Patient Abuse

In an elder abuse case described by one investigator as the most outrageous he has ever seen, three former top managers at a Kern County nursing home have been arrested in the deaths of three residents who allegedly were given needless doses of psychotropic medications. The state attorney general's office contended in a criminal complaint that more than 20 residents at a skilled nursing center run by the Kern Valley Healthcare District were drugged "for staff convenience."

Los Angeles County supervisors have agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the children of Edith Rodriguez, the woman who died after writhing in pain for 45 minutes on the waiting-room floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Rodriguez's death nearly two years ago attracted national attention, becoming a symbol of an indifferent emergency system.

More than three years into L.A.'s crackdown on patient dumping downtown, officials have reached settlements with four hospitals and collected millions in payments. But although enforcement has been aggressive, much less has been done to address the problem at the heart of the issue: If patients can't be left on skid row, where should they go?

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on Friday settled allegations that it left a paraplegic man crawling around downtown Los Angeles' skid row in a hospital gown and with a colostomy bag by agreeing to pay $1 million and be monitored by a former U.S. attorney for up to five years. The resolution of the lawsuit marks the biggest settlement so far in the Los Angeles city attorney's efforts to crack down on hospitals and other institutions that "dump" patients on skid row.

State and county inspectors found serious irregularities in the admission and treatment policies of a Los Angeles hospital four years before authorities raided it and charged its chief executive with providing unnecessary medical services to patients recruited on skid row, according to a confidential county report reviewed by The Times.

Psychiatric Solutions Inc. was on its way to becoming the nation's leading provider of private psychiatric care when it snapped up Sierra Vista Hospital in Sacramento in mid-2005. The company put its well-honed business formula into action: Staffing fell. Beds filled up. Profits soared. It was a winning strategy for investors. But for some patients, federal records show, checking into Sierra Vista proved dangerous -- at times deadly.

A 22-year-old caretaker of mentally disabled adults has been charged with abusing two men in his custody after a cellphone with videos that appear to show him repeatedly smacking the men was turned over to police, officials said Thursday.

A laboratory employee at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey was arrested Friday on a felony charge of sexual battery against a paraplegic male patient with multiple sclerosis, authorities said. Alfredo Barba, 63, has worked at Rancho for 30 years, authorities said. The county-operated hospital launched an investigation after the victim's roommate complained to nurses about witnessing the alleged abuse earlier this week, officials said.

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.

Despite the public outrage over the dumping of homeless patients on Los Angeles' skid row, there is growing debate about whether criminalizing the practice would solve the problem. As the number of suspected dumping cases reached 55 last week, a state senator announced legislation that would make it a misdemeanor for hospitals to transport patients and leave them on the streets against their will.