A video showing hospital staff "dumping" a patient wearing only a hospital gown at a Baltimore bus in freezing temperatures has gone viral and led to questions about discharge practices for the homeless and mentally ill.
Imamu Baraka was walking by Baltimore's University of Maryland Medical Center when he saw hospital security guards wheel a patient to a bus stop wearing only a hospital gown and socks, then leave her there. He began to record the incident, which he posted on Facebook, and can be heard in the video saying to the woman, “It’s about 30 degrees out here right now. Are you OK, ma’am? Do you need me to call the police?”
The woman doesn't respond to Baraka, who then calls 911 and waits as medics presumably take the woman back to the hospital had "dumped" her.
The medical center said in a statement that it “share[s] the shock and disappointment of many who have viewed the video,” adding that “in the end we clearly failed to fulfill our mission with this patient.”
CBS News reported the medical center is reviewing the woman’s case and that personnel action could be taken against the hospital employees responsible for her dumping.
It was not clear whether the woman was able to speak, or whether she was mentally ill or homeless. Mental health expert Adrienne Breidenstine of Behavioral Health System in Baltimore told The Baltimore Sun she thought the woman might be actively symptomatic, from seeing the video.
“Something was clearly going on,” Breidenstine said.
A 2007 “60 Minutes” investigation showed some Los Angeles hospitals also engaged in the practice of “patient dumping” of the mentally ill or homeless.