Hospital type Community Phone +1 424-338-8000 Established 2013 | Founded 2013, opened 2015 Number of beds 130 Care system Nonprofit organization | |
Website www.mlkcommunityhospital.org Profiles | ||
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital is a 131 bed community hospital in the Willowbrook neighborhood of southern Los Angeles County, California. It was planned and designed to especially serve the surrounding South Los Angeles communities' needs, including those of underinsured or uninsured patients.
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The new hospital opened on 7 July 2015, in a new US$208,500,000 building. The hospital on the site of the former Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center, 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 Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center (King/Drew) 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. 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 (UCLA) health care system will provide professional services and staffing.
The hospital will provide 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.
In August 2012, MLK-LA's Board appointed Elaine Batchlor, a physician and former Chief Medical Officer for L.A. Care Health Plan, as the hospital's first Chief Executive Officer.