L.A. Accuses Hospitals Of Dumping Homeless

Prosecutors have filed civil complaints against two hospitals and a transportation services firm for allegedly dumping homeless patients in downtown Los Angeles, including a paraplegic man who was found crawling in the gutter near a park in the city's decrepit Skid Row neighborhood.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Feliz and Methodist Hospital in Arcadia were accused by the city attorney's office in four separate incidents of alleged patient dumping — two by each hospital — over a 14-month period.

Empire Enterprises, whose van driver allegedly left Gabino Olvera at a Skid Row park despite pleas from onlookers, was named as a coconspirator. Olvera, 54, was found wearing a soiled hospital gown with a colostomy bag still attached.

The complaints, filed Tuesday, seek fines against the hospitals and a judge's order to forbid the practice of dumping patients. The alleged dumping of homeless patients on the street by hospitals has been under investigation by Los Angeles police and the city prosecutors for months.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is trying to use a state law concerning unfair business practices to act against the hospitals.

Kaylor Shemberger, executive vice president CHA Health Systems, the parent company of Hollywood Presbyterian, issued a statement saying that Olvera told the van driver to drop him off at a sidewalk location, a violation of hospital policy.

"Following this incident we instituted several new policies and intensified training to make sure nothing of the sort happens again," Shemberger told the Los Angeles Times.

Methodist Hospital issued a statement Tuesday saying officials "would like to have the opportunity to review (the complaint) before making any comments."

The city's attorney's office last year filed false imprisonment and dependent care endangerment charges against Kaiser Permanente — the nation's largest nonprofit health maintenance organization — after a 63-year-old patient from Kaiser's Bellflower hospital was recorded on surveillance video in March 2006 wandering Skid Row in a hospital gown.

To resolve the charges, Kaiser Permanente last month agreed in a settlement with the city to new discharge rules, providing more training for employees and allow a former U.S. attorney to monitor its progress.

Soon after that settlement was announced, Hollywood Presbyterian said it too would adopt the same discharge rules for homeless patients. Delgadillo said at the time that Hollywood Presbyterian's adoption of the rules would have little effect on any legal action by his office.

Meanwhile, in the state capital on Tuesday, the state Assembly health committee approved a bill that would outlaw patient dumping by hospitals, but with less severe penalties than had been sought by the bill's sponsor.