A new report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says federal emergency care laws must be changed to reduce patient dumping, after reviewing patient dumping allegations and capacity problems in Las Vegas, according to a report from the Las Vegas Review Journal.
The commission concluded hospitals lack the funds and the personnel to appropriately deal with psychiatric patients admitted to emergency departments. It also concluded CMS should be given more regulatory power to enforce laws against patient dumping. The commission also focused on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires hospitals to emergency patients and not discharge them before they are in stable conditions.
The focus on patient dumping in Las Vegas began last year after Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital was accused of "dumping" as many as 1,500 patients over five years. Currently, there is no agency in the Las Vegas area that tracks complaints of patient dumping or potential EMTALA violations.
Las Vegas hospitals have had a particularly difficult time in 2014 dealing with ED capacity, due to large volumes of mental health patients waiting for beds to open at the local psychiatric hospital, causing bottlenecking in the city. In August, three acute-care hospitals in the Las Vegas areas were forced to temporarily close their EDs because of large numbers of mental health patients waiting for beds at Rawson-Neal.
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