NeuroBehavioral Hospital in Crown Point, Ind., terminated the employment of a discharge planner last week after she spoke to the New York Times about nursing homes discharging unprofitable patients, a practice known as "patient dumping," the NYT reports.
In the Sept. 19 NYT article, Kimberly Jackson said that during the pandemic nursing homes in Illinois and Michigan have repeatedly sent elderly and disabled Medicaid patients to NeuroBehavioral Hospital, a psychiatric facility, even though they were not experiencing psychosis, seemingly in an effort to get rid of patients who are not lucrative for reimbursement or require extra care.
"The homes seem to be purposely taking symptoms of dementia as evidence of psychosis," Ms. Jackson is quoted in the article.
She was fired from NeuroBehavioral Hospital Sept. 24. Rebecca Holloway, the hospital's corporate director of human resources, told the NYT that Ms. Jackson violated the hospital's media policy.
Ms. Jackson told the newspaper she was shocked to be fired for speaking to the media.
"I saw something that was wrong, and I called it out," she said.
NeuroBehavioral Hospital is part of NeuroPsychiatric Hospitals. The South Bend, Ind.-based network has five facilities in Indiana, two in Texas and one in Arizona.