State and local officials will unveil proposed legislation today making it a crime to dump hospital patients on the streets, part of a new push by authorities who are investigating 55 cases of alleged dumping on L.A.'s skid row alone.
The move comes after a string of such incidents -- including one involving a paraplegic man wearing a colostomy bag who was left in a skid row gutter -- generated widespread outrage.
Authorities have struggled to build cases against those accused of doing the dumping, in part because there is no state law that expressly prohibits leaving patients on the streets.
The Los Angeles city attorney has filed criminal charges against just one hospital, Kaiser Permanente, saying the dumping of a homeless woman on skid row in 2006 amounted to false imprisonment. That legal strategy, however, has never been tested in court, and some legal experts question whether it will hold up.
The new legislation comes as authorities are stepping up their crackdown on dumping.
The Los Angeles Police Department put hospitals on notice Wednesday that officers would immediately arrest anyone they saw dumping patients on skid row, using the false imprisonment charge. The LAPD also plans to assign extra officers to look for evidence of dumping.
"Enough is enough," Capt. Andy Smith said. "We are going to book these guys."
At the same time, federal authorities said they are investigating two L.A. hospitals suspected of dumping the homeless.
Michelle Griffin, branch manager for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said investigators were trying to determine whether the hospitals -- which she would not name -- violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act and Medicare Conditions of Participation. Those statutes deal with the way hospitals treat and discharge patients.
If a hospital is found to be in violation of the act, it could be subject to discipline and civil penalties, possibly putting its accreditation and Medicare funding at risk, Griffin said.
"We take these allegations very seriously," she added.
The push to criminalize dumping comes amid a two-year campaign by city officials to halt the practice by hospitals, as well as by some outside law enforcement agencies that have reportedly driven criminals to skid row after they were released from custody.
