Nevada Hospital Dumps Psych Patients Out of State, Class Action Says

A class action lawsuit filed last week accuses a Nevada psychiatric hospital of routinely dumping psych patients outside of the state, putting patients at risk of serious harm.

Plaintiffs Clorissa D. Porter and William D. Spencer are former psychiatric patients at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital who, according to the class action lawsuit, “were involuntarily discharged from the facility by Defendants and their agents and employees, and sent to out-of-state destinations where Defendants knew said patients would be unable to obtain proper treatment, care and housing.”

Porter claims she was discharged from the facility, transported by taxi to a Greyhound Bus station, and taken by bus to Flint, Mich. The taxi and bus tickets were paid for by the defendants, the class action lawsuit alleges.

Flint is reportedly two hours away from Caro, Mich., which is where Porter was supposed to get continued psychiatric treatment, according to the class action lawsuit.

However, Porter says she didn’t know anyone in Flint and had no money or any other means of traveling to Caro. When she contacted Rawson-Neal, she was allegedly told by the staff to contact the facility in Caro.

Porter claims that she had to contact her cousin in Las Vegas to wire her money to pay for food. She subsequently had a mental breakdown and was admitted to a hospital in Michigan which, according to the class action lawsuit, was unable to obtain Porter’s records from Rawson-Neal.

“There was no follow-up plan and no prior contact had been made with any institutions in Michigan from which Porter could obtain medical and psychiatric care, and no arrangements were made with any facility at which Porter could obtain shelter or assistance of any kind,” the class action lawsuit asserts.

Spencer, who was reportedly admitted to Rawson-Neal in 2012 for severe depression, was informed that the facility had a one-way ticket on a Greyhound bus, with Los Angeles as his destination. According to the class action lawsuit, Spencer was told by a doctor that he should call 911 for help once he arrived in Los Angeles.

Despite his concerns and lack of desire to move out of Nevada, Spencer was reportedly taken by taxi to a Greyhound station and given a bus ticket to Los Angeles. According to the class action lawsuit, he was told that housing arrangements had been made at a facility in Pasadena, and that he would receive further treatment which would allow him to return to work.

After arriving in Los Angeles, Spencer reportedly had no money or any way to get to Pasadena. “It would have made no difference, however, since contrary to explicit representations, no prior arrangements had been made for Spencer and he promptly became homeless, experienced panic attacks and anxiety,” the class action lawsuit states.

The Sacramento Bee newspaper launched an investigation after learning about the “dumping” of a patient in Sacramento. The newspaper reportedly discovered that, since 2008, nearly 1,500 patients of Rawson-Neal have been transported by Greyhound bus to other states, with only minimum provisions to sustain them during their journey.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found that the hospital’s governing body had systematic practices that resulted in Rawson-Neal’s failure to deliver statutory mandated care to its patients.

Porter and Spencer seek to represent a Class of patients who were discharged from Rawson-Neal, taken by a pre-paid taxi to a Greyhound Bus station, provided a one-way bus ticket to an out-of-state destination, and were not provided with adequate arrangements for shelter, future treatment and follow-up care.

The plaintiffs are represented by Allen Lichtenstein Attorney at Law Ltd.

The Nevada Psych Patient Dumping Class Action Lawsuit is Clorissa D. Porter, et al. v. Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services also known as Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital, et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-02949, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, Southern Division.