Hospital settles dumping case

College Hospitals, which operates branches in Costa Mesa and Cerritos, will give $1.2 million to organizations that assist the homeless and $200,000 to both the city and county of Los Angeles for allegedly dumping mentally ill homeless patients on Los Angeles’ skid row, a downtown area with a large homeless population.

The settlement represents the largest of several cases that Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has launched against area hospitals in the past two years.

Delgadillo began investigating the hospital in May when workers at Los Angeles’ Union Rescue Mission said a van from College Hospital Costa Mesa dropped off a mentally ill patient at its doorstep April 29, 2008.

Mission staff members said they were unequipped to handle the patient, Steven Davis, 32.

After Davis spent the night, they said, he was taken to the emergency room at California Hospital, discharged and taken by another van to New Image Shelter in South Los Angeles, where he disappeared before being admitted.

Andy Bales, Union Rescue Mission’s chief executive, said College Hospital should have at least walked Davis to the front door and notified staff to ensure his safety.

“If [patients] get dropped off at the curb, there’s a good chance they’ll never make it in the door,” Bales said. “[Skid row] is not the safest place to be dropped off.”

College Hospital confirmed the settlement Wednesday morning.

The hospital denied the allegations last May, saying that it “does not engage in patient dumping.”

The hospital says that it has and will continue to discharge all of its patients in a proper way. The stipulation for entry of judgment says “defendants have contested the material allegations of the complaint and this stipulation does not constitute an admission of liability on their part.”

“Some patients ask to be discharged to [skid row] area. But as a result of this agreement we are not going to be discharging homeless patients to this area,” said hospital spokesman Glenn Solomon, referring to one of the provisions of the agreement that creates a sort of restraining order preventing College Hospital from taking homeless patients there.

Delgadillo’s investigation, sparked by the alleged April incident, revealed up to 150 similar cases of dumping by the two Orange County hospitals, said city attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan.

Delgadillo’s office has aggressively pursued several regional hospitals in an effort to stop the practice.

In 2007 it settled with Kaiser Permanente for $200,000 and Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center for $1 million.

In June, it got a $500,000 settlement from Methodist Hospital of Southern California.

All the money was given to different L.A. nonprofits that help the homeless, and all the settlements came with provisions requiring the hospitals to establish strict protocols for dealing with homeless patients in the future, according to the settlements.

“When we first heard about the issue it was sort of an urban legend on skid row that hospitals were dumping people off. Homeless people tend to be the perfect victim: They disappear into the community and they’re tough to get a hold of,” Mateljan said.

College Hospital released a statement, but, citing privacy concerns, officials declined to talk about the specific accusations about Davis.

“The allegations in this case have been difficult for all of us at College Hospital Costa Mesa, as we pride ourselves in providing top quality care to each of our patients.... This settlement agreement includes immediate improvements and provides additional safeguards for homeless psychiatric patients that we believe will benefit hospitals and homeless psychiatric patients throughout the state,” said College Hospital Costa Mesa Chief Executive Wayne Lingenfelter in the statement.

Reporter ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.