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Preston v. Meriter Hospital7/13/2005
REVIEW of a decision of the Court of Appeals. Reversed and cause remanded.
This is a review of a published decision of the court of appeals, Preston v. Meriter Hospital, Inc., 2004 WI App 61, 271 Wis. 2d 721, 678 N.W.2d 347. Shannon Preston and Charles Johnson, in their personal capacity and as personal representatives of their son Bridon's estate, filed a complaint asserting four claims against Meriter Hospital and the Wisconsin Patients Compensation Fund. The court of appeals affirmed the circuit court's grant of summary judgment to Meriter on all four claims, but it determined that the plaintiff's claim under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd (1994), really amounted to two claims, one of which was not addressed and thus dismissed by the circuit court. Preston petitioned this court to review the dismissal of this second EMTALA claim, that Meriter Hospital failed to give Bridon an appropriate medical screening examination in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd(a).
EMTALA requires a hospital with an emergency department to provide "an appropriate medical screening examination" to any individual who "comes to the emergency department" with a request to be examined or treated for a medical condition. 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd(a). The court of appeals concluded that this EMTALA requirement did not apply to Bridon because he arrived at Meriter through the birthing center, not the emergency room. Preston, 271 Wis. 2d 721, , 39. We must resolve whether the EMTALA screening requirement applies to an infant born in a hospital birthing center. Specifically, we must interpret whether the statutory phrase "comes to the emergency department" requires a baby to be born in a hospital emergency room for the EMTALA screening requirement to apply.
Preston argues that the court of appeals' narrow interpretation of § 1395dd(a) is not consistent with the intent of EMTALA, and that a hospital's emergency department encompasses its birthing center. Thus, Meriter had a duty to screen Bridon. Conversely, Meriter argues that EMTALA does not impose a duty to screen a newborn presented in the birthing center, because the birthing center is not "the emergency department" and because, in Bridon's case, he was an "inpatient," to whom the EMTALA screening requirement does not apply.
We agree with Preston with respect to the hospital's duty to screen. Based on the allegations in the complaint, Meriter had a duty to give Bridon an appropriate screening examination to determine whether he had an emergency medical condition. When a baby is born in a hospital birthing center, the newborn has come to the emergency department for purposes of the EMTALA duty to provide a medical screening examination. Because the court of appeals interpreted EMTALA differently, we reverse.
This case involves a grant of summary judgment by the circuit court. However, the court of appeals reviewed Meriter's motion on Preston's EMTALA screening claim as if it were a motion to dismiss rather than a summary judgment motion. Here, our review is de novo, whether we apply the methodology appropriate for review where summary judgment has been granted or the methodology for review where a motion to dismiss has been granted, benefiting as usual from the analyses of the circuit court and the court of appeals. Under these circumstances, we will review the Meriter motion on the EMTALA screening claim in a manner similar to that of the court of appeals. Consequently, we decide merely whether the requirement of EMTALA, that any individual who "comes to the emergency department" of a hospital must be provided appropriate medical screening, applies to an infant born in an emerg
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