EMTALA: Basics

Course overview

The emergency medical system depends upon Emergency Department access, availability of specialists and subspecialists through the on-call roster, hospital bed and staff availability, and a referral system for tertiary or highly specialized care. These critical elements of the system are addressed in the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). It is essential that practitioners and hospital staff understand the basics of the EMTALA and the hospital's EMTALA policies in order to keep patients safe and maintain compliance with EMTALA, thus avoiding EMTALA fines and litigation. Compliance with EMTALA takes a coordinated effort by the hospital governing body, hospital administration, the medical staff, nursing, and others; it is a web of interrelated responsibility. In this activity, we provide an overview of the requirements of EMTALA and the related CMS regulations, Interpretive Guidelines, and other relevant documents. Most EMTALA issues and alleged violations are related to screening and stabilization and patient transfers to and from other facilities; therefore, we discuss each of these issues in this activity.