Hospitals are not allowed to discharge a patient without a responsible party picking up and accepting responsibility for that patient.
Somebody dumped that man on the side of the road. The hospital is at fault or the man’s family is at fault or perhaps the nursing home did send a person to go get the man. The story does not say.
They’re not supposed to do that.
But granny dumping is still a thing.
The article said he was at the side of the road with all of his belongings. I doubt he brought them to the hospital. It seems to me he was returned to the nursing home and packed up with his belongings and dumped at the side of the road.