Guzman v. Mem’l Hermann Hosp. Sys. (Summary)

EMTALA

Guzman v. Mem’l Hermann Hosp. Sys., No. 09-20780 (5th Cir. Feb. 1, 2011)

The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a grant of summary judgment in favor of a hospital in a suit brought by the parents of a patient alleging that the hospital failed to fulfill its obligation under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (“EMTALA”) to screen for an emergency medical condition.

A patient was diagnosed with septic shock, which caused organ injury, the morning after he had been discharged from the defendant hospital’s emergency room having been diagnosed at that time with a virus. The parents alleged that the hospital had failed to provide their son with an appropriate screening exam prior to discharging him, evidenced by the physician’s failure to read one critical lab value, to order a urinalysis, or to take the child’s vital signs within one hour of discharge. EMTALA requires a screening examination that the hospital would have offered any other patient in a similar condition with similar symptoms.

The court found that the hospital’s triage guidelines had not been violated and weren’t applicable to this patient as he had been promptly seen by a physician. The court also held that the parents had failed to produce evidence showing that it was the hospital’s policy that physicians would not discharge patients with symptoms like that of the patient until after the physician read all results of ordered tests, thus failing to show that the patient was screened differently from other patients. The parents had also failed to present evidence that the hospital’s failure to take the patient’s vital signs within one hour of his discharge, but instead 2.5 hours before discharge, was in compliance with the hospital’s nursing policy and was not a substantial deviation from the hospital’s medical policy as required for an EMTALA violation. As such, the court affirmed the order granting summary judgment in favor of the hospital.