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Friday, February 10, 2012
McCarty's proposal for homeless patients fails to advance
by Kathleen Haley, published on January 7, 2010 at 9:28 PM
Storyline: Sacramento City Hall / Politics
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A proposal to crack down on hospitals if they leave homeless and unstable patients at various sites failed to advance to the City Council Thursday.
City Councilman Kevin McCarty proposed an ordinance that would have required health care facilities to get written permission from patients before transporting them to sites other than their homes.
If the proposal was passed into law by the City Council, health care facilities that did not comply with the ordinance would face a misdemeanor charge.
But the city’s law and legislation committee, which studies proposed ordinances, decided not to move the proposal to the City Council. Councilmembers Sandy Sheedy, Steve Cohn, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters sit on the committee.
Sheedy and Hammond said the proposal was not based on facts.
“There are no facts,” Sheedy said. “There are no substantiations. There’s nothing.”
Joan Burke, advocacy director of Loaves & Fishes, acknowledged that no facts had been gathered about hospitals that transport fragile patients to Sacramento sites and leave them.
“There is no data on this,” she said.
However, Burke, who supported the proposal, said there was anecdotal evidence that hospitals arrange for patients to be left at Loaves & Fishes. The group’s night watchman says that this occurs about once per month, she said.
Instead of delivering the proposal to the City Council, the committee decided to send the issue to a group that addresses homelessness issues. The committee to examine the issue will likely be the Sacramento Policy Board to End Homelessness, according to assistant city manager Cassandra Jennings and Cohn.
Three cases of hospitals arranging to transport fragile patients to various sites last year have been reported by The Sacramento Bee.
A suicidal and brain-damaged man arrived at Loaves and Fishes May 23 after leaving a hospital in South Sacramento, according to the Bee. The man, Jason Adams, was taken to the non-profit’s center in a taxi cab ride that was arranged by Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, South Sacramento, according to the Bee’s May 30 and June 6 articles. Loaves & Fishes was closed when Adams arrived, the Bee reported.
The hospital admitted it was at fault, according to the Bee.
The Bee reported two other cases last year in which hospitals from outside the city left patients at Loaves and Fishes.
McCarty, who refers to the practice as “patient dumping,” said he still thinks it’s an important issue.
“I think it’s happened here enough that we should stand up and have a rule in place that says we will not accept this type of behavior,” he said.
Photo by Anthony Bento.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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I applaud Councilmen McCarty for taking on this difficult issue. We really see who the true progressive Democrat is on the council and in the AD 9 race.
Do we need a 'study' to make murder illegal??? I think not.
Nor do we need a 'study' to condemn this practice in our community. Shame on Members Hammond and Sheedy for blockading this very humane and sensible proposal by Member McCarty...
Of the 3 cases, one originated at a hospital in South Sacramento, while the other 2 were "outside the area". The South Sacramento hospital admitted it made a mistake, and presumably will not do it again.
So what exactly is the point of a city law that has no authority over the actions of hospitals outside the city limits?
I am not sure if McCarty is a douchebag or not, but he sure has a propensity for feel good but pointless legislation (see Nestle water debacle). The law & legislation committee got this one right.
You are presuming too much. LA hospitals had numerous accusations over the years, until the culminated into a lawsuit. Each time they were caught they said they wouldn't do it again or that is was a mistake.
And lastly, the Nestle water issues was not a piece of legislation, but a questioning of how the City issued permits.
Now if the council would stop listening to the tiny minority that are too lazy to bag their green waste (and for those that throw up the issue of the elderly...elderly people live in snow country and somehow...perhaps by a miracle their sidewalks and driveways get cleared....that sounds a lot more daunting than a pile of leaves) and consider it honestly..we can move forward and begin to break the stranglehold these small special interest groups have had over the entire city.
Who is supposed to pay for these people to be treated by physicians who spent years and thousands of dollars on education? Who pays for the advanced equipment which private investment has innovated? Should the hospitals pay? Are they a charity...and not a business? No.
All you commenters above who praised McCarty, I think YOU should drive down to the hospital with your checkbook and start paying for all the people that can't afford the miracles of modern medicine. A few hundred years ago, King Henry VIII bled out with leeches... so don't be communist whiners people!