Suit Settled on Alleged ‘Dumping’ of Patient ; Hospital to Pay for Man’s Rehab, Return to Ecuador
By JIM WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
The legal battle between two of North Jersey’s top hospitals over allegations that one had “dumped” an uninsured paraplegic patient is over.
On Friday, lawyers for Hackensack University Medical Center and Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck agreed to settle a lawsuit involving 58-year-old Gustavo Segovia. The Ecuadorean national had received major surgery at Hackensack in June, only to be discharged and almost immediately admitted to Holy Name in late September.
Segovia, who lacks health insurance and does not qualify for Medicaid, has been hospitalized in Holy Name ever since.
Under the settlement, Hackensack agreed to pay for up to two weeks of rehabilitation for Segovia as well as his return trip to Ecuador. It will provide no payment to Holy Name for his treatment there, as Holy Name had requested.
Dr. Peter Gross, the chief medical officer at Hackensack, said the lawsuit could have been avoided with better communication between the two hospitals: “The physician from Holy Name should have called us, because the problems that they thought were acute were actually chronic.”
Segovia, who is blind and bedridden with severe bedsores, did not attend the hearing in state Superior Court, Hackensack.
Attorneys for both hospitals said that although Friday’s settlement resolved this case, the much larger problem of New Jersey hospitals spending millions of dollars to provide care for the uninsured must be addressed.
“The issue of charity care is only going to increase,” James Robertson, the attorney for Hackensack University Medical Center, told Judge Peter E. Doyne. “Rather than solve these problems piecemeal, we believe a comprehensive legislative solution is needed.”
According to a spokeswoman for the medical center, Hackensack spent $315,000 for Segovia’s care over 3 months and $34 million on charity care last year. A Holy Name spokeswoman said the cost of Segovia’s care there was more than $80,000. Overall, the state’s 10 largest hospitals spent $163 million in uncompensated care in 2005.
This fall, Governor Corzine created of a commission to examine the financial health of New Jersey hospitals, including the impact of charity care, with recommendations expected in June.
The case had its beginnings on June 13, when Segovia went to Hackensack’s emergency room, complaining of chest pains. Within a week, surgeons performed a risky surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm, saving his life.
After the surgery, Segovia was blind and paralyzed below the waist. Later, Segovia would not leave when hospital officials decided he no longer needed to stay in an acute-care facility. On Aug. 11, the hospital began legal proceedings to remove him a rare move but not unheard of.
At a September hearing, Segovia’s wife said through an interpreter that if no long-term-care facility for him could be found in the United States, she would not object to returning him to Ecuador and finding a facility there.
Taken to apartment
The judge gave Hackensack University Medical Center two options – it could send Segovia to a U.S. facility or to one in Ecuador, with the hospital covering up to $10,000 of the costs of the trip to Ecuador and 15 days of care there.
Segovia was familiar with New Jersey. He visited the state almost every month to distribute copies of a magazine he published, Ecuador 2000, to businesses here, said Carmen and Ricardo Alava, who own a clothing and photo shop in Hackensack.
On Sept. 29, he was released from Hackensack. Hospital records state that he was “discharged to a sub-acute rehabilitation facility in stable, satisfactory condition,” and that he was “ambulatory” even though he is paralyzed below the waist.
Segovia was taken by ambulance to a Little Ferry apartment with no hospital bed or wheelchair. Two hours later, feverish and short of breath, he was rushed to Holy Name. He was so sick that he was in the intensive-care unit for four days. He has been in Holy Name ever since.
In the suit, Holy Name said Hackensack misrepresented Segovia’s condition when it released him and “simply washed its hands of Mr. Segovia in the quickest and least expensive way it could.”
Hackensack said the family wanted to take Segovia to the Little Ferry apartment, and that staff trained his wife to dress his bedsores and manage a feeding tube.
Because of Segovia’s lack of medical coverage, the two hospitals have had to foot the bill for his care. The spokeswoman for Holy Name said she’s “quite sure” that Segovia and his family are ready to go home to Ecuador.
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Staff Writer Mary Jo Layton contributed to this story. E-mail: wright@northjersey.com
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