Can't do it...for a number of reasons.Perhaps the most important of which is that the 1 of 500 "heartburn" patients that you might turn away would turn out to be having an MI (heart attack)...would die....and the family would sue,sue,SUE.
Conservative: "Can't do it...for a number of reasons.Perhaps the most important of which is that the 1 of 500 "heartburn" patients that you might turn away would turn out to be having an MI (heart attack)...would die....and the family would sue,sue,SUE."
There is another reason that ERs cannot turn petty complaints away and that actually forces ERs to screen every single patient for life-threatening conditions: Federal law.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) mandates that no person shall be turned away for any reason without first being screened for a life-threatening condition. This law, while perhaps well-intended, is the primary reason for the logjam on our emergency medical system. It places the cost of screening (including CT scans and MRIs) on the backs of the hospitals, and has caused the cost of emergency care to skyrocket.
And of course, the people who genuinely need our services the most are the ones who end up being forced to carry the weight of those who abuse the system and the law.
If you really want to attack the culprit and improve healthcare, attack the entitlements system and lobby for an amendment to the EMTALA law that allows for abusers to be punished if they are caught.