del Carmen Guadalupe v. Agosto,
No. 01-2083 (1st Cir. Aug. 7, 2002)

The First Circuit Court of Appeals determined that a hospital did not violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act ("EMTALA"), by failing to provide an adequate medical screening for a patient who subsequently died of bronchial pneumonia. Upholding a district court's grant of summary judgment for the hospital, the appellate court first noted that EMTALA does not "create a cause of action for medical malpractice," and "faulty screening, in a particular case...does not contravene the statute."

Under EMTALA, the issue is whether the procedures followed in the emergency room, even if they resulted in a misdiagnosis, were reasonably calculated to identify the patient's critical medical condition. In this case, plaintiffs' expert's criticisms did not address this precisely formulated EMTALA standard. Because plaintiffs failed to present evidence that the hospital's screening was not "reasonably calculated to identify critical medical conditions," summary judgment for the hospital on the substantive component of EMTALA was appropriate. Furthermore, by submitting no testimony regarding the baseline of care which the hospital provides, the plaintiffs failed to raise a genuine question of material fact on their claim that the hospital gave decedent a more cursory screening than it gave to other patients with substantially similar symptoms.