LOS ANGELES --

State inspectors are taking a closer look at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, focusing on the over-crowded emergency room.

"The department expects a citation of 'immediate jeopardy' related to overcrowding in the emergency department" ...with "delays in the triage and reassessment of patients," said Los Angeles County's chief medical officer Dr. Bruce Chernof in a statement released Wednesday.

Harbor-UCLA is just the latest county-run facility to face such scrutiny, KNBC's Gordon Tokumatsu reported.

Last summer, Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital was shut down because of numerous staff-related problems, including the death of a woman in the emergency room.

Last October, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center was threatened with the loss of federal funding after a patient died of a heart attack that could have been prevented, Tokumatsu reported.

The catalyst of this investigation could be considered the death of a 56-year-old William Harold Jones Jr.

He was admitted early in the morning on Dec. 22, complaining of generalized pain, but staffers lost track of him and he was found dead on a sidewalk hours later.

Gardena resident Raymond Pelaez said he was at the ER just two months ago and is not surprised there is an investigation.

Pelaez said he had a thorn in his elbow and wanted a professional to remove it to avoid risk. He said he spent almost 12 hours waiting in the emergency room, before he got "fed up" and left.

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