EMTALA: Court Sees Basis For Family’s Lawsuit.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
April 2017
The patient was brought to the emergency department at the hospital after a syncopal episode while undergoing dialysis at a dialysis clinic. The emergency department physician and nurses discharged him home because the hospital had an unwritten policy not to accept dialysis patients. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MAINE March 7, 2017
The elderly patient suffered from Alzheimer’s dementia and chronic renal failure. During dialysis at a dialysis clinic he had a sudden loss of consciousness. He was rushed by ambulance to a hospital’s emergency department. The emergency department nurses obtained the patient’s history, took his vital signs, drew blood for the lab and per-formed an EKG. The EKG showed acute abnormalities which the emergency physician realized called for a cardiac workup, but the patient was nevertheless discharged home by the nurses pursuant to the physician’s order. He collapsed and died hours later.
The US District Court for the District of Maine saw grounds for the family’s lawsuit against the hospital for violation of the US Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). The nurses’ and physician’s screening in the emergency department showed acute cardiac abnormalities which qualified as an emergency medical condition. The patient needed a more thorough cardiac workup before his emergency medical condition could be considered stabilized to the point that discharge home from the emergency department was appropriate.
Michaud v. Hospital, 2017 WL 902133 (D. Maine, March 7, 2017).More from nursinglaw.com
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