A South Los Angeles safety-net hospital that took its emergency room crisis to Sacramento has cleared its biggest hurdle yet — but the fix is not law until Gov. Gavin Newsom says so.
The California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 2405 on Aug. 31, according to an announcement from the bill’s author, Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), reported by the Los Angeles Sentinel. The bill is sponsored by Martin Luther King Jr. Community Healthcare, the nonprofit that operates MLK Community Hospital in Willowbrook. Final floor vote counts from the Aug. 31 passage were not available at the time of drafting.
Gipson’s office frames AB 2405 as a measure to reduce emergency room overcrowding. The bill’s operative provision is narrower and more specific: officially titled “Mental health,” it would require a law enforcement agency transporting a person to an emergency department to take that person to the “nearest appropriate emergency department,” as defined, with exceptions. In practice, supporters say, that would spread psychiatric emergency transports across more hospitals rather than concentrating them at facilities like MLK.
The pressure behind the bill is well documented. MLK Community Hospital’s emergency department has 29 beds and was built to handle 25,000 visits a year; it now sees more than 120,000 annually and has relied on tents to manage overflow. The hospital opened in 2015 after the closure of the county-run King/Drew Medical Center and serves a heavily Black and Latino patient population in South Los Angeles. Last month, Kaiser Permanente committed up to $32 million to the financially strained hospital, much of it aimed at emergency services.
Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO of MLK Community Healthcare, urged the governor to sign the bill, saying it would get patients in psychiatric distress to care faster and distribute the burden “more broadly and equitably” among hospitals. The California Hospital Association filed a letter of support in April, writing that the bill “would reduce unsafe, inequitable delays in care for vulnerable patients” and noting that law enforcement lacks uniform statewide medical transport standards.
The bill did draw opposition along the way: it passed the Assembly floor in May on a 47–18 vote with 15 members not voting, and drew “no” votes in the Public Safety and Appropriations committees. The identity of registered opponents could not be confirmed before drafting.
AB 2405 is not law. Newsom, in his final legislative session as governor, faces a Sept. 30 deadline to sign or veto bills sent to his desk. Whether the bill has been formally enrolled and delivered to the governor could not be confirmed at drafting time.
No mainstream outlet appears to have covered the bill’s passage; the only coverage found was the Sentinel’s report based on Gipson’s announcement. Readers can track the bill’s status at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov and contact the governor’s office before the Sept. 30 deadline.
Drafted by News Observed Editorial AI, human reviewed and published.