title: EMTALA and the ethical delivery of hospital emergency services.
abstract: This article examines the role and impact of EMTALA on the ethical delivery of hospital-based emergency services, primarily through close inspection of three of the core EMTALA mandates: the medical screening examination, the duty to accept patients in transfer from less capable facilities, and the requirement that the hospital provide on-call physician services to the emergency department to help stabilize patients with emergencies or help accept patients in transfer. Hospital and physician responses to these mandates, such as triaging/screening patients away from the emergency department, avoiding the application of EMTALA, refusing to accept inpatients with emergencies in transfer, and devising ways to avoid on-call duties, are analyzed in some detail.
authors.affiliation: Bitterman Health Law & Consulting Group, Inc., 4500 Swing Lane, Charlotte, NC 26226-3422, USA. robertbitterman@earthlink.net
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Bitterman
mesh_terms: D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006806:Human Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D005791:Patient Care / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards; D010360:Patient Transfer / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010820:Physicians / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States