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Hospital and Emergency Medical Treatment

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Hospital and Emergency Medical Treatment
In 1986 congress enacted the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) as a result of clients being transferred from private hospitals to public hospitals without appropriate screening and stabilization (Potter & Perry, 2009). This act states that most hospitals must provide an examination and needed stabilizing treatment, without consideration of insurance coverage or ability to pay, when a patient presents to an emergency room for attention to an emergency medical condition (www.emtala.com). This act can be applied to nursing in that most patients who enter an emergency department are often triaged by a nurse first. It is that nurse’s obligation to provide a basic assessment and notify a physician if the patient needs to be treated immediately or not. Another example of this is perinatal nursing. The perinatal nurse plays a key role in obstetrical triage and discharge; in some hospitals nurses conduct medical screening examinations in the absence of direct evaluation by a physician, consistent with federal regulations as per the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Mother and baby should be stable for discharge as per EMTALA criteria. A thorough evaluation to rule out labor and potential complications as well as to confirm maternal-fetal well-being is critical prior to discharge (The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing). Here is an example of EMTALA. A client comes to the emergency department of a private hospital after falling from a tree picking apples in the fields. He is transported via ambulance and arrives with an obviously broken leg. The patient was transferred to this hospital because it was only ten minutes away from the accident scene. The triage nurse does a quick assessment on the patient on and determines that he needs to see orthopedics to have surgery on his leg. Upon getting the patients information, she realizes that this patient is an illegal immigrant and has no health insurance. She notifies the


References: Potter, P. A., & Perry, A. G. (2009). Fundamentals of Nursing 7th Edition. St. Louis, Missouri, United State of America: MOSBY Elsevier MCN, The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, Obstetrical Triage: Stable for Discharge, Issue: Volume 34(4), July/August 2009, p 268 DOI: 10.1097/01.NMC.0000357931.30798.74 www.emtala.com Number Uninsured and Uninsured Rate: 1987 to 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/data/incpovhlth/2009/fig07.pdf
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