Further Legal Action Expected in ‘Patient Dumping’ Case
The American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a class-action lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente seeking a change in its policies for discharging homeless patients, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Chapter said Thursday, the Los Angeles Daily News reports (Orlov, Los Angeles Daily News, 11/17).
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo on Wednesday filed criminal charges against Kaiser Permanente for illegally transporting a discharged homeless patient to the downtown neighborhood Skid Row. He also filed a civil lawsuit against Kaiser for unfair business practices related to the incident (California Healthline, 11/16).
Kaiser Permanente and the Hospital Association of Southern California on Thursday criticized Delgadillo's filing of charges against Kaiser in the case.
Diana Bonta, vice president of public affairs for Kaiser Southern California, said that Kaiser officials had been participating in talks with Delgadillo to develop a common policy for discharging homeless patients but that the city attorney ended the talks when Kaiser declined to give his office oversight of hospital policies.
Jim Lott, executive director of HASC, said that his organization also had been in talks with the city attorney to develop a common policy but that Delgadillo ended the talks.
Several broadcast programs reported on the charges for the alleged patient dumping:
- KPCC's "AirTalk": The segment includes comments from Delgadillo and Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (Mantle, "AirTalk," KPCC, 11/16). Audio of the segment is available online.
- KPCC's "KPCC News": The segment includes comments from Bonta; Delgadillo; City Attorney Jeff Isaacs; Lott; Rosenbaum; Tad Sutton of the Weingart Center; and homeless in the area (Stoltze, "KPCC News," KPCC, 11/16). Audio of the segment is available online.
- NPR's "All Things Considered": The segment includes comments from Bonta; Delgadillo; and Rosenbaum (Jaffe, "All Things Considered," NPR, 11/16). Audio of the segment is available online.