L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer has embarked on another battle in his war against illegal patient dumping.
On Tuesday, the city attorney filed a lawsuit against Gardens Regional Hospital and Medical Center in Hawaiian Gardens, alleging the facility released indigent patients onto the streets of L.A. without any viable treatment or discharge plans.
In one such instance, a 38-year-old homeless woman with schizophrenia was dropped off on Downtown L.A.’s Skid Row in her pajamas and was later found sleeping behind a liquor store, according to the suit. She eventually ended up at Silver Lake Medical Center where she was treated for mental illness and released to a board and care facility. Feuer is seeking an injunction against Gardens Regional, its officers, and directors which would prohibit future discharges without proper transportation and treatment plans for patients.
Gardens Regional has called the allegations “baseless, false and misleading” and says it is “shocked by the Los Angeles City Attorney's over-reaching action against this community hospital located in another city."
This is just one of several patient dumping suits filed by the city attorney in the past two years. In 2014, Glendale Adventist Medical Center paid $700,000 to settle a similar suit brought by Feuer.
Read more about the most recent lawsuit here.