A
patient who became seriously ill after being discharged from a hospital sued
under EMTALA, alleging that the hospital failed to stabilize her before sending
her home. The hospital argued that EMTALA did not apply because the patient
had never "come to" the hospital's emergency room. Instead, she had
been admitted through routine procedures for management of her back pain. The
federal District Court for Wyoming noted that courts across the country have
reached inconsistent results in deciding whether patients must "come to"
the emergency room before EMTALA will apply. It then held that patients need
not "come to" the emergency room to bring a claim under EMTALA. Instead,
patients may state a claim if a hospital fails to stabilize them before transferring
them. However, the court then ruled that this hospital did not violate EMTALA
because (1) it had never determined that the patient had an emergency medical
condition that required stabilization, and (2) the stabilization requirement
did not apply to patients who are admitted to a hospital as inpatients.