Mission:

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office is investigating a Costa Mesa hospital for allegedly dropping off a mentally ill patient at the Union Rescue Mission on skid row in downtown Los Angeles.

Rescue Mission Chief Executive Andy Bales said the man is severely mentally ill and the mission isn’t equipped to handle him. He was dropped off April 29 near the front door of the facility by a van from College Hospital in Costa Mesa, according to Rescue Mission staff.

After spending the night at the mission, he was sent to the emergency room at California Hospital, discharged and sent to New Image Shelter in South Los Angeles, but he disappeared before being admitted, mission staff wrote in a report.

Officials at College Hospital denied the allegations.

“We do not engage in patient dumping,” said Susan Taylor, a lawyer for the hospital.

The hospital is investigating the incident but cannot release details yet, she said.

Hospital officials declined further comment.

Dropping off the patient in front of the rescue mission unannounced and not walking the patient into the office was a mistake by the College Hospital staff, Bales said.

“If [patients] get dropped off at the curb there’s a good chance they’ll never make it in the door, and [skid row] is not the safest place to be dropped off,” Bales said.

Dr. Patrick Chen, who cares for homeless patients at Share Our Selves Costa Mesa medical center, said it doesn’t make sense to take patients to Los Angeles when there are facilities such as Share Our Selves in Orange County that can care for homeless patients discharged from hospitals.

Orange County doesn’t have a central hospital, unlike most counties, which leads to misunderstandings among the myriad local health clinics and hospitals, according to Chen.

“There needs to be more coordination of facilities and services,” he said. “[College Hospital] could have just been unaware of the different resources in Orange County. Part of the problem is just a general awareness of the services available in the county.”

Nearby Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach has an arrangement with Share Our Selves under which homeless patients are sent from one facility to the other depending on needs. Their cooperation is paid for by the county health department under the Medical Services for Indigents program.

“Because of the partnership, when Hoag has an indigent patient that’s ready to be discharged they send [the patient] to Share Our Selves for continuing care, and when a patient needs some diagnostics or treatment that SOS can’t offer then we send them to Hoag,” said Karen Harrington, director of development from Share Our Selves.

Harrington was surprised to hear of the allegations against College Hospital.

“We work closely with shelters and motels to make sure that there is no dumping here. I don’t know if I’ve heard about it anywhere in Orange County,” Harrington said.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected]. ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].