Westside Cities Homeless Issues Subcommittee Hospital Costs Associated with Homelessness Thursday, March 2, 2006 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Culver City City Hall Dan Patacchia Conference Room

Meeting Notes

· Introductions

Debbie Alpers, DNA & Co, was introduced to the group by Santa Monica representatives. Ms Alpers was asked to lead the group discussion on capturing the health care costs for the homeless.

· Update on Urgent Care Center for the Westside

Robin Kay provided a status report on the psychiatric urgent care facility for the Westside that has been identified by ER doctors as a critical missing component of care and a relief for serious overcrowding of local emergency rooms. The Westside is far away from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center which is currently the only emergency care facility charged with meeting West LA residents needs for urgent mental health care. Although neither the service provider nor a site has been identified, Department staff is meeting with various community groups to address the type of services and community outreach that will occur before selecting a site. The Department has prepared a fact sheet that outlines the services planned for West Los Angeles. Maureen Cate, Brotman Medical Center CEO, underscored the serious impact on Brotman operations because of this missing service. James Loftus, Cedars Sinai, also identified the lack of these services as a cause of diversion from ER’s when patients’ medical needs are not an issue. The group discussed colleting data on diversion.

· Define Hospital Study Parameters

ð How much does the community spend on health care for the homeless – conceptual discussion?

Stacy Rowe provided an update on the hospitals study working group which has discussed the identification of hospitals costs study parameters and study questions. After work sessions discussing various methodologies and the annual report methodologies of the Venice Family Clinic, it was decided to ask Debbie Alpers, DNA & Company, for research assistance to lead a discussion on how much the community spends on health care for the homeless at the hospitals working group. Ms Alpers provided a summary of a number of studies and research methodologies. Maureen Cate offered that currently there is no hospital industry standard for cost accounting. Flora Gil Krisiloff encouraged the group to get its messages out as part of an advocacy platform. Santa Monica will launch a study on costs with its hospitals

over a defined period of time for high users. This study might be the template for other cities to use to demonstrate their piece of the health care cost picture. Culver City might be interested in a more random, generalizable approach.

· Local, State and Federal Efforts

ð Report on Prop 63

ð Identify Strategies to Impact Homelessness

ð Determine Advocacy Plan for State & Federal Action

Robin Kay was asked to present information about Prop 63 funding allocations by SPA districts at the next meeting. Kate Vernez suggested discussion of the formula and noted that often the Westside is penalized by allocation formula that only take into account poverty , not including homeless population factors. Robin offered to also discuss the DMH retrospective report of case managers’ perceptions regarding factors that challenge “intensive service” recipients- along with factors that contribute to success. Discussion of the Cedillo legislation and other legislative or advocacy efforts will be discussed at the next meeting.

· Next Steps

April 6, 2006 meeting