MLK Community Hospital on Brink of Closure (Again)

By Veronica Mackey

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH) in South Los Angeles is on the brink of closure, due to financial constraints, officials say. 

The fledgling community hospital is dealing with overwhelming patient volumes that exceed the safety net hospital’s capacity.

Community representatives, state lawmakers, and more than 36 providers, nurses and employees gathered to express their concerns over the hospital’s status during a June 7 press conference, according to a MLKCH Community Healthcare news release. 

Without an increase in state funding, the hospital could now run dry of operational revenue by early 2025. The latest struggles at MLKCH indicate looming systemic problems affecting healthcare in Los Angeles, and California in general. 

In addition to concerns over MLKCH closing in Los Angeles, California families are facing widespread closures of maternity wards.  Over the last decade, nearly 50 maternity wards have closed across the state, with more than half shutting down in just the last four years. Seventeen of them were in Los Angeles County alone.

The landscape of medical care has changed and now leads overwhelmingly toward what is best for investors.  The trend in L.A. is toward for-profit hospitals owned by multi-state corporations. The Daily News reports that for-profit companies owned 13 of the 17 hospitals that stopped delivering babies. State data shows more than half closed at a time when the hospital was making millions of dollars for investors.

Apparently, maternity care is not a money maker.  While highly profitable hospitals could afford to shutter their labor and delivery wards, maternity care for the state’s poorest families is a lifeline. 

Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood officially closed its maternity ward in October 2023, leaving a big hole for healthcare in Inglewood. On the same evening of the closure, friends and family members of April Valentine gathered to commemorate her death.  April, who was African American, developed a blood clot during labor.  Black and brown women are 3-5 times more likely to die during pregnancy.  This data reflects the demographics of Inglewood’s predominant female population.

Family members said an investigation revealed that Centinela Hospital staff was not properly trained to deal with related complications.  “I feel like they should’ve reformed it instead of closing it down,” Valentine’s partner Nigha Robertson said. “I feel like closing it down was like an escape and like they’re running from their punishment.”   

Prime Healthcare, the for-profit owners of Centinela Hospital, said the maternity ward closed because there isn’t enough demand in the area for a maternity ward.  Centinela Hospital’s birth rate was less than two babies per day, when maternal care ended. Officials said they want to invest more resources into mental health.  Prime Healthcare’s peak revenue in 2023 was $7.4 billion, according to Zippia.com, a career data website.

In contrast, government and non-profit run hospitals like MLKCH tend to lose money, as state law requires them to address community needs in order to maintain their tax-exempt status,   MLKCH was one of few hospitals to maintain its maternity ward.

 Part of the challenge with non-profits is that a big percentage of their revenue comes from Medi-Cal, California’s public insurance program, which does not repay full care costs to providers.

“We lose money on every one of those patient visits—a significant amount.” Elaine Batchlor, MD, CEO of MLK Community Healthcare, said in the release. “As the volume grew and continues to grow, we began to lose more and more money.”

On Tuesday, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, urged immediate action to support Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom.  The governor vetoed a bill in 2022 that would have provided the hospital with approximately $25-$30 million in additional funds annually.

“I call on you as the Governor of the Great State of California to reverse your decision of 2022 and immediately support legislation that will adjust MLKCH’s supplemental funding methodology to include outpatient services, including the approximately 125,000 ED services provided by the hospital every year,” Congresswoman Waters said in the letter. “This will cost an estimated $25 million per year. More importantly, it will save countless lives.”

This is not the first time the hospital has been besieged by the threat of closure.  In fact, primary and emergency services ended at MLKCH back in August 2007 because of its poor record of patient care.  The urgent care center and outpatient clinic remained in operation.  The hospital was fully restored in June 2015.