On January 10, 2018 the world saw a disastrous reality for a patient and the bad 'optics' for the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus that released a woman in hospital gown and socks and was captured on video by Imamu Baraka. The woman is now safe but the hospital's comments characterized as an "apology" are chilling.
Dr. Mohan Suntha, President and CEO of the hospital stated: "We believe firmly that we provided appropriate medical care to a patient who came to us in need, but where we absolutely failed, and where we own that failure, is in the demonstration of basic humanity and compassion as a patient was being discharged from our organization after having received that care." Unfortunately, Dr. Suntha was clearly thinking of legal liability rather than about the patient with his transparent acceptance of blame for the non-legal often immeasurable criteria of "basic humanity and compassion," while straight-faced asserting that "appropriate medical care" had been provided to the woman dumped from the hospital in a hospital gown and socks into the Maryland night.
EMTALA, has been law since 1986, and applies to all hospitals that receive Medicare funds--which means most hospitals. The requirements of the law are screening and stabilization requirements for patients entering emergency rooms before they are discharged or transferred to another facility.
Others will wrangle over whether the patient was legitimately "discharged" after having been "stabilized" by ER personnel as required by law in order for the hospital to receive its money. Some will argue that the patient "slipped through the cracks."
But if you do a little looking, you'll see that this hospital is not alone and that patient dumping doesn't only happen to the homeless and financially at risk. Using terms like granny dumping, hospital dumping of those with mental illness, dumping homeless patients, and dumping of older patients by nursing homes (involuntary discharge in a roundabout way by transferring patient to hospital and then refusing to readmit), the practice continues with no disruption of federal money and insurance payouts to the abysmal organizations and providers involved in this money-crunching practice.
The law is pathetically unenforced. "In 1987, there were 13 documented violations; in 1997, there were 174. The monetary penalties are also on the rise. During the 10-year period from 1986 to 1996, the government collected $1.45 million." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1305897/
So in 10 years the government collected merely $1.45 million from hospitals for patient dumping. Ridiculous, especially when combined with the other fact that "Since 1986, HCFA has terminated 13 hospitals from Medicare, and all but one termination occurred prior to 1993 (the single termination since then was voluntary)." These results arguably illustrate failed law, especially in light of the fact that in one month there has actually been a second incident that has made the news, in California (see "Second nationwide instance of alleged 'patient dumping' of a homeless man at California hospital stirs debate."
Obviously the federal agencies and their well-paid, benefits guaranteed off our backs employees are also failing. Those responsible agencies are "Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) (now known as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)," and "…enforcement of penalties and citations falls under the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services."
The most direct way to improve this situation is to demand that our agencies enforce EMTALA, reasonably, swiftly and without entertaining the absurd claims of doctors like Dr. Suntha asserting that appropriate medical care was provided.
