Title: Are hospitals 'dumping' homeless patients on shelters, service agencies in Sacramento? | The Sacramento Bee
Headings: Are hospitals 'dumping' homeless patients on shelters, service agencies in Sacramento? | The Sacramento Bee
Are hospitals 'dumping' homeless patients on shelters, service agencies in Sacramento? | The Sacramento Bee
Homelessness
‘It was a scary thing.’ Hospital dumps senior at homeless shelter. He’s not the first
By Cynthia Hubert
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Content: Hospitals must make prior arrangements for patients, either with family, at a care home, or at another appropriate agency, the code says. But the task is easier said than done for health professionals dealing with people who have no place to live and may have mental illnesses and other complicated problems, said Jan Emerson-Shea, vice president of external affairs for the California Hospital Association. “Hospitals try to do a ‘warm hand-off’ if possible,” Emerson-Shea said. “ But if the person is homeless, who do the hospitals call? There are only so many shelter beds. It’s a huge problem in California.” Sometimes, homeless patients insist on being taken to specific shelters or agencies, or simply released to the streets, she said. In some communities, such as Los Angeles, patients are sometimes dropped off on skid row “because that is, in fact, where the services exist in that area for homeless people.” But the failure of some hospitals in L.A. to make prior arrangements for homeless patients has spurred a rash of lawsuits alleging “dumping” of poor people. In 2016, a Hawaiian Gardens hospital agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the city for sending a homeless woman to skid row with no identification and wearing only paper pajamas.