A 70-year-old man who had just been discharged from a hospital was sent by taxi to Skid Row, and police and prosecutors were investigating whether it was the latest case of hospitals dumping patients on the street.

On Wednesday, a patrol officer said he saw a man in hospital garb struggling to get out of a taxi that had dropped him off in front of the Los Angeles Mission, a homeless shelter in Skid Row.

"The man could barely walk and he told me that he was still very sick and needed medical attention," Officer Deon Joseph said.

The man, identified as Moses Davis, had paperwork indicating he had been discharged from Downey Regional Medical Center. Hospital officials said Davis had insisted on leaving.

"We did not 'dump' Mr. Davis," said Rob Fuller, a hospital spokesman. "We had provided (him) with necessary medical care, food, and clothing and had tried to make appropriate arrangements for him before he left."

Davis was taken from the mission to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The hospital confirmed he was there Thursday but gave no detail on his condition.

Fuller said a Downey hospital social worker contacted the Los Angeles Mission after determining Davis was likely homeless and gave him taxi fare.

"We made appropriate arrangements for Mr. Davis," Fuller said.

The alleged dumping of homeless patients on the street by hospitals has been under investigation by Los Angeles police and the city attorney's office for months.

False-imprisonment charges were filed against Kaiser Permanente for allegedly leaving a homeless woman on Skid Row last year, a case that was caught on surveillance videotape.

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