PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal regulators have found that Portland Adventist Medical Center acted in accordance with federal rules when it responded to an unconscious man in the hospital’s parking garage. Birgilio Marin-Fuentes, 61, died after he suffered from a heart attack and crashed his car in the garage.
Portland police complained that hospital personnel had told them to call 9-1-1 while two officers were performing CPR on Marin-Fuentes, The Oregonian reports. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires all Medicare participating hospitals with emergency departments to treat critically ill patients on their grounds.
Steven Chickering, associate regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said in a letter that Adventist Medical Center was found in compliance with the act.
A worker at the hospital’s triage desk told officers seeking medical assistance for Marin-Fuentes to call 9-1-1. Shortly thereafter, a charge nurse sent an ambulance paramedic who was in the ER to respond to the crash. The paramedic went to an ambulance in the hospital bay to retrieve a first-aid kit and then walked to the scene, arriving 27 seconds prior to the ambulance summoned by the 9-1-1 call.
The family of Marin-Fuentes is not satisfied with the decision. Their lawyer, Greg Kafoury, told the news source that the hospital’s response was not adequate.
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