Los Angeles 'patient dumping' case reaches settlement
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Fueur, center, and Deputy City Attorney Will Jay Pirkey, left, talk during a news conference on Thursday, April 21, 2016 at City Hall in Los Angles about patient dumping. A fourth Los Angeles-area hospital in less than three years has settled a civil lawsuit over a chronic problem in the nation's second-largest city, dumping homeless patients on the streets after they've been discharged, sometimes while still needing medical attention. (AP Photo/Amanda Lee Myers) (The Associated Press)
A fourth Los Angeles-area hospital in less than three years has settled a civil lawsuit over a chronic problem in the nation's second-largest city — dumping homeless patients on the streets after they've been discharged, sometimes while still needing medical attention.
City Attorney Mike Fueur announced a settlement Thursday with Good Samaritan Hospital, a 400-bed facility near downtown.
Without admitting fault, the hospital settled a lawsuit over patient dumping for $450,000. That brings to $1.9 million in such settlements reached with hospitals in Los Angeles since January 2014.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The city attorney's office says the Good Samaritan case involves an obviously sick former patient found on the streets in December 2014 with a visibly infected leg.
Good Samaritan says it disputes the allegations and is committed to compassionate health care.