Unaided woman dies on the floor of Los Angeles ER

This story has been all over the news this week, though it happened a month ago. Of course, if they close the hopital, it's an even worse situation, because it's in an already under-served community.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070613-1724-ca-troubledhospital.html

Hospital's troubles mount
By Robert Jablon
Associated Press
06/13/2007

LOS ANGELES - Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, once a symbol of hope in the inner city, struggled Wednesday to survive amid new reports of breakdowns in patient care, the replacement of its chief medical officer and an ultimatum to correct long-running problems or close.

The treatment of a woman who was ignored as she died on the floor of the emergency room last month "was callous, it was a horrible thing," Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke said.

Earlier this week, the county Board of Supervisors grilled health officials about conditions at the public hospital and ordered them to return in two weeks with a plan to deal with a hospital shutdown if it is unable to correct deficiencies laid out in a federal inspection that concluded emergency room patients were in "immediate jeopardy."