University of Chicago Death Gets EMTALA Citation

From MedLaw.com:

After months of being in the headlines over ED practices that were designed to get the UC out of general hospital operations and into high-paying areas of elective practice, a death in the Emergency Room has resulted in a CMS
EMTALA violation citation according to a hospital press release.

Hospital physicians had protested practices which they labeled as dangerous, and the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians had criticized ED practices as coming close to violating the EMTALA laws.

The citation threatening expulsion from Medicare was apparently received March 17 after CMS investigation of an earlier incident in which an elderly man sat for hours outside the triage area of the ED.  When the daughter’s
complaints finally resulted in attention to the man, he was reportedly found to be dead.