EMTALA: Ethics and the Law

Dr. Em & Dr. Taul's Emergency Room Adventure   Case 1:  Transferring Patient You are working in a community hospital emergency room when a 12-year-old male is brought in following  a snowmobile accident.  The child was riding in an open field and failed to notice a barbed wire fence.  He sustained multiple lacerations to the neck and face. You stabilize the child's bleeding and administer tetanus vaccine, but you know that extensive repair to the face will be necessary.  Your emergency room has a general surgeon, but no plastic surgeon available. What arrangements are necessary to transfer the child to a facility 45 miles away, where plastic surgery consultation is available? Once medical stabilization is complete the child may be transferred by EMS to a hospital less than 1 hour away. Once your medical screening exam is complete and the patient has been stabilized you may investigate the insurance status of the patient and transfer to a nearby facility if their insurance authorizes the transfer. You must contact the nearby facility and have them accept your patient before you can transfer. You can discharge your patient from the emergency room and instruct them to take the child to a nearby facility where EMTALA regulations will guarantee that the child will receive services. ANSWER