EMTALA - "Parking" of Emergency Medical Service Patients in Hospitals

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem_news at yahoo.com
Tue Sep 19 20:31:07 PDT 2006


EMTALA - "Parking" of Emergency Medical Service Patients in Hospitals

Source: AAEM (http://www.aaem.org)
Date: September 14, 2006


THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
recently distributed a memo to State Survey Agency Directors regarding the "parking" of
emergency medical service patients in hospitals.  In summary:

- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has received reports from hospital
emergency departments concerning patients not being allowed to be taken off EMS
stretchers for extended periods of time with emergency medical service personnel in
attendance, possibly in violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.

- CMS recognizes the enormous strain and crowding many hospital emergency departments
face every day; however, this practice is not a solution.  

- "Parking" patients in hospitals impacts the ability of the emergency medical service
personnel to provide emergency services to the rest of the community.


Click the link below to read the entire memo.

http://www.aaem.org/emtala/emtala_cms.pdf 




Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 


More information about the CALAAEM mailing list