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Based on record review and interview, it was determined that the facility failed to comply with the requirements of 42 CFR 489.24 [special responsibilities of Medicare hospitals in emergency cases], specifically the recipient hospital responsibilities. See A2411.

Based on record review and interview, the facility failed to accept an appropriate transfer of an individual (patient #30) from a referring hospital whom the facility had the capacity to treat. Findings include:

On 07/23/12 at approximately 10:30 AM during a phone interview, it was determined that the ER physician at hospital #1 called the emergency department at hospital #2 on 07/15/12 at approximately 8:00 PM regarding the need to transfer a 16 year old female patient (patient #30) to ENT specialist. Patient #30's family requested the transfer to that facility. At approximately 8:00 PM the ER physician from facility #1 called facility #2 to inform them that the ENT specialist refused the transfer of patient #30 due to the severity of the diagnosis ( Acute left peritonsillar abscess, failure of outpatient therapy, and recent positive mono spot), the length of the transfer time, and the distance of the transferring hospitals location. At 9:26 PM hospital #1 arranged a transfer for patient #30 to hospital #3.

On 07/23/12 at approximately 12:05 PM, during an interview with physician #3, it was determined that the physician stated he did refuse to accept patient #30 due to the diagnosis of the patient and distance between the two facilities, that it was unsafe to accept the 16 year old female patient.