Non-profit hospitals in Chicago send patients to public facilities, Tribune reports
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
April 15, 2009
Patients in the Chicago area are more often being sent from non-profit hospitals where they originally went for treatment to public facilities, reports The Chicago Tribune.
Non-profit hospitals are not legally required to treat needy patients beyond stabilizing them when they arrive in the emergency department (ED) despite the tax breaks they are afforded by having the non-profit designation, says the Tribune.
Non-profit hospitals are in theory supposed to care for more uninsured patients than private hospitals, but many non-profit facilities are sending uninsured patients to public hospitals. Public hospitals are having a hard time keeping up with caring for the growing number of patients. Many officials at non-profit hospitals defend their practices to the Tribune, saying they utilize the "triage out" method of evaluating a patient and sending him or her elsewhere for further care as a means of efficiency and preventing their EDs from becoming overcrowded.
