From the Los Angeles Times:
L.A. files patient ‘dumping’ charges — Kaiser Permanente is accused of leaving a homeless woman to wander on skid row.
By Richard Winton and Cara Mia DiMassa, Times Staff Writers
November 16, 2006
The Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed false-imprisonment and dependent care endangerment charges against hospital giant Kaiser Permanente on Wednesday, the first criminal prosecution of a medical center accused of “dumping” patients on skid row.
The charges stem from an incident earlier this year when a 63-year-old patient from Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower hospital was videotaped as she left a taxi in gown and socks, and then wandered skid row streets.
In addition to the criminal charges, the city attorney filed a civil lawsuit against Kaiser, using a state law on unfair business practices that city prosecutors usually implement against unscrupulous slumlords to force them to clean up their buildings. The suit seeks a judge’s order to forbid all Kaiser medical facilities from dumping homeless patients on skid row or impose financial sanctions if it violates the order.
Previously:
December 22, 2005 — Kaiser Permanente dumps patients on skid row
March 22, 2006 — Kaiser patient dumping caught on tape
Kaiser provided excellent care for my husband, who had lymphocetic leukemia, while we lived in San Jose. Afrer his death I moved here and since his care had been so good I again had coverage from Kaiser. I told my physician, Dr. Kaur, that while I was in Santa Clara the doctor told me, after I had an electrocardiagram and electrocardiagraph that I had a hole in my aortic valve and that I would have to check with a cardiologist every two years. Dr. Kaur listened with her stethoscope very briefly and said there was nothing wrong with my heart. I now have a new plastic heart valve. The valve that was used was necessary because the aorta had become so enlarged this special valve was needed. If Dr. Kaur had been honest she would have heard the irregularity in my heart and I may have had a “pig valve” which requires much less care. If another doctor covering for Dr. Kaur had not been on duty when I complained of shortness of breath I would be dead today.
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