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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: KTLA.com | LA's WB | Television Los Angeles | Underfunding Is A Myth; the Squandering Is Real. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

KTLA.com | LA's WB | Television Los Angeles | Underfunding Is A Myth; the Squandering Is Real
by Shannon at 2:09 pm EST, Dec 9, 2004

Sounds like a great place to work at least. Get paid to vacation and relax. If there weren't dead people all over the place it would be even better.

] For years it has been a heartfelt cry: "This hospital
] desperately needs more money!"
]
] Whenever Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center is
] criticized, as it often is, the response from supporters
] is the same. They say Los Angeles County leaders never
] wanted King/Drew built in the first place — and have
] been trying to starve it ever since.
] ...
] The numbers, however, tell a different story. Though
] widely believed, the notion that King/Drew is being
] shortchanged is false.
]
] The medical center spent more per patient than 75% of the
] public and teaching hospitals in California, according to
] a 2002 state audit that looked at fiscal year 2000.
] ;;;
] King/Drew's problem is not the amount of money it gets
] but the way the money is squandered, according to audits,
] financial records, legal filings and dozens of
] interviews.
]
] As at most hospitals, its greatest cost is employees. But
] King/Drew, with a staff of nearly 2,500, spends
] inordinate sums on people who do little or no work. The
] rest of the hospital — hardworking employees, patients
] and their families — often make do or do without.
]
] Here are some examples:
]
] •  In the last five years, King/Drew has spent nearly
] $34 million on employee injuries — 53% more than
] Harbor-UCLA and more than any of the University of
] California medical centers, some of which are double or
] triple King/Drew's size. Employees make claims for such
] things as damage to their "psyche," assaults by their
] colleagues and a variety of freak accidents, according to
] a Times review of workers' compensation claims.
]
] •  Last year, King/Drew employees billed for 299,804
] hours of overtime, costing the hospital nearly $9.9
] million. That's 61% more than the sum spent by
] Harbor-UCLA, which has about 400 more workers. Fourteen
] King/Drew employees pulled in more than $50,000 each in
] overtime. At Harbor-UCLA, there was one.
]
] •  Some employees habitually fail to show up, logging
] weeks, even months, of unexcused absences each year. And
] those who do come to work often don't do their jobs,
] causing one consultant in 2002 to remark that they had
] "retired in place." Others are distracted or impaired.
] County Civil Service Commission filings tell of staff
] members grabbing and clawing each other's necks;
] inspection reports tell of patients literally dying of
] neglect.
]
] •  King/Drew pays its ranking doctors lavishly. Some
] draw twice what their counterparts make at other public
] hospitals — often for doing less. Eighteen King/Drew
] physicians earned more than $250,000 in the last fiscal
] year, including their academic stipends. Harbor-UCLA had
] nine.


 
 
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