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The University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown in Baltimore is the latest hospital across the country accused of patient dumping after discharging a woman one cold night this week dressed in only a hospital gown and socks.
The CEO and president of the University Maryland Medical Center apologized to a patient that was found on the street wearing only a thin hospital gown and socks and called the incident a failure. “We take full responsibility for this failure,” Dr. Mohan Suntha said during a Thursday afternoon press conference. (Ulysses Muñoz / Baltimore Sun video)
Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles had to pay $450,000 to settle allegations that it dumped a homeless patient on the street in 2014 after he was treated for a foot injury.
The Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas has been accused of shipping hundreds of patients out of Nevada, many of them to California, by bus, according to a 2014 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on patient dumping.
Federal regulators have cited the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown for violating patient rights and several patient safety and hospital management regulations related to a January incident in which a woman was discharged from its emergency room in just a hospital gown.
Among the deficiencies noted in a pair of federal reports, the hospital: 1 Violated a federal law requiring that a hospital must protect and promote each patient's rights. “Specifically, the hospital enacted barriers to patients receiving care in the Emergency Department, failed to discharge a patient in a safe manner from the Emergency Department, and failed to protect one patient from harassment and potential harm.” 2 Violated a patient’s right to receive care in a safe setting. “Security personnel indicated that they would turn patients away if they were ‘unruly’ or otherwise acting inappropriately. They would call police if the person did not leave. This practice meant that non-clinical personnel determined who could receive treatment in the” emergency department. 3 Violated patient’s right to be free from all forms of abuse or harassment, citing the circumstances of her removal from the hospital. 4 Violated patient’s right to confidentiality of records because “non-clinical staff had access to or were made aware of portions of [the patient’s] medical history and physical examination findings.” 5 Failed to meet standards for data collection and analysis. 6 Failed to perform quality improvement activities.
The New York Times first began writing about patient dumping in the 1870s when private hospitals were sending patients who couldn’t afford their services to Bellevue Hospital, the city’s public hospital, according to a 2011 report in the American Journal of Public Health. Health.
Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, which was accused of taking him there without a wheelchair, paid $1 million to settle that case. Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles had to pay $450,000 to settle allegations that it dumped a homeless patient on the street in 2014 after he was treated for a foot injury.