

Feuer said medical facilities aren't always cooperative when confronted with dumping allegations, but in this case, Good Samaritan "agreed to take the necessary steps to ensure some of our most vulnerable residents are protected."



The settlement establishes new discharge protocols for homeless patients and requires the payment of $450,000 for homeless recuperative care, civil penalties and costs, Feuer said.



"The allegations here mirror so many dumping cases — a homeless individual treated for a medical condition and released to the street without a plan for recuperative care, and into a dangerous environment for their medical condition," Feuer said in an interview.



The homeless man was admitted to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, after city attorney's office staff learned of his plight. "His condition had gotten a lot worse," Feuer said.



Good Samaritan has denied the allegations. Six years ago, while other hospitals were coming under fire for dumping, the hospital won praise for taking the initiative and working closely with a homeless services provider.



In a statement released Thursday, Good Samaritan said that it chose to settle "rather than expend its limited resources on protracted litigation."



"Our goal is to deliver the best possible care to anyone who comes through our door," the statement read.



The hospital noted, however, that as Los Angeles has experienced a sharp rise in homelessness, Good Samaritan and other medical centers have struggled to place homeless patients when they are discharged "because of the inadequate resources to meet their housing and medical needs."



Some hospitals maintain they are hamstrung by laws that stop them from confining all but the most severely psychotic homeless people. State law requires discharge planning, but hospitals say there is nowhere for homeless patients to go — especially those with mental conditions.



Feuer said a neighborhood prosecutor for his office, Gabby Taylor, alerted her colleagues that the man had been the victim of patient dumping.



The city attorney is continuing litigation against another hospital, Gardens Regional Hospital & Medical Center in Hawaiian Gardens, that is accused of dumping a patient on skid row in 2014. That case could go to trial in October.