Examination of Healthcare Law: Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA)

Examination of Healthcare Laws
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Examination of Healthcare Laws
Healthcare laws are significant statutes that guide healthcare providers toward offering effective medical services. Physicians and health organizations should always endeavor to comply with these laws to prevent lawsuits and losses. The increasing rate of medical practices like negligence in hospitals is one of the key reasons for enacting healthcare laws. Since their implementation, healthcare quality has improved, and the number of lawsuits against hospitals has declined. Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) is a healthcare law that has significantly improved hospital care. This statute is specific to screening, stabilizing, and transferring patients with emergency medical conditions and active labor. Failure to appropriately provide a medical screening exam in an emergency department or make efforts to stabilize any emergency medical condition before referral or discharge is regarded as an EMTALA violation. This report analyzes EMTALA violation based on Cynthia Adae v. The University of Cincinnati court case. In this case, Cynthia Adae (complainant) sued the University of Cincinnati for negligence after suffering paralysis. She claimed that his condition was caused by the hospital’s failure to appropriately screen her condition and stabilize her before discharge. The court found that the hospital was negligent in handling Adae’s condition and awarded her $3.3 compensation for the damages (Justia, n.d.). Following the provisions of EMTALA, it is clear that the hospital violated this law, subjecting the patient to severe injuries.
Court Case: Paralyzed Woman Settles Medical Negligence Case with the University of Cincinnati for $2.3 Million.
Court Case Analysis
The case of Cynthia Adae v. The University of Cincinnati is a medical malpractice lawsuit filed on October 23, 2007, at the Court of Claims of Ohio. The plaintiff, Cynthia Adae, claimed that she suffered permanent neurological deficits when the physicians at the University of Cincinnati failed to timely diagnose her condition. According to the case, Mrs. Adae went to Clinton Memorial Hospital emergency room on June 28, 2006, with the following symptoms: right shoulder pain, a non-productive cough, limited range of motion of her right upper extremity, and a 103-degree fever (courtnewsohio.gov, n.d.). On June 29, 2006, the hospital admitted her and conducted a chest CT scan, which read normal (Justia, n.d.). The complainant’s doctors considered an infectious process and contemplated performing a spinal tap to rule out an infection. However, they never ordered the spinal tap procedure. The physicians ordered and conducted blood culture tests but discharged the patient from the hospital without a diagnosis and the benefit of the test results (Justia, n.d.).
Two days later, the blood culture test results indicated that Adae had contracted a severe infection: Staphylococcus aureus (courtnewsohio.gov, n.d.). Three days after the discharge, one of the complainant’s physicians was informed of the results but failed to advise her. Adae visited another hospital emergency room the day before the previous emergency room doctor was informed of the results. She complained of severe pain in her right shoulder, neck, and back with fever and muscle weakness (Justia, n.d.). Despite the lab test showing that the patient had an infection, she was again discharged without a diagnosis. Four days later, the complainant experienced acute renal failure, progressive paraplegia, lower and upper extremities weakness, and slurred speech (courtnewsohio.gov, n.d.). She returned to the latter emergency room, where the hospital finally diagnosed her with an epidural abscess. Despite the treatment, the woman suffered paraplegia, claiming that his condition was caused by the hospital’s failure to timely and appropriately diagnose and treat her infection.
The plaintiff named the University of Cincinnati a medical negligence defendant because the school runs a family practice residency program at Clinton Memorial. As such, the school employed the attending physician at the hospital during Adae’s admission. According to the complainant, the doctors were made aware of the blood culture tests but never bothered to advise the patient or take any action to treat her (courtnewsohio.gov, n.d.). The lawsuit claimed that the complainant had suffered significant injuries due to the direct and proximate effects of the defendant's negligence. She has been rendered paralyzed at age 50; has incurred physical pain and mental distress; has been forced to undertake multiple risky and painful therapeutic and diagnostic procedures; expects to incur medical-related expenses and losses; and is likely to suffer pain and disability for the rest of her life (Justia, n.d.).
On October 24, 2013, the Court of Claims of Ohio found the University of Cincinnati guilty of medical malpractice (Justia, n.d.). The court ruled that the doctor’s negligence was the cause of the complainant’s condition, stating that the physician who treated Adae diverged from the standard of care in failing to assess the symptoms associated with her condition. As a result, the court directed the University to pay the complainant $3.3 million to compensate her for the damages (courtnewsohio.gov, n.d.). The University appealed the judge’s decision, but the two parties agreed to settle the matter instead of letting the Ohio Supreme Court rule. In this confidential medical malpractice settlement, the University of Ohio agreed to pay $2.3 million in compensation.
Healthcare Law Violated in the Case
The healthcare law violated in Cynthia Adae v. The University of Cincinnati case is Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA is a federal law that compels Medicare-participating hospitals to provide emergency care to any person regardless of their ability to pay (McKenna et al., 2018). The US Congress enacted the Act in 1986 following reports of hospital emergency departments rejecting uninsured or poor patients (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, n.d.). EMTALA imposes two essential obligations on hospitals. First, it establishes thorough medical screening examinations. According to the Act, the hospital must provide adequate medical screening examination (MSE) to anyone seeking treatment in ...