Dumping bill moves forward.As Los Angeles City Attorney The Los Angeles City Attorney is an elected official whose job is to prosecute all of the misdemeanor criminal offenses within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Rocky Delgadillo's office looks into the latest case of a hospital allegedly dumping a homeless patient in downtown's Skid Row skid row a run-down area frequented by alcoholics. [Am. Culture: Misc.] See : Alcoholism Skid Row district of down-and-outs and bums. [Am. Usage: Brewer Dictionary, 1008] See : Failure , legislation that would more clearly criminalize crim·i·nal·ize tr.v. crim·i·nal·ized, crim·i·nal·iz·ing, crim·i·nal·iz·es 1. To impose a criminal penalty on or for; outlaw. 2. To treat as a criminal. the practice passed its first test in the California Senate. S.B. 275, co-sponsored by Delgadillo and authored by Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, passed out of the Senate's Public Safety Committee last week and is headed to the Committee on Appropriations. Delgadillo last November filed charges against Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care organization, based in Oakland, California, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. , accusing it of dumping a homeless woman on Skid Row in what he said amounted to false imprisonment false imprisonment, complete restraint upon a person's liberty of movement without legal justification. Actual physical contact is not necessary; a show of authority or a threat of force is sufficient. The person falsely imprisoned may sue the offender for damages. . A spokesman in Delgadillo's office said negotiations with Kaiser continue over a possible settlement in that case. Authorities are looking into more than 50 other suspected cases of patient-dumping, including an incident earlier this month involving a 70-year-old Downey Regional Medical Center patient. The hospital contends the man was properly discharged and taken downtown by taxi after a staff person contacted the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Mission. Cedillo's bill would prohibit hospital staff members from transporting a patient to a location other than a residence without informed consent. Hospitals could face fines of up to $10,000 and other misdemeanor punishment. "We are not asking hospitals to solve homelessness, we are asking them not to contribute to homelessness," Cedillo said in a statement. "Patients shouldn't be placed in any greater danger than when they entered the hospital." The California Hospital Association opposes the bill on the grounds that it doesn't address the underlying shortage of transitional facilities for homeless patients who no longer need hospitalization but still need more care than a typical homeless shelter Homeless shelters are temporary residences for homeless people. Usually located in urban neighborhoods, they are similar to emergency shelters. The primary difference is that homeless shelters are usually open to anyone, without regard to the reason for need. can provide. "There is no excuse for incidents where proper procedures clearly were not followed," said CHA spokeswoman Jan Emerson. "But the underlying problem is that there are only 45 beds in LOs Angeles County for homeless patients who need care after they are discharged. We need legislative action that will provide more shelter beds for patients, and not just stop at criminalizing honest human mistakes." Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232, or at dcrowe@labusinessjournal.com. |
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