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 â 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 â hardworking employees, patients ] and their families â often make do or do without. ] ] Here are some examples: ] ] â¢Â In the last five years, King/Drew has spent nearly ] $34 million on employee injuries â 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. ] ] â¢Â 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. ] ] â¢Â 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. ] ] â¢Â King/Drew pays its ranking doctors lavishly. Some ] draw twice what their counterparts make at other public ] hospitals â 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 |