Patient dumping outlawed in Los Angeles

[flashl]

UPI

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A new Los Angeles ordinance requires hospitals to obtain patients' written permission before moving them anywhere other than their homes, officials said.

Los Angeles medical centers have come under fire for allegations of hospital workers transporting homeless patients to shelters before they are healthy enough to be without medical treatment, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Hospital officials say they are worried that if they are convicted of violating the law, their facilities could be left out of vital federal health programs. They have also voiced concerns about whether or not hospitals can afford to hold homeless patients who do not have homes.

"The most important thing is to get culture change in the way that hospitals discharge patients," said a spokesman for Rockard J. Delgadillo, a Los Angeles city attorney whose office is conducting probes of about 50 dumping allegations that occurred before June 30, when the ordinance was put in place.

[roguevalley]

1. amazing that a law had to be written. extremely crappy thing to do to

people, dumping them.

[lynnertic]

5. it had been going on for years, too n/t

[Kutjara]

2. Even this article is sugar-coated.

For every allegation of "hospital workers transporting homeless patients to shelters," there were many more of the patients simply being dumped on "Skid Row" in downtown LA, often still in hospital gowns and with IV drips attached.

Because the LA city government has set up medical and outreach programs in the Skid Row area to try to help the homeless people who live there, the more affluent surrounding towns think it's a great way to get rid of "undesirables" without having to shell out any money of their own. Not only hospitals, but police and psychiatric facilities in Santa Monica, Pasadena, Long Beach and even as far away as the San Fernando Valley and Orange County have been caught dumping people Downtown. Basically, it's become a landfill site for human "waste."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. what, no trolls in this thread? Must not be criticizing big pharma

funny how as long as a thread doesn't criticize Merck or other big pharma,
the trolls stay away.

[varkam]

4. I think someone needs a nap. eom

[lynnertic]

6. not except you, troll. n/t