A patient has been stalking Dr. Smith, an emergency physician at St. Mary's Hospital,
for months. His stalking behavior has included frequent phone calls and e-mails. The
patient has come to the emergency department at Saint Mary's during shifts worked
by Dr. Smith several times. He has been in the emergency department 15 times in the
last six months for vague complaints. Extensive medical work-ups have been negative.
The patient frequently leaves against medical advice. He has been seen by multiple
consultants including psychiatry, who diagnosed him with malingering and gave no other
psychiatric diagnosis. When seen by Dr. Smith, he is frequently verbally aggressive
and threatening. At the last ED visit, the patient assaulted Dr. Smith. Given the
behavior, Dr. Smith obtained a restraining order against the patient, who continues
to regularly go to the emergency department and continues to make threatening statements
to staff members about Dr. Smith. Should Dr. Smith have to treat this patient?
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References
- EMTALA—a noble policy that needs improvement.JAMA Intern Med. April 01, 2019; (Published online)https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.0026
- 42 USC §1395dd.
- Refusing to treat: are there limits to physician “conscience” claims? Houst. J. Health Law Policy: Health Law Perspectives.(Published online August 18, 2008)http://www.law.uh.edu/healthlaw/perspectives/homepage.aspDate accessed: April 6, 2019
- ACEP emergency department violence poll.(Retrieved from)http://newsroom.acep.org/download/2018ACEP+Emergency+Department+Violence+PollResults.pdf([on April 9, 2019])Date: September, 2018
- Reassessment of violence against emergency physicians.Ann Emerg Med. 2018; 72 (October)
- Guidelines for preventing workplace violence for healthcare and social service workers. No. 3148-04R.2015
- State progress in record reporting for firearm-related background checks: protection order submissions.SEARCH and the National Center for State Courts, April 2016
- EMTALA fact sheet.(Retrieved from) ([on April 6, 2019])
- 131 Cal.App.3d 38.
- EMTALA: a lesson in the inevitable futility of forced ethics.(Retrieved from) ([on April 6, 2019])
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: July 08, 2019
Accepted:
July 7,
2019
Received in revised form:
July 7,
2019
Received:
June 11,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
