Looks like somebody didn't get the memo about dumping people on Skid Row:
A patient in a hospital gown and slippers from Kaiser Permanente's facility in Bellflower was found wandering in Skid Row traffic after a cab dropped her off yesterday, the Times reports.
Sure, the hospital "apologized" ...
"I want to apologize to this patient," [Kaiser public affairs VP Diane] Bonta said. "Quality of care of patients is not just about taking care of them when they are in the hospital. But part of that is to be able to have a discharge that treats a patient with dignity and assures that their needs are taken care of."
The video, Bonta said, shows a practice that "is not in keeping with the policies of Kaiser Permanente…. We will immediately take action to make sure this never happens again."
Bonta says they're "looking into" it.
Sorry, but this begin to address the shocking irresponsibility of ditching a recuperating patient into the social equivalent of an open sewer. So much for the first clause of the Hippocratic Oath - "First, do no harm" ...
But it also shows a fundamental gap in the way care is given - if the woman was indigent or homeless, Kaiser owed it to her to at least put her clothes back on. Paying for a cab ride to hell is hardly a support service.
Somewhere in town there's a cabbie who knows a helluva lot more about this than Kaiser's letting on.
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 10:38 AM
