MEDICAL STAFF ISSUES

Medical Staff Issues



Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION1

EMERGENCY MEDICAL TREATMENT AND ACTIVE LABOR ACT (EMTALA)1

Example2

MEDICAL STAFF ISSUES2

Quality Standards2

Shortages of nurses3

Shortage of Family Physicians3

Staffing Shortages in rural areas3

ON CALL COVERAGE AND COST4

Benchmarking4

To know what is reasonable5

Understand exceptional circumstances5

Watch for restrictions5

Routinely Benchmark5

PROVIDING A MEDICAL DIRECTOR6

Emergency Health Care Provider (EHCP)6

Criteria for selecting a medical director6

Responsibilities of a medical director7

PROVIDING FOR INSURANCE AND MALPRACTICE8

Insurance8

Coverage8

Cost9

Plan Administration9

Malpractice10

CONCLUSION10

REFERENCES13

Medical Staff Issues

Introduction

This paper discusses the medical staff issues in complying with Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). Some of these issues include the on call coverage and cost, providing a medical director and providing for insurance, malpractice or other involved costs.

Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)

A federal law is being followed in the hospitals which forbid the staff from accepting the patients in emergency cases who are not insured. In order to provide protection to individuals who are not insured, “The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act” has been formulated. This act helps those individuals in availing emergency services at hospitals without insurance. COBRA passed EMTALA in 1986 and all the hospitals in the US except “Shriners' Hospital” follow the rules of EMTALA (Sage, 2011). This is because all these hospitals accept federal funds. The two major reasons of EMTALA are mentioned below.

To ensure that any individual is not refused medical treatment in emergency cases.

To stop the hospitals from sending patients without insurance to other hospitals.

Before the hospitals inquire about the payment, the hospitals should first make their condition stabilized (Bronwyn, 1999). After this, they can either treat the patient further and are also allowed to send the patient to another hospital. Therefore, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act guarantee medical services in emergency cases without considering the patient's ability to pay and his legal status. However, in the US, this is controversial because the hospitals do not want to provide any kind of medical treatment to the citizens who are illegal.

Example

In an individual break his leg while playing football, he can avail the emergency services. However, after he has been operated and his condition gets stable, the hospital asks about his insurance so he can pay for the treatment he has received.

Medical staff issues

Medical staffing refers to employees who have been hired to provide services such as “triage”, “resuscitation”, “radiology”, “pathology”, “nursing and administration”. Moreover, they also provide services that primary and secondary physician provides (Bronwyn, 1999). However, staffing is related to regular, emergency and specialty care and there are more than 30 medical staff categories in the United States. Some of the medical staffing issues are mentioned below.

Quality Standards

The medical staff mostly does not get proper medical equipment and are not provided with professional training. Therefore, they are unable to operate the machinery properly and to access the medical records of the patients. Besides this, medical errors also occur which is a major concern of the staff. In 1999, U.S. Institute of Medicine highlights the quality problems that the medical staff was facing (Sage, ...