Reaching Out to the Homeless

Helping San Diego’s homeless populate

Imagine being sick with nowhere to go once you are discharged from the hospital – no warm home where you can recover, no way to get to your follow-up care and no nourishing food.

Scripps and Catholic Charities have teamed up to help. A unique partnership between Scripps and Catholic Charities supports San Diego’s most vulnerable residents – the homeless.

For three years, Scripps Mercy Hospital , both the San Diego and Chula Vista campuses, has established a successful track record working with medically discharged patients who require recuperative time and follow-up services, but lack medical support after leaving the hospital. In 2011, Scripps awarded $55,000 in grant funds to Catholic Charities Case Management Services: Shelter Support for Medically Fragile Program. A total of 109 patients were served. Thirty-nine percent of them eventually entered supportive programs, and 45 percent were placed in permanent housing instead of returning to the streets.

The program sets up patients who are willing to change with emergency shelter and case management services, including transportation to medical appointments, funds for food and medical services and help finding long-term housing and employment.

In addition to improving the quality of life for the homeless, the collaboration lowers the rate of return by homeless patients to the emergency room, reducing expenses and saving taxpayer dollars. Keeping these patients healthy through the partnership saves an average of seven days per patient at a hospital-cost savings of an average of $5,000 per patient.