Government
AMA to study new EMTALA rules
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 5, 2004
The American Medical Association will study the impact of new Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act regulations on patient care, especially the care given at academic medical centers and hospitals in rural areas.
Physicians at the AMA Annual Meeting in June questioned whether new regulations, which include a requirement that hospitals maintain a list of physicians on call at any one time, will ease hospitals' burden or will instead increase emergency department overcrowding. Some doctors are worried that the regulations could add to existing on-call specialist shortages and might leave only academic medical centers with 24/7 medical specialist coverage.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/07/05/gvbf0705.htm.












