Hospital asserts allegations unfounded; practice ‘too common,’ U.S. official says
By William M. Welch
USA TODAY
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LOS ANGELES — A hospital here is under criminal investigation for possibly dumping homeless patients on Skid Row — a practice that the Bush administration says is widespread in the USA and “inhumane.”
Los Angeles Police Capt. Andrew Smith says “there’s a strong likelihood criminal charges could be filed” against Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center after five patients were brought by ambulance Sunday to the city’s drug- and crime-infested Skid Row section.
Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, called the alleged dumping “abhorrent ... inhumane and horrific.”
He says such actions by hospitals and other institutions have contributed to homelessness problems across the country. Stopping the practice and getting people into stable living situations, he said, are goals of agreements that the council has entered into with 281 cities.
Cities with such 10-year-plans to combat homelessness and find permanent solutions include New York, Chicago, Denver, Miami, San Francisco and San Diego.
Los Angeles does not have such a plan, Mangano said. “Inappropriate discharge” by hospitals puts people on the street, he says, fills up temporary shelters and sends its victims into cycles of hospitalization and arrest that are costly to the public.
“Unfortunately, it’s all too common a practice around the country,” Mangano says. “It’s wrong for the person. It’s certainly wrong for our society. ... It’s wrong for the taxpayer because the taxpayer is the one who is saddled with that person’s recycling over and over through the system.”
Examples include workers at a mental hospital in Colorado who were accused in 2003 of dumping a discharged patient out of a wheelchair and onto a sidewalk at a Denver homeless shelter. Hospitals around Riviera Beach, Fla., were accused in 2000 of discharging patients into squalid motel rooms with little food or assistance.
In Los Angeles, police videotaped the ambulance’s arrival and interviewed the patients who said they didn’t want to be taken there, Smith said. At least two of the patients had homes, one with family and the other at a convalescent home in Pasadena, he said.
The hospital’s president and chief executive officer, John Fenton, issued a statement saying “the allegations ... are unfounded” and asking for a meeting with the city attorney to discuss its discharge practices. Fenton did not return numerous calls from a reporter seeking comment.
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo says that he opened an investigation into the dumping of indigent people on Skid Row a year ago and that the events Sunday are a significant break in the case.
In March, police released videotapes they said showed a 63-year-old woman dropped off on a Skid Row street still wearing a hospital gown and slippers. The woman had been a patient at Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower Medical Center. Kaiser officials apologized and promised it would not happen again.
Delgadillo said a range of civil and criminal violations could be brought for discharging patients without adequate planning. He said false imprisonment and dependent-care abuse were among violations that would be considered.
Fenton, in his statement, said the hospital does not have an emergency room and is not covered by a federal law that requires appropriate discharge of patients from emergency care.
Delgadillo called Sunday’s incidents “very serious” and said Skid Row — a 50-square-block area — is a dangerous place to leave anyone.
“I can’t think of a more perilous situation than the heart of Skid Row,” he said.