The
Mental Health Association of Portland is asking Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to
inquire into a Nevada state psychiatric hospital that has been accused of dumping patient’s in surrounding states. Below is the letter written to the Attorney General asking for the inquiry.
“To:
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum:
The
Mental Health Association of Portland has followed the case of James Flavy Coy
Brown, who was released from Nevada’s Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital without
discharge planning and transported by bus to Sacramento, where he was found,
suicidal and confused, at a homeless services complex. He said he knew no
one in Sacramento, and the doctors at Rawson-Neal had advised him to call 9-1-1
when he arrived. This practice is well-known in the psychiatric world as “dumping”
or “patient dumping.” It is harmful, irresponsible and rejected by any
well-managed public hospital system.
We
have now learned San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has filed suit
against the State of Nevada, Rawson-Neal, and state mental health
administrators, claiming hospital personnel knowingly directed the
transportation of 24 persons from Nevada to San Francisco without discharge
planning. The suit asks for an injunction to halt the practice of patient
dumping, as well as payment for costs of care for those persons, which have
been significant. The suit also alleges that besides the 24 patients sent
to San Francisco, over 500 were sent to various other California cities and
approximately 1,000 to other states nationwide, conceivably including Oregon.
We
request your office investigate whether Rawson-Neal — or other psychiatric
hospitals in Nevada or elsewhere — have irresponsibly transported persons to
Oregon without discharge planning or follow-up. We ask your office to
determine facts, and if you find this sort of action from Nevada or other
states affecting Oregon, that you follow Herrera’s model and file for
injunctive relief and damages against the originating state and hospital
administrators to cease this terrible practice. We also ask that you
inform attorneys of any Oregon municipalities that have been destinations for
patient dumping, and advise them of their legal options.
(Please
note that, although patient dumping was once a routine practice in Oregon
private and public hospitals, the practice seems to have abated in recent
years, and we are currently unaware of any patients being transported from
Oregon to other states.)
It
is important you determine the following:
- Were persons transported without appropriate discharge
planning from Rawson-Neal Hospital to Oregon? - Were persons transported without appropriate planning
from private hospitals, clinics, or shelters in Nevada to Oregon? - Were persons transported without appropriate planning
from public or private hospitals, clinics, or shelters in other states to
Oregon? - Are Oregon public social services, such as public
hospitals, publicly funded agencies, shelters and emergency housing
providers, impacted by out-of-state patient dumping? - Are Oregon city or state police, county deputies or
jails, county parole officers, state or county courts impacted by
out-of-state patient dumping? - Are Oregon businesses impacted by out-of-state patient
dumping? - Were former patients of out-of-state hospitals who are
now residents of Oregon harmed by patient dumping?
For
your reference, here are two articles on Herrera’s lawsuit:
- Herrera files class action suit against Nevada over
‘patient dumping’ practices, expenses. - City Attorney Dennis Herrera News Release and initial
filing.
Thanks!
Mental
Health Association of Portland
This article appears in 2013-09-13.