Opinion: “It was almost like it was a conspiracy.”

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The county Board of Supervisors might have kept Martin Luther King, Jr. medical center open without accreditation or federal funding and despite failing a federal standards inspection, Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke said Saturday, were it not for the widely publicized May 9 death of Edith Isabel Rodriguez, who died after being shunned by staffers in the hospital’s waiting room.

Burke told a capacity crowd at a community meeting at the hospital that two of her board colleagues would have joined her in a vote to redirect county money to replace the lost $200 million in federal funding. But, she said, ‘when the Rodriguez issue happened, we lost our [third] vote.’

She said the negative publicity brought pressure from the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee (Montana Democrat Max Baucus) and moved the State of California to suspend the hospital’s license. Burke said one other incident sealed the hospital’s fate, but she did not say what it was. She told the crowd of hospital supporters that there had been an array people doing their best to make sure the hospital closed.

‘It was almost like it was a conspiracy,’ Burke said.

At another point, Burke said the hospital was harmed by the July and August retirements of two key U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials. ‘It was as if the facts came down on us on all of these issues diabolically,’ Burke said.

The meeting was called by newly elected Rep. Laura Richardson, who represents Willowbrook and much of the historically African American community served by the medical center, and Rep. Maxine Waters, one of the hospital’s staunchest defenders. Both are Los Angeles Democrats.

CMS, the federal agency that accredits hospitals for Medicare and Medicaid funding, found MLK fell below minimum standards in eight of 23 areas. CMS revoked accreditation on August 10, which in turn meant the loss of $200 million in federal funds — half the hospital’s budget.

Burke did not say which two supervisors planned to join her in a vote to replace the funding with county money — or which of those changed his or her mind after Rodriguez’s death. The 43-year-old woman died after writhing on the waiting room floor for 45 minutes. Her pleas for assistance were ignored. A hospital janitor mopped up around her.

Waters assigned much of the blame to the Los Angeles Times, which has reported on problems with patient care. The Times won a Pulitzer Prize for its 2004 series on the medical center.

‘I think that Washington, CMS, was driven by the Times to close the hospital,’ Waters said. She added:

‘I just don’t believe that the hospital should have been closed, that the review that was done was fair and objective.’

Burke described a plan under which she said the hospital could be quickly returned to full-service operation — by the county.

She said an RFP would go out in October for a private operator, which could petition to reinstate the county’s currently suspended license. In the meantime, she said, it was important that patients continue to use the hospital’s still-open clinics and urgent care facilities, keeping the hospital in use. If all facilities close, she said, they could not reopen without a major investment in seismic upgrading.

After a private operator reopens the hospital, she said, ‘we will be in a position to talk about transferring it back to county operation.’

She also said the hospital might operate under the license granted to Harbor-UCLA or Rancho Los Amigos, both county-run hospitals.

Waters, too, said King must remain a public hospital. ‘Privates can’t run it,’ she said. ‘They can’t run this hospital.’

Irene Dyer, director of planning and analysis for the county’s health department, said the county would be particular about any private operator it contracts with. It would have to be a company devoted to understanding and serving the community, she said. ‘We’re not going to take a Tenet,’ she said.

Dyer also noted that a bill is pending before the state Legislature to divert the hospital’s former funding stream to a fund for health care in South Los Angeles. Without legislation, the money would go to support other public hospitals.

Richardson, the new congresswoman, said she plans to take the oath of office on the hospital’s front lawn on Sept. 22. ‘We as a community are going to be sending a message,’ she said. ‘This hospital is still our hospital.’