal media" to support the backbone of health care for the poor but nope, everybody is out for fame and fortune (?) with no fact checking or even analysis. Truth and depth of understanding are so rare. Human condition I guess. It would be disappointing if the wonderful work done here is maligned by such an aggressive assault from the complainant on up. Opinions are formed so easily. Without that medical center struggling to keep up with the needs of the poor in L.A. you would, quite literally, see people dying in the gutters in East L.A.. We should send them a thank you card, not a poorly reported tabloid instigator. The reporters have seen the complaint, they know, in their hearts, that there is an agenda.

[Paul Revere]

We can't let the people see what Obamacare is going to do let's investigate and come up with viable excuses as to why this happened. Hey folks wake up this happens all over the country this is not a single isolated incident! Hospitals are becoming more over crowded and understaffed faster than the aging population. Promises that it will become more efficient under Obaamacare is a myth, never happen it will be a mirror situation which has been in Veteran's Hospitals for years.

[laugh34]

The 35 hour wait is taken out of context. Nurses tell patients the wait can take 35 hours so the patients hopefully get aggravated enough to leave. I should know. I'm a diabetic who didn't have her blood sugar checked - AT CHECK IN.

The homeless people that the ER lets in only clogs the situation. I personally think the ER should think about a separate quadrant that handles those who routinely visit the ER. Apparently there is no structure for making sure repeat ER visitors see primary or whatever type of physician needed.

Updated and revised patient records would be helpful as well. Sure is a bugger when you can't find a patient's records who's been using county health for years.

I would also suggest opening legit medicinal marijuana pharmacies around the hospital. Common sense and the fastest way to help the ER. Maybe even boost the healthcare budget.

Hope the investigators brought things to test the air levels...