Unfortunately, patients are not likely to get their identities back even though CMS found their records. The records were being offered for sale by a hacker. The seller claims that 48,000 were from a town in Missouri, 210,000 from the “Midwest”, and 397,000 from Georgia. While medical records — especially ones like these that included … Read more
QUESTION: Our hospital owns and operates our local EMS service. We sometimes get calls at the far edge of the county where it is closer to cross the county line and go to our neighboring hospital than to bring the patient all the way back to our home hospital, and then perhaps have to transfer … Read more
Guest post by Steve Wilder In case your holiday barbecues have been taking your attention away from OSHA matters, the agency announced that minimum fines for violations will increase on August 1 for the first time in 25 years. Healthcare facilities of all types should take note, as the maximum fines will increase by 78%! … Read more
It was 6 weeks ago when I announced that I would have a whitepaper on the conflict between drug policies and EMTALA out in 3 weeks. I also mentioned that being in the risk management field, delays might occur. Little did I know that Mr. … Read more
A few weeks ago a friend of mine lost his 32 old son to an opiate overdose. That strikes close to home as I have a 33 year old son of my own and a college student daughter. Even more crushing for my friend — his best friend lost a child to an overdose as … Read more
When the patient presented for vague symptoms, the ED ordered a blood test to rule out cardiac issues, but according to published reports on the trial, the patient was sent home. The news story indicated that the results came back the next morning, and the ED nurse called the patient and her notes indicated that … Read more
The “Secret Patient” arrived at your hospital in a proper EMTALA transfer from Hospital A. They sent all required information but the patient’s name or ANYOTHER identifying information — he and supposed family member REFUSED to disclose it. Your hospital hospital provides appropriate screening, admits the patient, provides surgery, and provides appropriate after care to … Read more
The new 135 bed private facility on Guam opened in July and was awaiting it JC accreditation in December when it drew its first EMTALA complaint for allegedly transferring an OB patient for financial reasons. According to reports on Kuam.com, a young woman was brought into the hospital by ambulance complaining of labor pains at … Read more
If you were that hospital – whether justified or not – how much damage would this headline do to your reputation? And then, what if it gets dragged up several more times with headlines about CMS EMTALA citations and possible termination from Medicare? And then, periodic headlines as the law suits drag through the courts … Read more
EMTALA is 30 years old this year, and with the social status for docs being the brightest and best, you would think that all of our ED docs would have figured out its requirements by now, right? But NO… a segment of Emergency Department physicians (primarily in smaller hospitals or busy community hospitals) still finds … Read more