EMTALA Case Study

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An EMTALA Case
Mary Carnahan
HA 301 Legal Aspects Legislation in Health Care
March 17, 2016

Introduction This research paper is about a case law for a federal appellate circuit for an EMTALA case. Describe the case and the EMTALA requirement(s) at issue. How does it relate to the professional standards a medical professional must follow? What did you learn from the case? What lesson learned can help future medical/legal professionals?

EMTALA EMTALA stands for Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act and was established in 1985. The act was created basically to protect the uninsured public, that patients can bot be turned away from the emergency department without medical service. Now on that note: I have been on both …show more content…

The gentleman is staggering all over the place and seems very confused and talking nonsense. When the nursing staff tries to take his vitals, he becomes combative and vomits on himself. The staff thinking that the gentleman is intoxicated they call a taxi to escort him home. The gentleman never made it home; he was brought back to hospital unconscious. The gentleman was never examined or seen by a Physician. “Paramedics bring him back to the emergency room and note that he has a large hematoma on his scalp with crepitus (a crunchy feeling) on palpation. The emergency physician notes this and arranges for a stat CT of the head which reveals a depressed skull fracture and a large subdural hematoma. While awaiting neurosurgical consultation and operative decompression of the intracranial bleed, he has a sudden cardiopulmonary arrest and cannot be resuscitated. He is pronounced dead. His blood alcohol level, delivered to the emergency physician after he expired, was .07 percent, and thus, below the legal limit for driving” (B.G., n.d.). The gentleman was a victim of a violent assault a few hours earlier. The gentleman’s family sued the hospital for violating EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) provisions that require an appropriate medical screening exam of all Emergency Room patients.

What did you learn from the case? All patients in the emergency department should be given the same appropriate medical examinations and services to detect an emergency medical condition. I think hospitals should some type of in hospital insurance for uninsured persons or hospitals could assess patients in getting the right connection to get insurance before they leave the hospital.

What lesson learned can help future medical/legal