Re: GEN: Cutting Hospital costs?
From: S Osterling M.D. (sdoesterling-obgyndotnet@yahoo.com)
Fri Mar 24 13:20:06 2006
This is known to happen.
The poorer the county, the more frequently it occurs.
At my county hospital, we don't discharge to the street.
We have been working with shelters to "reserve" beds by paying for
them, etc.
What do you do with the medically well folks who often have mental
illness or dual diagnosis who come to your hospital? We treat them and
place them.
But I will tell you that the local private hospitals don't have the
same mission and values.
We are working on the problem at the county level and have a good bunch
in the supervisors office who want to eradicate homelessness by 2010.
This may not happen, but care of the vulnerable will improve.
Scott
On Mar 24, 2006, at 10:48 AM, doctorjoe@aol.com wrote:
> Anyone from CA know about this?
>
> Joe P.
>
> Authorities Reviewing Video Showing Indigent Hospital Patient Dumped
> on L.A.'s Skid Row
>
> An image taken from a Los Angeles Union Rescue Mission surveillance
> video camera
> shows Carol Reyes, 63, wandering around after being dropped off in her
> hospital
> gown by a taxi on Skid Row Monday afternoon, March 20, 2006. Reyes, a
> homeless
> woman from Gardena, Calif., was taken from a Kaiser Permanente
> hospital in
> Bellflower, Calif. on Monday to Skid Row, authorities said. (AP
> Photo/Union
> Rescue Mission)
> 03-24-2006 1:08 PM
>
> By GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer
>
> LOS ANGELES -- Authorities are examining a surveillance tape that
> shows an
> elderly woman wandering Skid Row in a hospital gown and slippers as
> they
> investigate the practice of hospitals and police agencies dumping
> homeless
> people downtown.
>
> Carol Ann Reyes, 63, of Gardena, was taken from a Kaiser Permanente
> hospital in
> Bellflower on Monday to the downtown area known as Skid Row,
> authorities said.
>
> A surveillance camera outside the Union Rescue Mission showed Reyes
> walking from
> the direction of a taxi that had just driven away. She wandered the
> street for
> about three minutes before a mission staff member brought her inside.
>
> City officials have been looking into the alleged dumping of homeless
> people in
> Skid Row, a ramshackle area downtown.
>
> Several hospitals have acknowledged that they put some discharged
> indigent
> patients with nowhere else to go into taxica! bs headed to the area
> because it
> offers a chance for getting services and shelter. Los Angeles police
> also are
> investigating whether other law enforcement agencies dump people
> without
> anywhere else to go downtown.
>
> "We have been looking into homeless dumping for some time, and this
> (tape) gives
> us another example of what has been going on," said Frank Mateljan, a
> spokesman
> for the city attorney's office.
>
> Diana Bonta, vice president of public affairs for Kaiser Southern
> California,
> said the hospital attempted to find a shelter for Reyes, but when that
> failed,
> it was determined that she would be taken to the Union Rescue Mission.
> Hospital
> officials are trying to find out why Reyes, who was in the hospital
> after
> suffering a bad fall, was left on the street still wearing her
> hospital gown and
> slippers.
>
> The incident violated hospital policy and will not occur again, she
> said.
>
> "We have a policy of treating our pati! ents with compassion and
> care," Bonta
> said. "This should not have happened."
>
> Andy Bales, president the Union Rescue Mission, where Reyes remained,
> said the
> incident was the third in the past week in which security cameras
> caught taxis
> dropping people in the area. The problem will continue until a
> coordinated
> discharge plan between hospitals and shelters is created, he said.
>
> "We just can't drop people off like baggage," he said. "We can't have
> a society
> where these people have nowhere to turn when they need care."
>
> State Sen. Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles, a Democrat, has introduced a
> bill that
> would prohibit any arresting agency from taking people who need drug
> treatment,
> mental health services or shelter outside their jurisdiction.
>
> Los Angeles County officials are also considering establishing five
> regional
> homeless centers in an attempt to reduce dumping, the Los Angeles
> Times reported
> Friday.
>
> The regional ! homeless centers plan would spread the responsibility
> of caring for
> the homeless to suburbs instead of concentrating it downtown, the
> newspaper
> said. Each 30-bed center would operate 24-hours a day and would accept
> people
> from hospitals, police and care providers. The goal would be to find
> the
> resident permanent housing and services such as mental health and
> substance
> abuse treatment, officials said.
>
>
