Dollard v. Allen,
No. 02-CV-87-B (Wyo. May 1, 2003)

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.