Abstract

KIE: Patient dumping, or the transfer of patients from private to public hospitals because of economic or social factors, is on the increase throughout the United States. Focusing on the dumping of patients by hospital emergency departments, the authors examine the economic, ethical, legal, and medical aspects of the problem. Although 22 states and the federal government have enacted statutes requiring hospitals to provide emergency care regardless of ability to pay and requiring that patients be stabilized before transfer to another hospital, Ansell and Schiff contend that even the best of these laws are deficient in defining such terms as "emergency" and "patient stability" and that monitoring and enforcement of existing laws and the guidelines of the American College of Emergency Physicians are inadequate. They propose a policy that no patient in need of emergency hospitalization should be denied admission or transferred for economic reasons.