Dumping patients at homeless shelters ‘a systemic issue’ in Sacramento, new survey says
SACRAMENTO — Days after her double mastectomy surgery late last month, Lara Woods still had drainage tubes dangling from her chest when a rideshare car delivered her from UC Davis Medical Center to the Salvation Army building near downtown Sacramento.
Woods, fighting a second bout of potentially deadly breast cancer, had been told by a UC Davis social worker that a respite bed was awaiting her at the homeless shelter upon her discharge that day, she said. But when she arrived, staffers told her that no prior accommodations had been made for her, and the agency’s beds were all occupied.
She ended up walking to a friend’s house nearby, she said. The friend helped her retrieve her car, and that’s where Woods slept that night. Weeks later, she continues to live out of her Kia.
To homeless advocates, Woods was a victim of what’s known as “patient dumping,” or the discharge of poor people from hospitals and other health care providers to shelters or the streets without advance planning.
The Salvation Army did not return calls Tuesday asking for comment on the matter. UC Davis declined to address the specifics of the Woods case, citing patient privacy, but spokesman Charles Casey said the hospital system makes every effort to secure housing for homeless patients upon discharge.
“UC Davis Medical Center and its care teams are deeply committed to the health and well-being of every patient we see and treat, regardless of the patient’s background or circumstances,” he said in a statement.
Data released this week by a nonprofit advocacy group, the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, suggest that the practice of sending patients to shelters without advance notification is not uncommon.
The organization recently surveyed agencies that serve the poor in the Sacramento area about whether homeless people recently had been dropped off at their organizations — by ambulance, cab or ride share — immediately following discharge from a health care provider and without prior notification. The results were startling, said executive director Bob Erlenbusch.
Thirteen of 20 service providers responded to a poll asking about the practice, Erlenbusch said. Seven of the 13 agencies answered that recently released patients had been delivered to their campuses. One agency reported the practice occurring two or three times a week, and three facilities said it happens about once a week. One said it occurs about every other week, and two estimated that it happens once or twice a year.
In most cases, the agencies said, patients were wearing hospital gowns upon arrival. Many arrived in wheelchairs or on walkers. Some had open wounds.
The facilities or agencies discharging patients included major hospital groups in the Sacramento area and government organizations, according to the survey respondents.
Erlenbusch launched the survey in response to a Bee story about Arlan Lewis, 78, who was discharged in December from a Woodland Hospital to the Union Gospel Mission in Sacramento, which turned him away because he did not qualify for a bed there. The results of the new poll “paint a horrifying picture of homeless patient dumping,” he said.
“Our report underscores that this is a systemic issue for our community, and not a few isolated incidents by a few ‘bad actors,’” Erlenbusch said.
Stephen Watters of First Step Communities, a nonprofit group that among other things runs the winter sanctuary shelter, in which people are transported to rotating churches to have meals and sleep, said the practice “seems to be happening more and more” in Sacramento.
“I am not in any way callous,” Watters said, “but I’m to the point that I’m not shocked anymore because these things happen so often.”
Watters said the staff has learned to be on high alert when a vehicle pulls up to drop someone off. “We try to go in and see who is coming to us, who is sending them and what is going on,” he said. “Are we the right place for them to be?”
In many cases the answer is no, he said. Recently, a ride share service deposited a discharged hospital patient “who could barely stand, much less walk,” and therefore was not a candidate for the sanctuary program, Watters said.
“Almost once a day, I hear from a hospital asking if we can take someone,” Watters said. “That’s OK. We just need a heads up to understand whether the person can succeed in our environment.”
California’s Health and Safety Code requires hospitals to have a discharge policy for all patients, including those who are homeless.