Two hospitals fined over patient handling

By Emily Richmond

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 11:13 a.m.

Lake Mead Hospital and Valley Hospital Medical Center have been fined for violating federal regulations in denying patients adequate emergency care, according to a report released Thursday by a national patient watchdog group.

A seriously ill child was refused treatment at Lake Mead in 1997 because his mother was uninsured and couldn't come up with a $100 deposit, according to a representative of the regional office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in San Francisco.

Valley Hospital was cited in 1999 and fined $10,000 for inproperly transferring a patient to another hospital and failing to correctly stabilize another patient during an emergency, according to the Public Citizen report.

Bill Moore, chief executive officer of Lake Mead Hospital, said this morning the incident four years ago was quickly corrected and the hospital no longer asks emergency room patients whether they have health insurance.

"We take a proactive approach and have gone overboard in our corrective action," Moore said.

Pam Augusta, spokeswoman for Valley hospital, said administrators didn't agree with the findings that a violation had occured but paid the fine anyway. In the 1999 incident the patient was discharged for follow-up at an urgent care facility at the request of the patient's primary care doctor, Augusta said.

"We firmly believe that we provided the appropriate care to this patient and that patient care was not compromised in any way," Augusta said.

The health research division of Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group, included the local instances in a report based on records with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that enforces federal medical regulations.

Congress in 1986 passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which set a standard of care for hospitals that receive Medicare funding. The Public Citizen tracks violations of those standards, including so-called "patient dumping." Patient dumping occurs when a person is denied or delayed treatment because of their lack of health insurance.

Janice Caldwell, associate regional administrator at the Medicare and Medicaid office in San Francisco, said hospitals that don't comply with regulations can lose their funding.

"If we find a deficiency and the hospitals take immediate action and responsibility, we're happy," Caldwell said today.