Hospitals—and patients—need proper discharge policies

I recently came across an article online in the LA Times about a man named Jesse Bravo who was being treated for schizophrenia at a local medical center. The story said that Jesse was discharged without the knowledge of his supportive wife, who regularly called and visited her husband at the facility. She said her husband, who is not homeless, was left outside a rehabilitation center in South Los Angeles. “I just had this feeling that something was wrong. He never went inside the building and spent days on the streets before being found.”


Public Counsel, a pro-bono law firm in Los Angeles, filed a lawsuit this past Friday against the hospital on behalf of Jesse Bravo, alleging elder abuse, false imprisonment and hospital negligence. The firm also turned the information over to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, which is in the process of reviewing it.


I have always believed there is a major flaw in treatment―no matter where you are in North America―in discharge planning. In a perfect world, a psychiatric patient would not be released until he or she was stable and had a safe place to go with some kind of support and medication monitoring. If that cannot be addressed, the person should not be discharged. Many people have said that will create a bottleneck and plug the system, but I believe it would solve the “revolving door” problem of people going in and out of treatment, and in the long run save a lot of money and heartache.


It will be interesting to see how much will be sought in damages from the hospital that discharged Jesse Bravo onto the street. Perhaps when the hospital’s accountants crunch the numbers, they will see that it’s in the hospital’s best interest (and that of its patients) to have a proper discharge policy.

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  burrgold 83 days ago
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  Unfortunately, this is just one of far too many examples of "dumping" people who have mental disorders. So many end up in the correctional system or on the streets. Until our governments and communities recognize that it's critical to provide treatment and support systems to people with mental illness, this tragic nonsense will continue. Ironically, treatment and support benefit everyone, from individuals and their families to employers, insurers and sources of funding. (Treatment being far more cost-effective than the alternatives.) I'm glad that Mr. Bravo's family recognizes the injustice on the part of the hospital and that they're pursuing legal action. Hopefully, this will force this treatment facility, and others, to change the policy of dumping.
  
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  Anjahlina 100 days ago
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  The Hospital's discharge policy was flawed. They think they can just throw a pack of cards in the air and they will all fall down into a neat deck on their own again. It doesn't work that way, life isn't that way. People with mental health problems need more help than what the Hospital was giving and the Hospital was definitely flawed. I wish that they would change their policies and start taking better care of the mentally ill people and if it takes a financial suit, well so be it! Anjahlina
  
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