Los Angeles County medical crisis grows

The embattled director of Los Angeles County's public healthcare system abruptly quit on the same day negotiations with a private entity to reopen King-Harbor hospital fell apart. Bruce A. Chernof, MD, leaves as the county Department of Health Services faces a projected budget shortfall of $750 million over the next two years and undertakes the task of moving County-USC Medical Center to a new, smaller complex. Los Angeles County operates the second-largest publicly funded healthcare system in the nation. It has an annual budget exceeding $3.3 billion, three general hospitals and a network of clinics that together treat about 700,000 patients a year, most of them uninsured.