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. 2021 Sep;9(3):100557.
doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2021.100557. Epub 2021 May 27.

From the hospital to the streets: Bringing care to the unsheltered homeless in Los Angeles

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From the hospital to the streets: Bringing care to the unsheltered homeless in Los Angeles

Brett J Feldman et al. Healthc (Amst). 2021 Sep.

Abstract

Homelessness is a neglected crisis throughout the United States. In Los Angeles (L.A.) County, nearly 59,000 residents are homeless, and the vast majority are unsheltered. An academic institution and L.A county's largest public hospital formed a partnership to launch a Street Medicine (SM) program. SM assists the inpatient team with discharge planning and builds rapport with the patient experiencing homelessness. After discharge, the SM team follows up and brings care to the patient on the streets, often developing a trusting relationship and establishing continuity of primary care. During a 12-month period, SM provided inpatient consults for 206 unsheltered homeless patients.

Keywords: Access to care; Community health; Health disparities; Homeless medicine; Primary care; Street medicine.

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