Seniors to Hospitals: Stop Dumping Homeless Patients!
State Law (AB 2745, Dave Jones) was created to deal with the practice known as patient dumping of homeless people onto the streets or into places like homeless shelters that can not provide the medical care they require. This happens all the time here in SF and elsewhere. AB 2745 explicitly mandates that a regional meeting comprised of “key stakeholders” including “nonprofit social service providers and regional advocates for the homeless” be held to “establish and support effective communications between hospitals and stakeholders regarding this transition.” It doesn’t require that homeless people attend!
The report from this meeting will go to the State Legislature. The law is designed to get all concerned parties at the table to address this problem.
The Hospital Council of Northern and Central California and the San Francisco Department of Public Health hastily held a meeting on Tuesday, August 14 and invited such dubious experts on homelessness as Ron L. Smith, regional vice president of the Hospital Council; John Kanaley, Executive Administrator, Laguna Honda Hospital; Tom Hennessy, President/CEO, Saint Francis Memorial Hospital; Ken Steele, President/CEO, St. Mary’s Medical Center as well as city government insiders to the event. The meeting organizers somehow failed to inform “key stakeholders,” like homeless shelter operators or advocacy groups, as required by law.
Neither the Hospital Council nor the Department of Public Health were very cooperative in providing information about this meeting before or after it happened. In fact, the meeting was rescheduled and the HealthCare Action Team (HAT) was not informed of the sudden change despite inquiring about the meeting on the day before it was held! Is it too much to ask for someone in a phone conversation to say, “Oh yes the meeting we are talking about has been rescheduled for tomorrow.”?
With the support of Assemblyman Dave Jones, HAT, the Coalition on Homelessness and Supervisor Tom Ammiano held a news conference last August and forced the Hospital Council to convene another meeting that would comply with AB 2745.
This second meeting (held on October 17) included current and formerly homeless people, The Homeless Coordinating Board, Shelter Directors, the Mayors Office on Disability, Resource Center operators, the HealthCare Action Team, The Shelter Monitoring Committee, and other “key stakeholders” who were left out of the first meeting. They gave concrete examples of homeless patients who were dumped from hospitals. The issue of access to patient respite beds was brought up. HAT members and shelter residents talked about the inadequate medical care available in shelters and the dehumanizing experience of being homeless. HAT member Maria Cristina Salem, a retired dentist with a visual impairment, talked about bumping into a homeless man on the sidewalk with her cane. She spoke with this man and learned that he had been discharged from the hospital and had no where to live. Standing proudly she proclaimed that this man was a human being who has a right to housing. Joanna Fraguli from the Mayor’s Office on Disability pointed out that when homeless people in a health crisis are being cared for by overworked, poorly paid and undertrained shelter workers, the likelihood of abuse is increased. Noticeably absent were the hospital CEOs and Departmental big- wigs who were at the first meeting.
HAT made five recommendations. 1) More respite Beds, 2) All hospitals need to be able to refer people to these beds, 3) Transitional care programs need include homeless patients, 4) Information regarding legal rights be given to homeless patients, and 5) Expansion of the San Francisco Long Term Care Ombudsman Office to include acute care hospitals.
Representatives from Assemblyman Jones office pointed out that the intent of the legislation is not to have two separate meetings, but to have one meeting comprised of hospital representatives and advocates together. They were concerned that there was a lot of resistance on the part of the local Departments, the Hospital Council and the medical industry. Given the highly politicized and contentious nature of homeless policy implementation in San Francisco, it seems that a simple legal mandate (holding a meeting) can not be fulfilled without considerable effort on the part of homeless people, advocates and allies. We must be vigilant and hold the powers that be accountable to the law.
Supervisor Tom Ammiano will be calling for a public hearing at the Board of Supervisors around patient dumping, and HAT will be working with the Coalition on Homelessness and other community groups to take future steps.
In the meantime, if there are any service providers who have homeless patients dumped at their organization, or any homeless folks who have been dumped, or anyone with information regarding this problem they want to discuss, contact HAT or the Coalition for more information. Stay tuned for round three!
James
January 30th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Dear Friend:
I was intrigued by your article and am interested in contacting the gentleman interviewed in this article, Mark Damron. Could you please let me know if there is a way to connect with him? Thank you.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Ramon:
The writer mentioned recently that she has not been able to find Mr. Damron for a couple weeks; she hopes that this is good, rather than bad, news. I will pass your wish on to her, however, in case she finds him.