Triage, EMTALA, consultations, and prehospital medical control

Medical control of prehospital emergency services, triage in the emergency department, and the dual duties within the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act challenge emergency medicine physicians with both statutory obligations and liabilities. Each independently may seem to present a definable boundary of liability for the practitioner. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, the sequential duties of the medical screening examination and subsequent stabilization or transfer are confounded by the potential for tremendous sanction for a mechanistic violation. Nevertheless, the true obligation is to provide appropriate care to all who present to the emergency department and not simply weigh the totality of risk to the emergency medicine physician.