Create an Account
username: password:
 
  MemeStreams Logo

KTLA.com | LA's WB | Television Los Angeles | Underfunding Is A Myth; the Squandering Is Real

search

Shannon
Picture of Shannon
Shannon's Pics
My Blog
My Profile
My Audience
My Sources
Send Me a Message

sponsored links

Shannon's topics
Arts
  Literature
  Movies
  Music
  Photography
  Theater
  TV
Business
Games
Health and Wellness
Home and Garden
Miscellaneous
  Humor
  MemeStreams
   Using MemeStreams
Current Events
  War on Terrorism
  Elections
  Israeli/Palestinian
  North Ireland
Recreation
Local Information
Science
Society
Sports
Technology
  Biotechnology
  Computers

support us

Get MemeStreams Stuff!


 
KTLA.com | LA's WB | Television Los Angeles | Underfunding Is A Myth; the Squandering Is Real
Topic: Health and Wellness 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.

KTLA.com | LA's WB | Television Los Angeles | Underfunding Is A Myth; the Squandering Is Real



 
 
Powered By Industrial Memetics
RSS2.0