Hca 210

Regulatory Paper

At Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital our mission is to offer quality care for all our members of our community. Here at SVMH we provide a service that's know as Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor (EMTALA) also knows as Federal Antidumping statutes. The EMTALA was sometimes referred as the "Patient Anti - Dumping Act" that was passed by congress and signed into law by President Reagan. The reason of this Act was to ensure that acutely ill patients uninsured or underinsured obtain appropriate emergency care to prevent hospital from refusing to treat certain populations of patients who present to the emergency department. EMTALA was passed in order to protect those who lack financial resources or medical insurance, it applies to all seeking medical care. However, not all hospitals have obligation under EMTALA. Hospitals that accept federal funds from the Center of Medicare and Medicaid are subjected to the civil liability under Act. EMTALA specific obligation that we must provide to the patients. We are obligated to treat any person that presents themselves to the emergency room for medical screening examination. The purpose of this medical screening is to identity whether an emergency medical condition has occurred. An emergency medical condition can be defined as a condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severe pain, for which the lack of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in placing the patients in serious jeopardy, serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any organ or parts. In addition any patients who come to the emergency room requesting treatment, EMTALA policies apply to any person that presents themselves onto the hospital campus and requests or requires emergency medical attention. because we are a participating provider, EMTALA also applies to other properties owned by the hospital, which is ambulance. When it comes to EMTALA there are a few key...