EMTALA: Court Rules Screening In E.R. Was Proper, Suit Dismissed.

EMTALA: Court Rules Screening In E.R. Was Proper, Suit Dismissed.

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

December 1999

The patient had a myocardial infarction and died in the hospital three hours after arriving in the E.R., an hour after being admitted to a med/surg floor for intractable nausea and vomiting.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Maine saw no violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act by hospital nursing and medical personnel in the patient’s screening and treatment in the emergency department. The court dismissed the family’s lawsuit.

An E.R. nurse accepted the patient from the ambulance. He conducted the initial assessment which included interviewing the patient and his wife. There was a sudden onset of nausea while eating seafood and the patient vomited three times. The nurse also found out the patient had fainted and had remained unconscious for four minutes earlier in the day.

The patient was alert and oriented in the emergency department, was not having chest pains and had had no chest pain earlier in the day.

The nurse had the patient seen by a physician within thirty minutes. The physician’s exam included an EKG, and the patient was placed on cardiac telemetry while waiting in the emergency department. Following the physician’s orders, the nurse gave Compazine, Reglan and IV fluids in the emergency department.

The court ruled out a violation of the EMTALA, even though the emergency room staff did not follow special protocols for screening and treating this patient as a cardiac risk, such as repeating twelve-lead EKG’s, administering oxygen, running enzyme tests, and doing a more extensive neurological assessment.

Screening and treatment fully adhered to the hospital’s standard protocols for this patient’s apparent presenting signs and symptoms, which is all the EMTALA requires, the court ruled. Feighery v. Hospital, 59 F. Supp. 2d 96 (D. Maine, 1999).