A $45,000 settlement has been reached on an Office of Inspector General (OIG) Civil Monetary Penalty (fine) against a Kansas Hospital for an alleged failure to provide an adequate medical screening exam.
The OIG charged that the hospital failed to provide an adequate medical exam when a woman presented to the hospital’s emergency department 38 weeks pregnant and complaining of abdominal and lower back pain. The OIG maintains that the hospital did not take a medical history, vital signs, monitor the fetus, test for fetal movement, or perform any exam on the patient. The patient was then referred to her private physician and discharged.
The patient reportedly left the hospital by private vehicle and drove to another hospital where she was admitted and delivered a stillborn baby.
Editorial comment: While many current physicians and hospital staff are not aware of it, EMTALA stands for the Emergency Medical Treatment And ACTIVE LABOR ACT. Most of the horrific incidents used to justify the law were OB cases. When early application of the law was avoided by physicians by determining the patient was “not in active labor,” CMS changed the definition to include “from earlier incipient stages of labor through delivery of baby and placenta” to make certain that the “active labor” defense was not available.
See pages 326-329 EMTALA Field Guide 3rd Edition