"Patient dumping" in California?

[danielmd06]

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Please see this link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070222/ap_on_re_us/homeless_dumping

I've only been to Los Angeles once, and that wasn't for a work-related issue. Is this common practice at tertiary care hospitals in your state?

I've never heard of it before.

 

[docB]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=368404

Yes, we've heard of it.

One thing to keep in mind is that while the media calls it "dumping the homeless" hospitals call it discharging patients who have completed their inpatient stays. Essentially the media is arguing that no hospital should ever be able to discharge a homeless person without providing them with a home. That's just silly. The government has already demanded that hospitals and doctors treat the homelss for free. Now they are creating an entitlement to outpatient housing for anyone admitted to a hospital.

 

[typeB-md]

The proposal would make it a misdemeanor for any hospital facility or worker to transport patients anywhere other than their residences without their informed consent.

If their residence is the street, seems like they don't need informed consent. You're not entitled nor required to own property. Seems like the bleeding hearts should get a fund and help, not discriminate against homeless people for choosing to live on the streets and not having to be burdened by property taxes, etc.

 

[typeB-md]

Btw, what are the qualifications of people who decide this type of crap? It seems like the less qualified you are to do something, the more likely you'll be appointed to do it. We need more vigilante justice; or at least physicians with spines who are willing to strike/quit/lobby in order to bring about change to such burdensome and unmanageable policies.

 

[dawg44]

I had a patient that was set up to go to a halfway house. There was no reason to keep him in the hospital but he didn't want to go to the house. He refused to leave and rather than kick him out with security, I told the nurse on his next unapproved smoke break to have his bed and chair removed from his room. He came back and had no place to stay and left.

 

[emtcsmith]

wait, you didn't get the memo? Hospitals are hotels silly!

 

[danielmd06]

One thing to keep in mind is that w...memo I didn't read. Thanks for the link.

 

[resxn]

One thing to keep in mind is that while the media calls it "dumping the homeless" hospitals call it discharging patients who have completed their inpatient stays. Essentially the media is arguing that no hospital should ever be able to discharge a homeless person without providing them with a home. That's just silly. The government has already demanded that hospitals and doctors treat the homelss for free. Now they are creating an entitlement to outpatient housing for anyone admitted to a hospital.

100% agree.

 

[8744]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=368404

Yes, we've heard of it.

One thing to keep in mind is that while the media calls it "dumping the homeless" hospitals call it discharging patients who have completed their inpatient stays. Essentially the media is arguing that no hospital should ever be able to discharge a homeless person without providing them with a home. That's just silly. The government has already demanded that hospitals and doctors treat the homelss for free. Now they are creating an entitlement to outpatient housing for anyone admitted to a hospital.

This is so one of my pet peeves. I don't know where people got the idea that a hospital is a soup kitchen and homeless shelter. People think it is and gravitate towards it because, unfortunately, it is the only representative of "The Man" open at 3AM. We have a small but significant cohort of patients who want and expect all of their problems, including non-medical ones, to be both addressed and solved in the hospital.

We can barely stay on top of their poorly controlled diabetes.