Pacific Hospital of Long Beach sued by former employee

LOS ANGELES - April 22, 2013 - PRLog -- Former employee of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, Memorial Counseling Associates Medical Group, Inc. and Memorial Psychiatric Health Services, Inc filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday 4/19/2013 alleging that her former employer was violating the law by allowing unlicensed persons to place 5150 hold designations on hospital patients.  

Section 5150 is a section of the California Welfare and Institutions Code (specifically, the Lanterman–Petris–Short Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterman%E2%80%93Petris%E2%80%93Short_Act) or "LPS") which allows a qualified officer or clinician to involuntarily confine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_commitment) a person deemed to have a mental disorder that makes them a danger to him- or herself, and/or others and/or gravely disabled. A qualified officer, which includes any California [[peace officer], as well as any specifically designated county clinician, can request the confinement after signing a written declaration. When used as a term, 5150 (pronounced "fifty-one-fifty") can informally refer to the person being confined or to the declaration itself, or colloquially as a verb}, as in 'Someone was 5150'd'.

CALIFORNIA WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE, SECTION 5150, second paragraph, "... an application in writing stating the circumstances under which the person's condition was called to the attention of the officer, member of the attending staff, or professional person, and stating that the officer, member of the attending staff, or professional person has probable cause to believe that the person is, as a result of mental disorder, a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled."

Placing a person on such a hold is not a decision to be taken lightly because it involves the confinement of a person's freedom, but it is a decision that allegedly makes the hospital money.

The plaintiff alleged that Memorial Counseling Associates Medical Group, Inc. and Memorial Psychiatric Health Services, Inc were affiliates and that they were involved in running the Psychiatric Evaluation Team which was in charge of placing these holds.

The plaintiff alleged that as soon as she told her supervisors that there were unlicensed persons making these designations and that these designations were being made without following proper procedures, Plaintiff was given less hours and ultimately forced to quit by reducing her pay around 80%.

Plaintiff also alleges in the complaint that she was being paid $5.00 / hour and $140 / evaluation of each patient.