A Catholic hospital system is suing a number of California sufferers and their advocates as a result of the sufferers allegedly refused to be discharged. The fits invoke a novel authorized strategy: accusing them of trespassing below a California regulation meant to cease anti-abortion protesters from blocking entry to well being services.
Dignity Well being has filed three lawsuits in Sacramento County accusing sufferers of “industrial blockade” for refusing to vacate hospital beds though the well being care supplier had deemed them medically and legally eligible to both go residence or go to a different facility. Dignity alleges the sufferers “unreasonably and unlawfully” refused discharge, disrupting its potential to serve others at a time when well being services have been overwhelmed by COVID-19.
Relations and advocates say the sufferers have been exercising their proper to be discharged to a facility that provided applicable care and that they might afford, not merely despatched residence with out the flexibility to maintain themselves.
The lawsuits may set essential precedents for each using the California industrial blockade statute to go after sufferers and their advocates and, extra broadly, the dealing with of circumstances by which the hospital and affected person cannot agree on a plan for discharge.
The state’s hospital foyer not too long ago highlighted discharge delays as a rising drawback costing the trade $2.9 billion a 12 months. The California Hospital Affiliation estimates at the least 5,000 sufferers daily expertise such delays, typically in attempting to establish expert nursing services.
Affected person advocates, who usually cost sufferers a charge to assist them navigate the well being care system, warn {that a} choice in favor of Dignity may chill their total occupation and provides hospitals a brand new avenue to hunt cash from sufferers.
“It could possibly be a watershed case if it goes in both route,” stated Tony Chicotel, senior workers lawyer with the Berkeley-based California Advocates for Nursing Residence Reform, who has labored on hospital discharge circumstances. “If it is a protection verdict, we’ll know our legal guidelines are considerably protecting of sufferers. And if it is a plaintiff’s verdict, sufferers across the state could possibly be dumped and us advocates should work out what we are able to speak about with out getting sued.”
San Francisco-based Dignity Well being, a tax-exempt group with $9.5 billion in income, was based by nuns to serve the sick and the poor. Spokesperson William Hodges stated the well being system does not touch upon pending litigation.
A 68-year-old affected person, Daphne Muehlendorf, who’s blind, started struggling a sequence of seizures in 2021 and was out and in of the hospital. Every time she went residence, her daughters say, her well being declined, with slurred speech and the lack to hold a cup, regardless of receiving in-home bodily remedy. By the point she entered the acute rehabilitation unit at Dignity’s Mercy Common Hospital in Sacramento, she had already utilized for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which covers the price of nursing properties if the affected person demonstrates each monetary and medical want.
Dignity, which has not specified an quantity it seeks in damages, contends in its lawsuit that medical doctors decided Muehlendorf was eligible to go residence however the household refused for weeks whereas ready for her Medi-Cal assisted dwelling waiver to be authorised. As soon as that got here via, Muehlendorf was transferred to Bruceville Terrace, certainly one of Dignity’s expert nursing services in Sacramento.
“I do not see what the case is and that is what’s scary for me,” stated certainly one of Muehlendorf’s two daughters, Terra Khan, about Dignity’s authorized argument. She can be being sued by Dignity. “I do not know what is going on to occur. I am terrified.”
Dennis McPherson, the lawyer representing Dignity, stated the hospital made the choice to sue after severe deliberation. Muehlendorf “did trigger a big disruption,” McPherson stated. “It took much more manpower and our unit was full. There have been sufferers wait-listed who could not get into this unit.”
The household and their affected person advocate, Carol Costa-Smith, who runs the corporate The Gentle for Seniors in San Diego, stated it wasn’t secure for Muehlendorf to return residence and accused the hospital of delaying submitting paperwork for Muehlendorf’s Medi-Cal utility. State and federal legal guidelines require hospitals to rearrange look after sufferers who’re prone to endure hostile well being penalties upon discharge, and sufferers have a proper to enchantment discharge choices.
Likening themselves to tax advisers, impartial advocates with authorized, finance, and insurance coverage backgrounds fill a cottage trade serving to sufferers and their households navigate the well being system and long-term care services, which regularly consists of making use of for Medi-Cal.
Costa-Smith, who expenses every shopper $2,000 to $3,000 a 12 months, stated Dignity is attempting to place affected person advocates out of enterprise so there may be much less pushback towards hospital discharges and different choices. “I am the pit bull and I am not going to allow them to do a house discharge if it isn’t secure,” she stated.
Dignity’s use of the industrial blockade regulation seems to be new. California lawmakers handed a invoice in 1994 permitting civil claims towards trespassers at well being services, authored by then-Meeting member Jackie Speier, who not too long ago retired from Congress and is now working for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. The legislature’s evaluation of the proposed invoice from that point confirmed it was meant to dissuade anti-abortion protesters from blocking individuals getting into or exiting well being care services by threatening a lawsuit.
The evaluation stated it may additionally cease different disruptive actions akin to extreme telephone calls to tie up telephone strains, using stink bombs to evacuate well being services, and faux hearth calls that immediate emergency evacuation. It was backed by the American Faculty of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, California NOW, and Deliberate Parenthood Associates of California.
Anti-abortion teams opposed the invoice, arguing “those that impede entry with the intention to save infants shouldn’t be handled otherwise than those that would possibly accomplish that to save lots of animals, or to dam entry to authorities buildings or bridges.” Opponents instructed that pro-choice teams may search to take advantage of the invoice for revenue.
Affected person advocates are alarmed by the Dignity lawsuits and say they’ve by no means heard of hospitals submitting such claims. Dignity can be suing Craig Smedley, who operates Property Advisory Group in Murrieta. In accordance with a June 30, 2021, criticism, Smedley suggested a affected person at Mercy Hospital of Folsom “refusal to simply accept secure and lawful placement and be discharged” though the affected person had been medically eligible for discharge since Might 9, 2021.
Dignity contends it misplaced cash as a result of the affected person’s insurance coverage denied fee, and it accuses Smedley of directing the hospital to ship her to a talented nursing facility when medical doctors stated she had no want for that degree of care. Dignity has not specified an quantity it seeks in damages. Smedley, who’s defending himself, stated disagreeing with a hospital’s discharge plan was hardly a industrial blockade.
“I am not chaining myself to the entrance door to forestall individuals from passing via to the hospital like an anti-abortion protester,” Smedley stated. “I’ve by no means visited the hospital. I give recommendation by telephone. My purchasers have been those speaking with the hospital.”
Chicotel, the lawyer with the nursing residence reform group, stated he didn’t imagine Dignity’s claims have been supported by the regulation. Hospitals, he stated, have an obligation to discharge sufferers to a secure facility they’ll afford.
“In my expertise, the Catholic hospitals are targeted on the underside line,” Chicotel stated. “We see funds turn out to be rather more essential than the religious mission. I see that again and again.”
McPherson argued that the industrial blockade regulation was written broadly to incorporate any disruption to the traditional capabilities of a well being care facility that renders it briefly or completely unavailable.
“The result of the trial will dictate to the shopper what we’ll do with respect to the others,” he stated. Dignity has filed a 3rd lawsuit, towards Costa-Smith and one other shopper.
As a registered nurse who has labored for numerous hospitals, Khan believes she was doing what any particular person would do in advocating for a cherished one. She stated her mom, who as soon as lived independently regardless of her incapacity, would not have requested for assist if she did not really want it. “I do know we moved via this honorably,” she stated.
Khan is each troubled and comforted figuring out that Dignity goes after different sufferers and affected person advocates.
“It makes me really feel like, OK, it wasn’t that we did one thing improper—there’s one thing else at play that we’re not aware of.”
2023 KFF Well being Information. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.
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