Second Los Angeles Hospital OKs New Discharge Rules
Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on Friday announced that it would follow Kaiser Permanente's lead and sign on to new discharge policies for homeless patients, the Los Angeles Times reports (Winton, Los Angeles Times, 5/19).
Kaiser last week announced that it would:
- Register homeless patients in a special log;
- List homeless patients' belongings and return the possessions upon discharge; and
- Direct physicians, nurses and social workers to evaluate homeless patients' mental faculties and refer them for tests when necessary.
As a result of the agreement, the Los Angeles City Attorney is expected to drop civil and criminal lawsuits alleging that Kaiser inappropriately discharged homeless patients (California Healthline, 5/16).
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said that Hollywood Presbyterian's announcement on its own will not prompt his office to end its investigation of the hospital for alleged patient dumping.
Although the terms of Hollywood Presbyterian's agreement do not require an outside monitor to track its compliance with the settlement, Delgadillo said that monitoring might be needed for some "bad actors" (Los Angeles Times, 5/19). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.