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Care of Patient With Unstable Psychiatric Condition Required by Federal Law

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires that hospitals participating in Medicare and with an emergency room provide care to persons with an emergency medical condition and that such care be provided until the condition stabilizes. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in Moses-Irons v. Providence Hospital, No. 07-2111 (April 4, 2009), that a hospital can be liable to the estate of a person killed where the hospital has knowingly released a psychiatric patient before his condition has stabilized.