EMTALA
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act is a federal law in which all hospitals with a designated Emergency Room must comply. MRHC operates a designated Emergency Room with 24-hour coverage 365 days per year.
This law requires MRHC:
-
To provide a medical screening examination to all patients who come to the hospital seeking care to determine whether they have any potentially harmful emergency medical conditions.
-
To have on-call physician specialists, within the staff of the hospital, who will respond to the hospital and assist in the evaluation, ongoing treatment, and stabilization of the patient. Hospitals are not required to have every specialty physician on call.
In regards to transfers to another facilty, the law states that:
-
Patients may not be transferred in a critical condition unless their needs cannot be met at MRHC.
-
Patients may not be transferred in a critical condition unless the ER physician certifies in writing that the transfer is needed.
-
Patients may not be transferred until a receiving hospital has agreed to accept the patient and they have adequate space and skills necessary to care for the patient.
-
Patients who are transferred must be provided appropriate medical transport.
