New Burbank Hospital Plan Sets Up Service to Aid Indigents

Burbank Community Hospital’s revised plan for correcting health-care and staffing deficiencies calls for it to arrange transportation and shelter for indigent patients when they are discharged.

The hospital said it would establish the service for indigents as a result of an investigation by Los Angeles County health authorities, who found that the hospital inappropriately treated and discharged an indigent patient in August.

Arrangements for the shelter and transportation would be handled through a hospital social-services coordinator who would work out details with social-service agencies, hospital officials said.

The hospital has such a coordinator, but that person is not on call around the clock.

The coordinator will be asked to hold a seminar for emergency-room staff members on resources available at night for discharged indigent patients, officials said.

“We wish to emphasize that the hospital is committed to providing proper discharge planning for patients, such as this patient who was apparently homeless,” Jurral Rhee, director of the hospital, said in a letter to county officials.

Arrangements for the transients was contained in a comprehensive plan submitted by the hospital to county health officials.

The plan goes into how many problems in health care and staffing would be solved.

County Department of Health Services officials rejected another plan submitted by the hospital last month, saying it lacked definitive deadlines and specifics on how the hospital would ensure that the deficiencies would be corrected.

“It looks like now they’re on the right track,” said Robert Karp, program manager for the department’s health facilities division.

Rhee set a deadline of 75 days for implementation of the corrections.

After an investigation in September, county officials said they found the hospital deficient in administration, staff procedures, emergency treatment and quality medical assurance.

The investigation said the hospital did not assure that authorized and trained personnel were working in the emergency room. The hospital staff also allowed some physicians to administer emergency care without proper authorization, the report said.

The report added that there was little documentation that the staff was acting responsively in reviewing the quality of health care.

The investigation began in late August after a transient, taken to Burbank Community when police found him covered with lice, was found collapsed outside the hospital the next day.

Despite requests from police, the hospital refused to readmit the man, saying he had already been properly treated.

Police took the man to County-USC Medical Center, where doctors said he was suffering from dehydration, anemia, malnutrition and alcoholic withdrawal.

Rhee said the hospital would also establish an intense monitoring program by department heads, administrators and the board of directors to prevent further deficiencies in medical care and staffing.

Karp said the county still expects to inspect the hospital within 30 days to determine if the deficiencies are being corrected.

Federal health officials informed the hospital last month that the deficiencies had placed its status as a Medicare provider in jeopardy.

If withdrawn from the Medicare program, the hospital would not be able to receive Medicare patients or be reimbursed for their treatment.