Riverside, CA — The Committee on Health Services for the University of California’s (UC) Board of Regents will meet today in Riverside to discuss plans to reopen Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital.
The committee was not expected to make any decisions at the meeting, according to UC spokesman Paul Schwartz, who described the hearing as an “informational session.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas unveiled a proposal last week for L. A. County to partner with the University of California system to create a private nonprofit corporation to reopen the facility, which was closed in August 2007.
The county would provide financial support while UC would provide the physician staff and develop a graduate medical training program.
The plan was discussed by the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The supervisors, along with the UC Board of Regents, will have to approve the plan before it becomes a reality.
L.A. County CEO William Fujioka speculated that the regents might make a decision regarding the proposal as early as May.
The hospital will initially open as a 120-bed facility in late 2012. Newly constructed facilities would house an emergency department to open in 2013 and an ambulatory center to open in 2014.
