Los Angeles Hospital Sued for Patient Dumping

The Los Angeles Times reports that the City of Los Angeles has sued Gardens Regional Hospital & Medical Center for “repeatedly dumping patients … without appropriate treatment or discharge plans.”  According to the Times, L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer has sued several hospitals over the past two years on similar grounds, and he is currently investigating other facilities.  One example cited by the story is Glendale Adventist Medical Center, which is reported to have “paid $700,000 last year to settle dumping allegations without admitting wrongdoing.”

As to the predicament facing hospitals, the story explains as follows:

Some hospitals maintain they are hamstrung by laws that stop them from confining all but the most severely psychotic homeless people. State law requires discharge planning, but hospitals say there is nowhere for homeless patients to go — especially those with mental conditions.

But Feuer maintains that several hospitals have agreed to proper protocols.  The Times cites him as saying, “In each of the cases we've resolved with a medical care facility we've not had a single problem," and that "it is possible for a healthcare facility to adopt humane and decent treatment."

 

JRB