Torres v. Santa Rosa Mem’l Hosp. (Summary)

EMTALA

Torres v. Santa Rosa Mem’l Hosp., No. C 12-6364 PJH (N.D. Cal. Aug. 20, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed several claims, including a claim under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (“EMTALA”), brought on behalf of a patient who died after presenting with alcohol withdrawal to a hospital’s emergency room.

While in the hospital’s emergency room, the patient was diagnosed with alcohol withdrawal, given one milligram of Lorazepam, instructed to go to a clinic the next day, and then discharged.  Instead of leaving the hospital, the patient went to the hospital’s cafeteria.  He was later forced to leave.  The next morning he was found in the hospital’s parking lot moaning and in distress.  The hospital’s nursing supervisor allegedly told the hospital’s staff that the patient was “not our problem” and instructed the staff to call 911.  The patient died in the hospital parking lot later that same morning.

The plaintiffs alleged, among other things, that the hospital failed to provide a medical screening examination under EMTALA by providing a “cursory lung exam” and that the hospital failed to stabilize the patient by only administering one milligram of Lorazepam.  The plaintiffs also argued that the hospital had a duty to perform a second screening on the patient when he remained on the hospital premises.  The hospital moved to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims.  The court granted the motion to dismiss, concluding that the allegations regarding a failure to provide a medical screening examination under EMTALA were “wholly conclusory.” The allegations that one milligram of Lorazepam was insufficient to stabilize the decedent’s alcohol withdrawal were, likewise, conclusory and devoid of any factual support.  With respect to the allegations that the hospital had a duty to provide a second screening, the court determined that the plaintiffs failed to provide any support for this theory, nor did they indicate when the duty was triggered.