In certain instances, a patient may seek medical care from a hospital’s emergency room facilities and be refused treatment, often based on their ability to pay or virtually any other limitless number of reasons. Following refusal of treatment, many individuals question, “can I sue a hospital for refusing to treat me?” In essence, the only accurate determination of whether one can sue a hospital can be made by a practicing medical malpractice lawyer from the state where your refusal of treatment occurred. Medical malpractice laws are highly complex statutes and implied protocol that will be vastly different from state to state. Having legal counsel look into your claims is the only accurate method of making a determination whether refusal to treat, or even delayed treatment, constitutes viable grounds for a lawsuit.
Hospital Refusal to Treat Patients in the Emergency Room
Most refusals of treatment claims will revolve around hospital emergency rooms. In short, the current state of Medicare funding requires any hospital receiving Medicare funds (which is the vast majority of institutions) to provide treatment per the EMTALA, or the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Per the act, emergency room operators cannot refuse to admit any patient based on their ability to pay for services. The emergency room is required by EMTALA to give a reasonable medical evaluation of the patient and stabilize the patient’s injuries or illness. The law also requires treatment at that facility or emergency room, and per the law, an emergency room cannot shuffle a patient away to another location. Any refusal of treatment creates grounds for filing suit against the hospital itself, not any specific personnel involved in the actual emergency room that may have refused to admit a given patient.
It should be noted that under the current laws, the emergency room is only required to stabilize a patient in a reasonable manner. This means that the line between reasonable stabilization and what a patient believes is “non-treatment” may widely vary. Having legal counsel review claims of non-treatment and investigate whether the incident constitutes viable grounds to file suit is important. The wording of the federal law, as well as state-specific laws, mean that every case seen by an emergency room will require a variable level of treatment to become “stabilized” per medical standards and per the standards of the law. Having legal counsel differentiate between these items and exhibit where violations may have occurred is essential.
Getting Legal Help with a Lawsuit Against Hospital
In short, medical malpractice claims revolve around highly complex medical and legal arguments that will undoubtedly require the intervention and representation of a lawyer, if a favorable outcome is desired.
