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: “I was outside with this big, huge crowd of homeless people,” Lewis, tall and thin with expressive blue eyes and a missing-tooth smile, recalled on a recent afternoon. “ It was a scary thing for someone my age. I didn’t know what to do. Why would they send me there when they didn’t even have a bed for me?” Robin Oliver, vice president of communications for Dignity Health, declined to address Lewis’ case specifically. She issued a statement saying that Dignity is “committed to providing the basic needs of any patient identified as homeless.” Lewis’ situation is hardly uncommon, said administrators of shelters and other nonprofit groups that serve homeless clients. They refer to the behavior as the “dumping” of patients who are poor or homeless, and said it is occurring with increasing frequency as the Sacramento region’s homelessness crisis deepens. Local hospitals face a common dilemma as they cope with a growing number of homeless patients. Where do they send people who have no permanent address when they are ready to be released from care?