Two hospitals, College Hospitals in Cerritos and Costa Mesa, California, have agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit alleging them of dumping homeless psychiatric patients instead of treating and discharging them properly.  The hospitals will pay $400,000 in civil penalties and donate the remainder, $1.2 million, to charities that care for mentally ill and homeless individuals.

According to the lawsuit, in the past two years, the hospitals transported as many as 150 mental health patients to Skid Row, an area east of downtown Los Angeles that has become home to thousands of homeless people.  A spokesperson for Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said the legal settlement bars the hospitals from dumping patients on Skid Row in the future.

In one particular case, a 32-year-old man suffering from bipolar schizophrenia sought treatment at the Costa Mesa College Hospital but was taken to Skid Row’s Union Rescue Mission, 40 miles away, instead.  The rescue mission called the hospital the next day, asking them to pick the patient back up because the mission is not equipped to treat or house such patients.

Instead of hospitalizing him or taking him to a psychiatric treatment facility, the patient was merely dumped at another shelter in the Los Angeles Skid Row area.  The patient wandered away and lived on the streets until he found help at a clinic several days later.  Clinic staff contacted the patient’s family and found a facility that would house and treat him effectively.

The attorney representing this particular patient said the College Hospitals system is now required to develop protocols that ensure homeless psychiatric patients are discharged with the same degree of dignity and with the same provisions for continued care as anyone should expect when being discharged from a hospital.

Wayne Lingenfelter, chief executive officer for the College Hospitals, denies dumping this patient or anyone else.  He said the patient asked to be taken to the Skid Row shelter and that he had made provisions for adequate health care.  The hospitals’ attorney said the hospitals did nothing wrong.