Blake v. Main Line Hosps. (Summary)

EMTALA

Blake v. Main Line Hosps., No. 12-3456 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 2, 2014) 

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a hospital’s partial motion for summary judgment on an EMTALA claim that the hospital failed to perform an appropriate medical screening exam, brought by the estate of the deceased.  The plaintiff claimed that when decedent was admitted to the hospital for chest pain, the screening procedure performed on the decedent deviated from the hospital’s standard screening procedure in violation of the Act.  The motion for summary judgment was denied because neither party had put into evidence what constituted the hospital’s standard screening procedure for the patient’s condition, making it impossible to determine if there was a deviation in the actual medical screening examination that the decedent received.