A
A Texan from Connecticut
Guest
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=4891
Hospital Emergency Rooms and Patient Dumping
Since 1991, Public Citizen's Health Research Group has tracked the
Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) record in enforcing the
federal "patient dumping" law. In a report released in December 1997,
we named 256 hospitals reported to HHS between April 1, 1995 and
September 30, 1996 for violating the law (and later confirmed by HHS
as having done so), and 26 hospitals and eight physicians who paid
fines in 1995 and 1996 to settle alleged patient dumping violations.
The report updates four earlier reports on this topic published in
1991, 1993, 1994, and 1996. The addition of these hospitals brings the
total number that have violated the patient dumping law during its
first ten years (Sept. 86 to Sept. 96) to almost 700 hospitals, or
more than one in ten acute-care hospitals in the United States. The
actual number of violations is much higher, since many cases are not
reported to the government.
In addition to naming 256 hospitals found to have violated the law,
the report includes for the first time patient-specific clinical
information from the reports of government inspectors who investigated
dumping complaints. Examples of violations from 31 of these government
inspection reports include:
A 2-year-old child with a fever and history of vomiting and diarrhea
earlier that day was brought to the hospital's emergency room by her
mother, but instead of being medically screened, was referred to a
physician's private practice. Seven hours later, the child was taken
to the emergency department by ambulance, but was unresponsive, and
died that evening.
A 16-year-old patient with history of fetal alcohol syndrome and
suicide attempts, was brought to the emergency room by his father who
stated that the patient had threatened to kill him. The patient was
allowed to be transferred by car with his father to a facility with an
adolescent psychiatric unit despite the risk of the patient becoming
violent and harming others.
A 28-year-old woman went to the emergency department with severe
abdominal pain. Although the medical screening exam included a
positive pregnancy test, she was discharged without her severe
abdominal pain being adequately investigated. Three days later, she
was admitted to the hospital in shock with a ruptured ectopic
pregnancy.
In 1986, Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor
Act, which forbids the practice known as patient dumping--denial of
treatment to emergency patients or women in labor, or transferring
them to another hospital in an unstable condition. Patients are
usually "dumped" because they are poor or uninsured, but in recent
years, there have been reports of patients with health insurance
through health maintenance organizations (HMOs), or other forms of
managed care, finding themselves the victims of patient dumping as
well. <snip>
Hospital Emergency Rooms and Patient Dumping
Since 1991, Public Citizen's Health Research Group has tracked the
Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) record in enforcing the
federal "patient dumping" law. In a report released in December 1997,
we named 256 hospitals reported to HHS between April 1, 1995 and
September 30, 1996 for violating the law (and later confirmed by HHS
as having done so), and 26 hospitals and eight physicians who paid
fines in 1995 and 1996 to settle alleged patient dumping violations.
The report updates four earlier reports on this topic published in
1991, 1993, 1994, and 1996. The addition of these hospitals brings the
total number that have violated the patient dumping law during its
first ten years (Sept. 86 to Sept. 96) to almost 700 hospitals, or
more than one in ten acute-care hospitals in the United States. The
actual number of violations is much higher, since many cases are not
reported to the government.
In addition to naming 256 hospitals found to have violated the law,
the report includes for the first time patient-specific clinical
information from the reports of government inspectors who investigated
dumping complaints. Examples of violations from 31 of these government
inspection reports include:
A 2-year-old child with a fever and history of vomiting and diarrhea
earlier that day was brought to the hospital's emergency room by her
mother, but instead of being medically screened, was referred to a
physician's private practice. Seven hours later, the child was taken
to the emergency department by ambulance, but was unresponsive, and
died that evening.
A 16-year-old patient with history of fetal alcohol syndrome and
suicide attempts, was brought to the emergency room by his father who
stated that the patient had threatened to kill him. The patient was
allowed to be transferred by car with his father to a facility with an
adolescent psychiatric unit despite the risk of the patient becoming
violent and harming others.
A 28-year-old woman went to the emergency department with severe
abdominal pain. Although the medical screening exam included a
positive pregnancy test, she was discharged without her severe
abdominal pain being adequately investigated. Three days later, she
was admitted to the hospital in shock with a ruptured ectopic
pregnancy.
In 1986, Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor
Act, which forbids the practice known as patient dumping--denial of
treatment to emergency patients or women in labor, or transferring
them to another hospital in an unstable condition. Patients are
usually "dumped" because they are poor or uninsured, but in recent
years, there have been reports of patients with health insurance
through health maintenance organizations (HMOs), or other forms of
managed care, finding themselves the victims of patient dumping as
well. <snip>
