Herisko v. Tenet Healthcare Sys. Desert (Summary)

EMTALA

Herisko v. Tenet Healthcare Sys. Desert, No. EDCV 13-00136-VAP (OPx) (C.D. Cal. Apr. 11, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Central District of California granted a hospital’s motion to dismiss a patient’s claim under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (“EMTALA”).

The patient presented to the hospital’s emergency department with chest pain, was diagnosed with a heart attack and, although he was successfully treated, he suffered heart damage.  The patient filed suit under EMTALA claiming that the hospital’s handling of his case failed to meet EMTALA’s medical screening requirement.

The district court held that the patient failed to demonstrate that the hospital did not meet the medical screening requirements, finding that he was screened less than 40 minutes after arriving at the emergency department and his condition was correctly diagnosed.  The district court rejected the patient’s argument that the hospital did not conduct an appropriate screening, stating that EMTALA does not entitle the patient to demand a specific method of screening nor does it require that a patient be screened within a certain amount of time.