Hospital patient dumping: Solutions to help alleviate homeless shelter, according to experts
LAKELAND, Fla. - A homeless services provider in Lakeland is overwhelmed by hospitals continuing to dump patients onto its doorstep. But, what are possible short and long-term solutions to help alleviate the growing crisis?
Deborah Cozzetti, the director of programs at Talbot Ministries, said this is a problem that happens multiple times a week.
Recently obtained body camera video from the Lakeland Police Department showed an incident in early January where an Uber driver dropped off a wheelchair-bound man outside Talbot Ministries. But, the man told the police officer he did not tell the mental health facility in Wesley Chapel where he came from or to leave him at the shelter.
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"We've had people who had a mastectomy, and they still have stitches on, and they drop them off here," said Cozzetti.
"They're still kind of loopy, and they're not sure where they're at, and maybe they're still on medication, and we say, ‘why are you here’ and they say, 'I don't even know where I'm at,'" Cozzetti said.
The provider doesn't have the medical capabilities to care for them all, so they just end up going back to the hospitals and it becomes a revolving door.
Cozzetti said one solution may be enforcing the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which states when hospitals transfer a patient, the patient has to know they're being transferred.
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"I'm hoping the act gets more enforced and would be a catalyst that would say we need to come together," said Cozzetti. "If you transfer somebody you need to make sure there's somebody on the other end who can receive and medically take care of them."
Cozzetti added there needs to be an intermediary shelter or medical facility that can offer immediate services.
"When medical facilities and behavioral facilities say 'we've done all we can, now we need to move on,' they send them here, but we're not the answer," said Cozzetti. "There has to be an answer in-between. What we do and build to help solve this."
And as far as long-term solutions, Scott Eller, the founder and CEO of Community Assisted and Supported Living, Inc. (CASL), said building more hospitals or jails is just a band-aid.
Building affordable and permanent housing options that offer support to those struggling is what will make a difference.
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"Removing barriers is the key element," said Eller. "You're going to see people transform from lives to where they're in and out of homeless shelters, emergency rooms and jails to a permanent situation."
CASL, in partnership with Tri-County Human Services, will be breaking ground on Jersey Commons in Winter Haven next Friday, February 16. It's an apartment complex that will house 68 units, and it will be the first to have a human services center where people will have access to dental, psychiatric and substance-use care.
Talbot House Ministries has partnered with the police department to keep track of the patient dumping cases they come across every week.