Hospital A owned an Indiana ambulance that transported an EMS patient to Hospital B. While in the ambulance, the patient died. The patient’s family sued the hospital under EMTALA arguing that the hospital-owned ambulance was required to have taken the patient to Hospital A, and therefore violated EMTALA.
Initially, the trial court ruled with the family on the grounds that the patient “had come to the hospital” when they entered the ambulance. On rehearing, however, the hospital pointed out the ambulance was operating under communitywide EMS protocols that regulated the destination of the ambulance, and the Court changed its ruling to recognize the “community wide EMS plan” exception to the Ambulance Rule.
Beller v. Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County (S.D. IN)