North Shore Medical Center Settles Case Involving Patient Dumping Allegation

On September 18, 2017, North Shore Medical Center (NSMC), Lynn, Massachusetts, entered into a $60,000 settlement agreement with OIG. The settlement agreement resolves allegation that NSMC violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act when it failed to provide an appropriate medical screening examination for a fourteen-year-old patient and inappropriately transferred her to another hospital. The patient arrived at NSMC’s Union Hospital emergency department by ambulance, secured to a stretcher and under police escort, for psychiatric evaluation after combative behavior at home and banging her head against a wall. Upon arrival at NSMC Union Hospital the patient was placed in a room, still secured to the stretcher. NSMC Union Hospital’s emergency department physician came into the room and told the paramedics that the patient should be transported to NSMC’s Salem Hospital emergency department for pediatric psychiatric evaluation. Before recommending transfer, NSMC failed to provide the patient with a medical screening exam. On route to NSMC Salem Hospital, the police instructed the ambulance to take the patient to a different hospital where her mother was waiting. Senior Counsel Kristen Schwendinger represented OIG.

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