Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center has announced that it will adopt new guidelines aimed at ending the dumping of homeless patients on local streets, joining Kaiser Permanente, which announced similar reforms earlier in the week.

Hollywood Presbyterian agreed Friday to create new protocols and provide more staff training for discharging homeless patients in the wake of the hospital's highly publicized February dumping of a paraplegic homeless man found crawling in the street.

Chief executive Kaylor E. Shemberger said Hollywood Presbyterian wanted to become "one of the first hospitals in Los Angeles to respond to the city attorney's request to get on board with the protocols."

The Kaiser settlement with the city of Los Angeles announced Tuesday also included monitoring by a retired judge, a condition not among the reforms at Hollywood Presbyterian.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is investigating the February dumping. A 54-year-old man was found crawling in the gutter near a skid row park, wearing a soiled hospital gown with a colostomy bag still attached.

Delgadillo said the probe of the incident will continue despite the hospital's gestures.

"This announcement by itself doesn't impact our investigation," Delgadillo said.

Delgadillo had filed criminal charges against Kaiser Permanente over a dumped patient in November, and said he wanted to send a message to hospitals nationwide engaged in patient dumping.

Los Angeles authorities are investigating allegations that a dozen area hospitals have dumped more than 50 homeless patients downtown.