EMTALA: A Case Study

they must send them to another hospitals ED. Ambulances can drive around for unnecessary amounts of time trying to find a hospital with room in the emergency department for their victim. This can be scary for the victim. They present a huge health risk for patients seeking urgent medical attention. Ambulance diversions wouldn’t be an issue if overcrowding did not exist. Schull (2003) believes that ambulance diversion is driven by the boarding of patients and is not otherwise related to issues of staffing within the ED itself. (p.467-476)

During an emergency such as flood disaster, public health personnel and public health nurse are tasked with different duties to help the victims. The main aim of the public health personnel is to provide health services to people and the community affected by the floods. It is therefore necessary for them to

Since the development of the EMTALA Act in 1986, any individual which presents to the emergency department, must be accessed and triaged by qualified medical personnel. (www.cms.gov) Individuals are aware that if they present to the emergency department, regardless if it is for just a tooth ache or a major illness like a heart attack, they will have to be treated. “This mandate does not extend to private physician offices, however, which creates an incentive for those without the means to pay for care to

The filing of the complaint must be completed within 72 hours of the transfer (Sally Austin, 2011). As a result of this, it has been difficult to see whether or not EMTALA has truly been successfully implemented and effective (Sara Rosenbaum, 2012). Another disadvantage is that EMTALA only requires hospitals to treat “true emergencies”, which are subjective in nature. The last revisions in 2003 for EMTALA by policymakers and CMS limited EMTALA to only patients that arrived to the emergency department, not to other areas of the hospital, such as a doctor’s office appointment or outpatient surgery (Sara Rosenbaum, 2012). Another negative consequence of EMTALA that is not addressed by the law is that emergency department physicians can still be held liable and face malpractice issues by uninsured patients (Singer, 2014). There have been legislative proposals by members of Congress that are working to change this to include physicians as members of the Public Health Services, which would address these concerns (Singer, 2014). These hesitations by physicians has forced some hospitals to close their emergency departments in California to avoid these financial consequences of lawsuits (Friedman, 2011).

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted in 1986 as a part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985. EMTALA was enacted to prevent hospitals with Emergency Departments from refusing to treat or transferring patients with emergency medical conditions (EMC) due to an inability to pay for their services. This act also applies to satellite locations whom advertise titles such as “Immediate Care” or “Urgent Care,” and all other facilities where one-third of their patient intake are walk-ins. Several rules and regulations to this act have been established and it has become a very serious piece of legislation and health

The case of Marie Moses-Irons vs. Providence Hospital. Johnella Richmon Moses representative of the estate of Marie Moses-Irons (deceased) brought a case of an EMTALA violation and other negligence accusations to the U.S District Court on December 14, 2002. The lawsuit was against the Providence Hospital and Medical Centers, Inc. and Dr. Paul Lessem. On December 13, 2002, Marie Moses-Irons brought her husband, Christopher Howard, to the emergency department of Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan due to severe headaches, muscle soreness, high blood pressure, vomiting, slurred speech, hallucination, and delusional statements. The patient was admitted to the hospital’s emergency room and was treated for the physical complaints as well for the psychiatric problems. Dr. Lessem treated Christopher Howard during the hospital stay and

According to the Texas Health Presbyterian Denton Emergency Operations plan their objective “is to maintain the continuity of patient care operations and meet the medical needs of our members and the community.” In order to accomplish this goal they assert that maintaining the safety and security of the organizations staff and volunteers is the top priority, as the safety of their staff ensures they will be able to accomplish their mission of providing care for patients, visitors, and the larger community. In addition to their primary goal, they have also identified a secondary objective of providing supplies and assistance to other Texas Health facilities.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) passed in 1986 and it requires hospitals to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. It further stated Participating

For a large part of the end of the twentieth century, politicians have been trying to bridge the gap of providing healthcare services for everyone within the country. EMTALA provided the foundation to the expansion of the right to healthcare and put an end to discrimination based on the ability to pay for emergency healthcare services (Koeninger, 2013). In order to pay for emergent services for indigent patients, cost-sharing with the insured was established in order for hospitals and providers to recoup financial losses (Koeninger, 2013). Cost-sharing is one of the concepts utilized by the government for the financing of the ACA. By requiring all individuals to possess healthcare insurance, the cost for paying for

Hospitals are therefore not provided in areas where their rendered services may not be ‘needed’ or properly compensated for. According to law, a hospital cannot turn down an uninsured patient during emergency.

In healthcare organizations such as hospitals and outpatient surgical center, disasters can be especially damaging. For instance, during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans many patients were required to be moved due to the severity of the storm. If proper contingency plans were in place prior to the disaster, there could have procedures for moving patients once a city-wide evacuation notice was

ELMIRA (WENY) - If you're driving through the City of Elmira, you should expect some delays

I can totally see how a hit to healthcare can be devastating especially when people need help and care after an unlikely and unfortunate event. Healthcare is a very vital aspect after natural disasters because we want to ensure that hospitals have the adequate staff, resources, and supplies available to care for patients whether they are critically injured or have minor injuries. I know from past experiences and working in a hospital environment that we had a emergency preparedness plan set in place to facilitate should a natural disaster or unlikely event take place. This thoroughly helps with ensuring that a backup operating system was in place, adequate policies were set that were necessary should the facility have to be evacuated or an

Eman is an industrious, pleasant, but shy student. She is in Mr. Cooper’s 8th grade general education class at the Dr. Hani Awadallah school. Eman currently receives in class support for math. Eman took the STAR Renaissance Benchmark Math Assessment on September 22, 2016. She obtained a scaled score of 720, which has grade equivalency of 5.9. Eman responds favorably when a skill is presented in a small group setting, or if repeated on a one-one basis. Eman benefits best from modelling of problems, peer to peer discussions, think-pair-share, and practice of mathematical skill.

Hospitals could raise their prices for emergency and medical care, however, I do not believe it would have much of an effect of the demand for these services. If someone really needs to be treated by an ED, it is safe to assume they are not going to take the time to find a less expensive hospital as a substitute to receive care at. They are going to need to be seen at the closest facility. Especially when it comes to a life or death situation. I think that emergency services could be considered to be perfectly inelastic. Unless of course, the medical care that was being provided was an elective procedure like plastic surgery.