Homeless Dumping

[docB]

Here we go again.

http://news.aol.com/topnews/article...t/20070209163009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

Now while this was a particularly egregious example of dumping you have to contrast it with the idea held by the public, the LAPD and the LA District Attorney which is that once a homeless person lands in a hospital they are to be housed there indefinitely.

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[Faebinder]

This is F-ed up.... I have utmost sympathy to a homeless paraplegic guy who obviously needs to support a colostomy...

BUT

Do you force a McDonald to feed a homeless guy? Isn't food a necessity for life too? How can you force a hospital to take this guy..... The proper course is to find some sort of generous person or maybe a government program willing to donate money to put him in the hospital... NOT FORCE A HOSPITAL TO TAKE HIM FOR FREE!

Should we also force gas stations to give homeless people who live in their cars free gas?

 

[docB]

Update!

http://news.aol.com/topnews/article...s/20070516122809990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

So Kaiser was forced to blow $555,000 after they took care of this patient for free and then sent her back where she came from. Oh well. Eating a half a mil is roughly the same cost as keep a homeless person in their ICU for a month.

 

[Miami_med]

Why do they have to call the mission in the first place? Free care isn't nice enough?

 

[docB]

Why do they have to call the mission in the first place? Free care isn't nice enough?

It all comes down to the fact that the public can't get it through their mushy skulls that when a homeless person goes to the ER and gets admitted to the hospital they won't be discharged with a home, a job, addiction and mental illness free and with a whole new lease on life. That's how they want it to be but they don't want to fund it. They think the hospital is supposed to be like a car wash where society can dump it's grimy clunkers and they come out the other end all shiny and new. It just ain't so.

 

[Tired]

Please keep in mind what started this whole thing. A demented patient with a family and home was transported by ambulance to skid row, and let out in front of a homeless shelter. The family was rightfully livid, as any of us would be.

The current furor over "dumping" homeless patients (whatever the hell that means) is ridiculous. But if Kaiser hadn't been so damn stupid in the first place, this never would have turned into an issue.

 

[Shpamme]

Please keep in mind what started this whole thing. A demented patient with a family and home was transported by ambulance to skid row, and let out in front of a homeless shelter. The family was rightfully livid, as any of us would be.

The current furor over "dumping" homeless patients (whatever the hell that means) is ridiculous. But if Kaiser hadn't been so damn stupid in the first place, this never would have turned into an issue.

Just because it wouldn't have turned into an issue doesn't mean it wasn't an issue worthy of being brought to the limelight. Just because this patient had a family doesn't mean he was more worthy of care than the homeless person who otherwise wouldn't have entered the limelight. It's the same thing with the racially-skewed coverage of abductees--statistically, beautiful, young, blond Caucasian abductees seem to get more media coverage than minority abductees or less beautiful/glamorous Caucasian missing women. Just because the skewed coverage happens doesn't make the minority or less beautiful Caucasian women deserve less coverage, right?

That said, I have no idea how to solve the problem, I just don't think it's fair to think having a family should be the prerequisite for turning something into an issue.

 

[Tired]

That said, I have no idea how to solve the problem, I just don't think it's fair to think having a family should be the prerequisite for turning something into an issue.

Your compassion is as touching as your confusion is amusing.

If a guy with a family is dropped off in front of a homeless shelter, it is a horrible breakdown of the system. If a homeless guy is dropped off in front of a homeless shelter, it's a good thing.

You know where the hospitals in my state discharge homeless patients to? The street. They go out the door of the ER, and good luck finding some place to sleep tonight. Why the hell should a hospital pay for a taxi service anyway?

No good deed . . .

 

[tibor75]

I wonder what percentage of the homeless deserve to be homeless, i.e. drug addicts, crime addicts, gambling idiots, etc etc. Frankly, if your own stupidity causes you to be homeless, I have no sympathy for you whatsoever.

 

[PlAnEjaNe]

Shpamme....LOVE the avatar....you are most definitely from norcal....'hella'..LMAO

-PlAnEjaNe

 

[danielmd06]

This isn't about labeling people or being heartless.

At it's crux this is a fundamental issue about the ability to provide services without bankrupting a hospital or the taxpayers. Someone has to pay the bills or the hospital closes.

Altruistic ideas about unlimited access to hospital care and frivolous litigation are going to hurt us all more in the long run than the public realizes.

 

[Miami_med]

Your compassion is as touching as your confusion is amusing.

If a guy with a family is dropped off in front of a homeless shelter, it is a horrible breakdown of the system. If a homeless guy is dropped off in front of a homeless shelter, it's a good thing.

You know where the hospitals in my state discharge homeless patients to? The street. They go out the door of the ER, and good luck finding some place to sleep tonight. Why the hell should a hospital pay for a taxi service anyway?

No good deed . . .

I couldn't agree more

 

[Faze2]

Okay sorry to do this, but the 2 links in this thread would not allow me to view the article. It just it had been erased. Could someone just give me the basic idea of what happened?

 

[docB]

Cool. Now the ACLU is lecturing us about the Hippocratic Oath.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323715,00.html

 

[lpressley130]

They always expect the hospital to keep patients forever! I'm going to sound a little mean here, but, it's bad enough the poor guy isn't paying the bill and the state's reimbursement payment will be thousands of dollars below what was utilized to care for him... This is the bigger problem of healthcare - what should be done with patients after they don't require acute care any longer? Should they be sent to a long term acute care facility? Should they go to a nursing home? This man obviously needs long term care in the form of housing, etc. That is not the purpose of an acute care facility. Maybe the ACLU should start opening up nursing home-type facilities for all the homeless people who need some place to go after they're discharged from the hospital...