Leon v. Hosp. Metropolitano

EMTALA

Leon v. Hosp. Metropolitano, No. 05-1887
(RLA) (D.P.R. Feb. 6, 2007)

The
United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico held that
emergency room patients could not sue treating physicians or their professional
corporations under EMTALA, but could bring an action against the hospital.
A patient presented to the emergency room of a hospital complaining of shortness
of breath and abdominal pain. After receiving some treatment, the patient was
transferred to another hospital where she died of complications. The patient’s
estate sought to hold the hospital’s emergency room physicians and the hospital
liable under EMTALA for failure to give an appropriate medical screening
and stabilization. The district court dismissed the claims against the
physicians, on the basis that EMTALA imposes a duty to screen and stabilize
on hospitals and not on individual physicians. However, the court allowed the
estate’s EMTALA claim against the hospital to proceed, finding that material
issues of fact remained with regard to the screening and stabilization policies
in the emergency room.