Penn Hospital Sued Over Alleged Failure to Admit Uninsured Patient

I was searching my Google Reader this morning and discovered this story at Penn Hospital. It’s a sad story, and from reading it, I would say that the surgeon at Penn was just too lazy to take the patient. And, that it was approaching midnight. I don’t know all the circumstance but I smell a “rat” here. Perhaps Mr. Woo is an incompetent surgeon who perhaps couldn’t handle the surgery himself and decided to “brush” it off and essentially run from having to do his job? Who really knows? It’s the classic he said, she said, but….. after reading this article.  Here’s another version of the story as well. Again, you have to essentially have someone else watching out for you when you experience a dissection.

There are so many obstacles that almost surely present a “negative” outcome…UNLESS, you have another force watching out for you. It’s amazing all the things that have to happen to ensure that you get the proper diagnosis and that you have a well trained hospital, staff and especially a surgeon who knows what he/she is doing. This sounds like a complicated surgery and I honestly don’t even know if the CT images has been sent to Penn or it was just a phone conversation from one doc to another that I have what appears to be “x” situation and we don’t have the surgeons/capabilities here.. Oh.. BTW.. you are running out of time as well, every hour, your chance of survival is heading straight down hill. That’s why, you must have some awareness about this type of disease and know yourself that time is NOT on your side when it’s a type A or for that matter a type B, you need immediate medical attention by well trained individuals.

Here’s information on the actual law passed upon which this suit is being brought up against Penn.

EMT-what-A? The federal anti-patient dumping law

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) was passed in 1986 by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. The act was intended to prevent hospitals from turning away uninsured patients who needed emergency care or women in labor, so-called “patient dumping.” Entire article here.

Well, it’s 5:50am and I am going to get my son up, he’s got a Lacrosse game 2 hours away this morning and we have to get ready.

Have a great day!

Brian Tinsley

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Tagged as: EMTALA