Local News in Brief : Laid-Off Hospital Worker Gets Hearing
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The Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission agreed Wednesday to hear the protest of a self-styled whistle-blower who contends she was laid off her county job after repeatedly warning of waste and mismanagement at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in South Los Angeles.
The commission voted to schedule a hearing date for Diane Weissburg, who had been director of patient accounts at King until she was laid off last October. Weissburg claims that she lost her job after she repeatedly criticized the billing operations for allegedly squandering millions of dollars at the hospital.
At the same time, the commission Wednesday rejected a request for a Civil Service hearing from another health services worker who also contends that he lost his job in retaliation for his whistle-blowing efforts. Reuven Zach, a medical radiation physicist, claims his complaints about the dangers of aging X-ray machines led to his dismissal.
In both cases, representatives of the Department of Health Services insisted that critical questions raised by the employees played no role in their layoffs.
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