Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, also known as MLK-LA, is a 131-bed public community

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

in the Willowbrook neighborhood of southern

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. It was planned and designed to especially serve the surrounding South Los Angeles communities' needs, including those of underinsured or uninsured patients. The hospital opened on July 7, 2015, in a new building. The hospital on the site of the former

Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center The Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center, formerly known as Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center, Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center (King/Drew), and later Martin Luther King Jr.–Harbor Hospital (MLK–Harbor ...

, originally named the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, known as King/Drew. The adjacent Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center opened in a new building in 2014.

History

The closure of

in 2007, due to revocation of federal funding after the hospital failed a comprehensive review by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, had immediate ramifications in the South Los Angeles area, which was left without a major hospital providing indigent care.Charles Ornstein, Tracy Weber and Jack Leonard
King-Harbor fails final check, will close soon
''Los Angeles Times'', August 11, 2007. In 2009, the County of Los Angeles successfully negotiated with the University of California to reach a compromise, whereby the county would provide funding for construction of a replacement hospital, and the UC system would provide physician staffing. A nonprofit foundation, the Martin Luther King Jr. – Los Angeles Healthcare Corporation, was established to administer the hospital.

Administration

The hospital is administered by Martin Luther King Jr. – Los Angeles Healthcare Corporation (MLK-LA), a private nonprofit organization. The County of Los Angeles provided the capital funds for construction, and the University of California, Los Angeles healthcare system provides professional services and staffing. In August 2012, MLK-LA's Board appointed

Elaine Batchlor Elaine E. Batchlor is an American rheumatologist. She is the CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Early life and education Batchlor is a native of Maryland. Growing up, her parents ...

, a physician and former chief medical officer for

L.A. Care Health Plan The Local Initiative Health Authority for Los Angeles County (L.A. Care) is a public agency that provides health insurance for low-income individuals in Los Angeles County through four health coverage programs including Medi-Cal. Launched in 19 ...

, as the hospital's first chief executive officer.

Operations

The hospital provides general acute care, basic emergency services, labor and delivery services, health education and outreach programs, along with other services typically provided by community hospitals, including radiology, laboratory, and blood bank services. The hospital serves a low income community where almost all the residents are African American and Latino. South LA has the lowest number of hospital beds per 100,000 people of any area in Los Angeles County. As a low-income community, the main system of funding healthcare is Medicaid, which in California pays providers very low rates.

Transportation

The hospital has walking distance access to the Metro A Line and Metro C Line stations, as well as

Gardena Transit GTrans is a municipal transit agency that serves Gardena, California and surrounding Los Angeles County neighbourhoods. It was founded on January 15, 1940, as Gardena Municipal Bus Lines. On the agency's 75th anniversary, the agency was renamed as ...

and LADOT DASH buses.

References

External links