California Nursing Home Settles Allegations of Patient Dumping for $600,000
Failure to observe proper discharge requirements for patients/residents who are homeless and/or mentally-impaired may result in substandard quality of care and claims of neglect
Compliance Perspective – Improper Discharge
Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Administrator, Social Services Director, and Director of Nursing will review policies and procedures involving proper discharge requirements for residents.
Training: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing will ensure that staff are trained to respond in a timely manner to concerns about improperly discharging residents who may be homeless and/or mentally-impaired.
Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer should personally conduct a periodic audit of discharged residents to determine if the policies and procedures for safe discharge are being followed.
After allegations were made against a California nursing home claiming it improperly discharged homeless and mentally-impaired clients, it has agreed to pay $600,000.
Authorities also report that the facility will pay to have a monitor oversee care at the facility for two years, along with a new director who will be responsible for handling the care of homeless residents.
The facility will be required to pay $200,000 in penalties and to provide $50,000 to cover housing costs for patients who cannot afford a place to stay when they are discharged.
Officials report that the nursing home has been cooperative with the city attorney’s office handling the claims. Altogether, the city attorney’s office reports that it has settled claims in eight cases for alleged patient dumping by hospitals and care homes in the Los Angeles area. The total settlement in those cases was $4.5 million.
