Reference no: EM133852267
Problem
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a federal law made to protect patients who are under the care of an emergency physician. Essentially, the act requires that physicians will treat or stabilize anyone in an emergency situation regardless of insurance status or ability to pay (acep.org, n.d.).A provision of EMTALA is if an emergency condition exists, treatment must be provided until the condition is resolved or stabilized. If the hospital does not have the capabilities to treat the condition then an "appropriate" transfer must occur (acep.org, n.d.). In the case of this investigation, Hospital A was accused of inappropriately transferring their patients without the appropriate medical screenings being done which is in violation of the EMTALA.
Initiative 1: Require education on EMTALA for all current and new employees at the hospital. Commence with immediate education and then require annual EMTALA updates.
The first initiative involves educating the team members on EMTALA. The identified team members will be assigned interactive education and training after the curriculum is created by the implementation or improvement team. The first step in evaluation is that all stakeholders are in agreement of this change. Next, a completion rate goal should be established in order to ensure each current team member received education. In this case the goal should be 100% since an act was violated. The completion rate will be monitored to ensure everyone completed the education. Once a team member completes the education, a feedback loop will be established to further improve education. This education will move into an annual required course that must be completed by current and new team members. We will continue to track completion rate yearly and outreach those who are not compliant. This type of initiative will follow the Kirkpatrick Framework which has four levels: team member experience of education, learning, team member behavior during the education, and results (Carson-Stevens, et al, 2013). Get the instant assignment help.
Initiative 2: Conduct a peer review of records for providers in the two complaints.
Unlike the initiative 1, this initiative will take a deep dive into the provider workflow at the time of the incidents. The improvement method we can use for this is the theory of change. First, we need to develop an aim. This peer review should identify any red flags to reduce the rate of complaints in violation of EMTALA. After the aim is established, the evaluation plan should be created. This is the "how" area of the theory of change. In this case, we can develop a process of checks that a peer can review on behalf of the provider and identify issues that occurred (Coly, et al, 2018). The process should follow the guidelines of EMTALA such as appropriate measures of transfer and whether or not a condition is stabilized or resolved. Once the peer review is completed, it can be reviewed with the provider so they can identify their own mistakes with the transfer. Depending on the findings, we can determine if it was an honest misunderstanding of the act or an ignorant violation. Appropriate steps can be taken after. From a proactive stance, regular audits of provider workflows can take place so that a violation can be avoided in the future.
1) Do you think the evaluation method is implementable in the short term and long term? Is the evaluation method sustainable and effective? Do you think it would need to be adjusted after a period of time?
2) After looking at the evaluation methods and based on who would be legally liable for any violations of EMTALA and the potential sanctions for violations, would you recommend the hospital make any further changes to their EMTALA adherence processes?