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Life & Times Transcript
11/02/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- King/Drew is no longer a hospital, but its doctors are still treating patients. Cynthia Nalls>> Our clinics are open five days a week, Monday through Friday, eight a.m. through five o'clock p.m. We also have an urgent care center that's available seven days a week from seven o'clock in the morning until midnight. Val Zavala>> And then, these blockbuster movies have big stars and huge budgets, but are they good enough to win over the fans of small movies? It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times by from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Toni Guinyard>> Ask just about anyone about the future of King Harbor Hospital and there's a good chance you'll get a wide range of opinions, especially from people who work there or live nearby. Some of them are emotionally attached to the hospital because of why it was built and what it once stood for. Well, the hospital is still standing, but it's poised for a makeover of its image and perhaps even of its management. >> "My hands are going to be little cold, but I think they're warming up." Toni Guinyard>> Work continues inside King Harbor despite the controversy. >> "Yes, I can feel your baby. Feel it move?" >> "Yes." Toni Guinyard>> It's a hospital with a history now struggling to redefine and overhaul its image after years of being under the microscope. We watched and reported on the community and hospital meetings, the one by one closures of the clinics that had once been the hospital's pride and then the highly publicized patient deaths signaling the beginning of the end. Dr. Bruce Chernof>> We need a change here. The hospital was not able to demonstrate that it meets national standards in every community and, most importantly, underserved communities. The most underserved communities deserve care that meets national standards. Toni Guinyard>> Dr. Bruce Chernof is Director and Chief Medical Officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Under his watch, he's determined to breath new life into the facility. King Harbor Hospital. That's what it's called now, but for years we've known it as King/Drew Medical Center. But federal funding was pulled, so the emergency services were terminated and, even though King is not what it used to be, it is still in many ways open for business and serving the patients. >> "Your red cells are a little low." Toni Guinyard>> And that's what you might not be aware of. After the August closure of the hospital, it may come as a surprise that more than seventy of the hospital's clinics are up and running. >> "You can just have a seat and the doctor will be right with you." Dr. Richard Findlay>> We're not an inpatient service anymore and this and that. There may be the public perception that there's nothing here at all. Dr. Bruce Chernof>> What is closed are the forty-eight beds that we were running and the emergency room, so those two parts of the hospital are no longer open. But the hospital also ran a vibrant set of outpatient clinics. >> "How's the chemotherapy coming along?" Toni Guinyard>> This is one of them, hematology and oncology. >> "And how about your feet? Are you having any swelling here?" >> "No. No swelling." Toni Guinyard>> Its business may be not as usual. Cynthia Nalls>> We've experienced a decrease overall of about thirty percent in the number of patients that are seen here at the facility. Toni Guinyard>> But patients, some of whom thought every inch of the hospital was closed, are returning. Assistant Hospital Administrator, Cynthia Nalls, says those numbers are growing. King Harbor has launched an aggressive outreach campaign plastering their message for everyone to see and mailing three hundred thousand notices to residents. Cynthia Nalls>> We have flyers going out. We have ads on television to let the public know that we are still open and that our clinics and our urgent care center are available for services. Dr. Richard Findlay>> It is an important issue mainly because we are in an underserved area. Certainly we have a very high acute in terms of high risk for both kids and adults. The problem of access to health care, this institution as we are, is still an important part of the health care delivery in Los Angeles County. Hilda Garcia>> When I first hear that, I think I don't know where I'm going to go to continue my treatment. Toni Guinyard>> Patient Hilda Garcia says she couldn't imagine having to find another hospital or clinic to go to. Hilda Garcia>> Well, it's a lot of problems because this is the closest hospital where I live. Like I say, I've been here for four and a half years, so I feel comfortable here and they're giving very good treatment. Toni Guinyard>> It's the kind of statement that hospital administrators want and need to hear after weathering continued public and political outcry. Dr. Bruce Chernof>> There are many, many, many patients that received good, high-quality, compassionate care at the old hospital. It may not be a big number, but there were enough incidents and problems that didn't meet national standards that got us to where we are today. Toni Guinyard>> Today what was once a hospital is now operating as a multi-ambulatory care center referred to as King MACC. Approximately eight hundred of the sixteen hundred employees retained their jobs here. The other eight hundred employees were displaced, many of them going to Harbor UCLA Medical Center. As for the future -- Cynthia Nalls>> Right now, we are looking at expanding our clinics. We have some services that we have identified that are really needed in the community itself. We will be adding an ambulatory care or a outpatient surgery center for our patients. Dr. Bruce Chernof>> We are looking to reopen the hospital hopefully within the next twelve months and we should be open to creative solutions. We're looking for possible private providers who could partner with the county to deliver a solution and, if there is no private provider, we need to be able to reopen it as a county hospital. Toni Guinyard>> But getting to that point is going to be a difficult journey. On the day of our interview with Dr. Chernof, the county had just begun its formal search for potential private partners. Have you had any interest? Dr. Bruce Chernof>> Again, the request for solutions is going out this week. There are private hospitals that have spoken with the consultant that we're using, so I think that there will be some interest. But until we get something formal back in writing, that's a tough question to answer. I'm not looking for a one size fits all solution. We are looking for one that can deliver the full scope of services that the community needs. One way or another, we need a hospital that can meet national standards on the corner of 120th and Wilmington. Toni Guinyard>> Right now, it's where the shell of a hospital stands in the heart of a community tired of promises made and then broken. Cynthia Nalls>> The patients are our neighbors, they are our friends, and we want to show them that we do care, that we love this facility and we're going to keep this facility open for them. Dr. Richard Findlay>> Well, I'm disappointed that it's not what it used to be. I suppose there is a little frustration there, but we are going to continue to develop our outpatient services. It's important for this population. Hopefully, we may become a full-service hospital again. Toni Guinyard>> Hopes of one doctor who has worked in this hospital for twenty years, hopes shared by many who believe there is a future for a hospital in the Watts-Willowbrook community. Dr. Bruce Chernof>> The only real failure is if we can't deliver a hospital that meets national standards to the community and, if there isn't a private partner, we must explore all the other avenues including the county itself stepping up to reopen the facility, but you've got to walk before you run. The first step is to be there for the patients who needs us. Because if we can't do that, we can't be there for any of the other really important goals like research or education. So first things first, first steps first. Toni Guinyard>> Steps that will be taken by county officials and hospital administrators who know the public will be watching their every move. I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> Many southern California neighborhoods are going through dramatic changes. Developers are building up and along with the rise in density are thousands of new apartments and lofts. Many urban planners call this smart growth, but many of us are wondering how smart is it really? For a look at growth and quality of life, we brought three people together at our Kitchen Table. Gail Goldberg is head of Planning for the city of Los Angeles. Bob Stern is with the Center for Governmental Studies. And kicking off our conversation is David Lehrer of CommUnity Advocates. David Lehrer>> There's been lots of focus on growth in Los Angeles even in an Op Ed in The Wall Street Journal. What seems to be going on and why is there so much attention paid to this issue now, Gail? Gail Goldberg>> Well, it's not totally clear to me that there's a lot more attention being paid to it than there has been for some time. I think people in Los Angeles are tired of the traffic. They're tired of getting stuck on the freeways. They're tired of their neighborhoods being overcrowded and not enough facilities. I think it's very frightening when people hear the growth projections, given sort of what the quality of their life is right now. Robert Stern>> People are very concerned about traffic obviously. I mean, the governor just deleting a whole bunch of money for mass transit and saying, in the county and the city, you've got to do it on your own basically. Go out and get your own financing. People are very upset. People are not going downtown at night because of the traffic and everybody's sort of changing their way. They're all concerned what's going to happen in the future? David Lehrer>> What's the problem here? Gail Goldberg>> Well, I think the problem is that we don't have really good plans that guide development. We don't have the kind of plans that can give communities any kind of assurance about what their community is going to evolve into and I think that's very problematic. Folks today, if you say that in the next twenty years, we're going to get another half million people in the city, I mean, "Where? Where are you going to put a half million people?" They have no idea where, so I think the "where" is the important discussion that we're going to have to have. David Lehrer>> Well, why haven't we had the discussion? Robert Stern>> Because people, in a sense, are selfish or maybe self-interested. We all want other people to take the bus. We all want other people to take the train. But we want to be in our car. We want to have that luxury. And the politicians are conflicted. The politicians get campaign money from developers. They believe in growth. Nobody wants to be in a city that's losing population. At the same time, there are large groups of people out there saying, "Stop. Slow growth." Gail Goldberg>> But help me understand. If you want to stop growth, you don't stop growth by stopping building. That doesn't help you. I mean, stopping growth is a whole other issue and nobody has had that discussion in this city. I mean, stopping growth? What are the components of growth? It's people living longer. It's more babies being born. It's migration either foreign or domestic. What are the things you can do to stop growth? You can shut down your economy. Robert Stern>> Yeah, I know. That's right. I think if you talk to some nimbys, not in my back yard people, they would say, "Stop the growth. We don't want any more people coming in. We don't want any more development." David Lehrer>> Well, that's not going to happen, so let's take that off the table. Acknowledging that California and Los Angeles in particular is going to be growing, how do we then accommodate to that growth in a smart way? Gail Goldberg>> That then has to become the beginning of a conversation. If we are convinced that people here get it, that the growth is going to happen whether we want it or not, then the next question is what do we do about it? Do we plan for it? Do we not plan for it? And not planning for it is, okay, stop development. Don't build the high-rises. David Lehrer>> But there's the notion that seems to be fairly popular that, even if we plan for it, the big guys come in and they'll go around the plan and get what they want anyway because they know how to work the system, the big developers and the big builders. Gail Goldberg>> I think there is absolutely that sense right now in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a long history of having a fairly political land use environment and, what's more, we have a long history of not having great plans that guide development either for the developers or for the community members. So I think, if we're going to convince folks in this city that we should plan for growth, then we are going to have to commit to them to give them real plans and the process has got to be a good deal less political than it is now. David Lehrer>> How political is it? Robert Stern>> Oh, it's very political. Of course, each council member has his or her own fiefdom and the other council members tend to defer to that fiefdom. The question is sort of the overall plan for the city and for the area and that's not always looked at. Each city such as Santa Monica might have its own plan, Los Angeles might have its own plan, and there's not enough communication among the cities, among the council districts, to have an overall coordinated plan. But you can have all the plans in the world and people might not agree with those plans and people might just decide, you know, they're going to live out in Palmdale or they want the single family house. You can have the mayor who says, "No more single family houses." Well, try to tell that to people who have kids. They're not going to want to be stuck in apartments or condos. So there is a demand that has to be met as well and the question is that we have no land to meet the demand. Gail Goldberg>> Right, and so a lot of the growth is not going to happen, interestingly, in the city of Los Angeles over the next twenty years and it's for the very reasons that you mentioned. If folks want to have less expensive housing and if they want to have a single family house, they probably are going to have to live outside the city limits. David Lehrer>> Which only will increase traffic. Gail Goldberg>> It absolutely will. It absolutely will increase traffic. If we don't do really good plans that begin to put jobs and housing closer together, that begin to create mixed-use environments where people can walk for some of their daily needs instead of driving, and places where people can get on transit and maybe get to and from work, anyone who thinks that your goal is to have manageable traffic in your downtown doesn't understand vibrant urban environments. Every vibrant city has horrible traffic in their downtown area. So what? Robert Stern>> I guess the worst thing would be if there was no traffic. There would be no economy (laughter). Gail Goldberg>> Absolutely. But that's the problem every city wants to have, that kind of a vibrant downtown where traffic is your problem. David Lehrer>> To pull back a little bit, do you sense that the political stars are aligned now so that there can be serious planning in Los Angeles? Are the mayor and the City Council so inclined? Gail Goldberg>> If I didn't believe that, I would not be here. I honestly would not be here. I think that this city has finally reached the point where the old system, the old culture, isn't working for anyone. The developers can't afford the time it takes to figure out which political winds are blowing and what it is they can build. They need plans to direct them. The communities are desperately in need of some assurance of what's going to happen. And I think that we can say from what's happened in the eighteen months since I've been here that there is a commitment. The fact that the City Council gave the Planning Department a huge increase in our budget to do plans and to hire people to process development in a more efficient way, I think that's a commitment to the beginning of a change of a culture that sometimes -- David Lehrer>> -- as a dispassionate observer, do you agree? Robert Stern>> Well, I'm hopeful. I'm hoping that Gail is right. I'm fearful that she's not. Economy turns down, taxes go down, assessed values go down, the federal government decides it's not going to help fund transit programs anymore, and the question is going to be "Can Los Angeles sacrifice enough to do it?" Will we pay more taxes to have rapid transit? Will we pay more taxes to improve our roads? That's the real question. If we just rely on the federal government, if we just rely on other people, it won't happen. David Lehrer>> Well, on that questioning note, I want to thank you, Bob, and thank you, Gail, for joining us at the Kitchen Table. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> Movie studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year not just making movies, but convincing you and me to go see them. But if you're like me, the bigger the ad, the less likely I am to see the movie. So what could change my mind? Perhaps Los Angeles Times movie critic, Kenneth Turan. Vicki Curry talked with Kenneth Turan who has a new book about blockbusters worth seeing. Vicki Curry>> Kenneth Turan, your book is subtitled "A Celebration of a Certain Kind of Blockbuster". What do you mean? What kind of blockbuster? Kenneth Turan>> Well, you know, every blockbuster is not intended for really adults. I mean, I think we tend to think that Hollywood is mostly making films for adults and, every once in a while, they make a film for a younger audience. In fact, it's the reverse. You know, the kind of blockbusters that are intended for kind of intelligent adults who are looking for entertainment is very rare and I really think it's becoming kind of an endangered species in the movie world. Vicki Curry>> Why did you decide to put this book together? Kenneth Turan>> I wanted to do two things with the book. I wanted to call attention to this. I wanted to let people know kind of like with a passenger pigeon that, unless we pay attention, we're going to lose these movies. These are big studio movies. These are mostly movies that have a big budget and big stars and these are intended, you know, to hopefully captivate everybody. You know, these are the ones that I think have succeeded and they work for all audiences and, you know, don't insult the intelligence of adults. Vicki Curry>> So you break the films down by genre and the first one you start out with is action-thriller. So what are your favorites in that category? Kenneth Turan>> Well, one of the ones that I really like because it kind of came out of nowhere is "The Bourne Identity", which sounds like a standard kind of thriller that the studios do, but it had a really good cast. It had Matt Damon as the hero and Franka Potente as the German woman who helps him. It's all really nicely directed by Doug Liman. It's just smart, it's fun, it's very exciting. But one of the ones I especially like is "The Inside Man". I partly like it because its director is Spike Lee. Spike Lee has not usually made genre films. He usually makes kind of serious dramas. [Film Clip] Kenneth Turan>> And to have him do kind of a thriller about a bank robbery and a master criminal, but yet to bring his kind of concerns, his kind of societal issues, to kind of bring them in around the edges, I thought was really fascinating. He had the best of both worlds with that film. He had a good thriller and he had areas of adult concerns and managed to meld them seamlessly. Vicki Curry>> The next category you tackle is comedy. What do you like there? Kenneth Turan>> Oh, there are several that I really like. One film that I like is "Elf" because, again, it was unexpected. It was directed by John Favreau. I mean, it looked like it was just going to be some kind of silly movie, but it turned out to be very sweet and kind of very clever. It had Will Farrell, who's a great comic actor, and it's really one of the few recent Christmas films I can remember that has the potential to be a perennial film that people are going to want to watch every year or going to want to own and see it every Christmas. The other film that I really like is "Notting Hill" because it's a classic star vehicle and it's just one of these really unlikely, improbable plots. Julia Roberts is cast as a big movie star, cute meets Hugh Grant, and they're both such really good movie stars. They both really understand the dimension of being a movie star and they just play it perfectly. It's just a really, really charming film. Vicki Curry>> I notice you mentioned one of my favorites, "The Parent Trap". Kenneth Turan>> I wanted to put "The Parent Trap" in there for two reasons. Number one because it's a remake and it's a remake that's every bit as good and maybe even better than the original. It was very, very smartly done. One of the reasons it works so well is that it's got a terrific performance by a young Lindsay Lohan. In this day and age, we think of Lindsay Lohan as, you know, tabloid fodder. It's great to see Lindsay Lohan really acting. It's a charming film. It's got all the things we remember from the original, but it's been updated very, very smartly and just a pleasure to watch. Vicki Curry>> Next up is the drama and romance genre. What do you suggest in that category? Kenneth Turan>> The drama-romance categories are very strong, I think. One of the ones that comes to mind immediately is "L.A. Confidential". Curtis Hanson directed it from a James Ellroy novel. Every decade, it seems we get a great film noir and this is the film noir for the 1990s. [Film Clip] Kenneth Turan>> It really is a spectacular film, really well acted. It's got great characters, great settings, a great plot. Very wised-up, very noir, but very modern. Just a spectacular film. I really couldn't do this category without mentioning Clint Eastwood who's become just a remarkable director. The one I want to talk about the most is "Mystic River". It's got a very strong plot. It's got spectacular acting. It comes from a very good novel by Dennis Lehane. It's really, really impeccably done. Every step is just as it should be. It's not overdone. It's just right. It's just a remarkable piece of work. Because there is something that doesn't happen very often, I wanted to mention "The Truman Show" because comic actors are always trying to broaden themselves and I think no comic actor in recent memory has done it better than Jim Carrey did it in "The Truman Show". This is very sophisticated film, a film that couldn't work without Carrey's abilities as a comic actor, but yet it's very dramatic. Vicki Curry>> You included animation as one of the categories. Why did you decide to include that when you were talking about adult films? Kenneth Turan>> Well, you know, if you would have said to me twenty years ago that I was going to do a book like this and I would need a category for animation, I would have said you're out of your mind. I would have had you lie down and put a cold towel on your head. But animation has blossomed. You really have to start with the work of John Lassiter who runs Pixar. It's an article of faith with him that adults don't need to be talked down to. "Toy Story" is one of the first ones that really as a feature worked that way and it was a revelation to people. There's another Pixar film I want to mention called "The Incredibles" directed not by Lassiter, but by Brad Bird. This was really, I think, an attempt to go even further. [Film Clip] Kenneth Turan>> It really had dramatic elements and funny elements and romantic elements. It was a very realistic film which just happened to be animated and I think that was really a great step forward. Vicki Curry>> And the last category you called "spectacle". Why did you decide to call it that? What does that mean? Kenneth Turan>> One of the things we love about movies is that they're bigger than life. You know, believe me, whatever else is going to happen in my life, you're never going to find me watching a movie on a cell phone. It's just never going to happen. I don't even like to watch them at home. I want the big screen experience. I want to be enveloped in the darkness by a huge spectacle. Again, we tend to think that these films are really often brainless, but they don't have to be. One of the ones that I think immediately of is "The Lord of the Rings", the three "Lord of the Rings" films. I think it's very unusual to have a man of the kind of sophistication of Peter Jackson, to put someone like that in charge of a hundred million dollar-plus spectacle. It's unheard of. One of the films I really wanted to mention was "Black Hawk Down" because it's a serious film based on real events, based on a best-selling book by Mark Bowden, but yet it's done in a way that's hugely involving and hugely entertaining. It's very realistic and you really feel like you're right there in the middle of the combat. Very exciting. It's got great action set pieces and great drama, but yet it's about the nature of war and what should we be doing. It's remarkable that it kind of hits on all the bases that way. Vicki Curry>> Kenneth Turan, author of "Now in Theaters Everywhere", thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. Kenneth Turan>> Oh, it was a pleasure. Val Zavala>> Once again, Kenneth Turan's new book is called "Now in Theaters Everywhere". And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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