The Mobile Clinics were often set up at the Costa Mesa Motor Inn. Recuperative Care Bed Program Opens to Provide Care for the Homeless After Hospital Discharge. The new program will augment services to the homeless provided at the Costa Mesa Motor Inn operated by. Costa Mesa City Employee's Association. Executive Officer and staff of the CEO's Office or the Senior Center Program.
Hospital Discharge of Homeless Patient Includes a Bus Pass. By. REX DALTON . Her daughter was placed in the Orangewood Children. But while her condition had stabilized, her life outside the hospital had not. As her discharge grew near, it wasn’t clear whether she had a safe place to go. This predicament is not uncommon for homeless people who end up hospitalized. In recent years, the Irvine- based Illumination Foundation has worked to fill this need by providing transitional housing for people who are discharged with nowhere to go. All the hospital need do is refer the patient to the program and agree to pay a nominal cost that is far less than the cost of a day in the hospital. But in her case, Nancy said, West Anaheim did not do that. All she got was a bus pass. Only Illumination Foundation stepped in to rescue her with a place to recuperate. Nancy’s dilemma shows how an efficient, local program is being underutilized by the hospital industry, whose emergency rooms often end up with patients from the county’s homeless population, which is more than 2. In 2. 00. 7, the California Legislature passed a law sponsored by state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D- Los Angeles) that makes it a crime for hospitals to release people in precarious medical conditions without proper discharge planning. In the immediate aftermath of the Cedillo law’s passage, hospitals faced a challenge when discharging patients, who ended up caught in middle. Orange County has no year- round homeless shelter, and its cities are in many cases notorious for “not- in- my- backyard” attitudes toward homeless people, no matter what the situation. In 2. 01. 0, the Illumination Foundation began its recuperative care program specifically to meet this need. But while the 2. 2 general acute- care hospitals in Orange County have contracts to utilize the program, records show that some seldom, if ever, do. The program receives about 4. Orange County hospitals, said Paul Leon, the foundation. But he believes this is far below the countywide need. He and others remain perplexed about the low referral numbers. The cost for the Illumination Foundation. A typical individual stays less than two weeks. So with an average stay costing less than $3,0. West Anaheim Medical Center representatives refused to comment on the facility. The list includes Hoag Hospital facilities in Newport Beach and Irvine and Western Medical Center facilities in Santa Ana and Anaheim. None of the other hospitals would respond when asked about referrals to Illumination Foundation. The Hospital Association of Southern California also declined to respond. Other hospitals, however, regularly refer to the program, which has aided at least 1,0. Leon said. And an estimated 5. The program’s supporters estimated it has saved hospitals in the county at least $3. Yet, they said, there is much room for improvement. A similar program in Los Angeles County also reported problems with under- utilization. The Orange and Los Angeles county programs are similarly arranged. The National Health Foundation of Los Angeles, a nonprofit seeking to address gaps in health care for indigents, contracts with the hospitals in both counties. Then the Illumination Foundation provides the recuperative care under those contracts, with hospitals billed the daily rate. Kelly A. Bruno, chief operating officer for the National Health Foundation, said the recuperative care program in Los Angeles also receives only about 4. This despite her agency regularly seeking patient discharges from hospitals in both counties. They tell us they don. We have to believe them. They provide regular meals to the homeless and shelter 5. Her name was Martha Rose Keller, a 7. She had bacterial infections with wounds nearly to the bone. Sometimes she was seen trailed by hospital equipment. Emergency workers took her to Coastal Community Hospital in Santa Ana, where she died six days later. Leon even recalled Keller from his previous days as a public health nurse working for the Orange County Health Care Agency. In order to dissolve the clots, she must take blood- thinning medications, both injected and oral, for weeks. This therapy also requires regular blood tests to chart the clotting time of blood to adjust the medications. Such a regime can be taxing even for someone living a comfortable life. You can reach him directly at rexdalton@aol.
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