Georgia Hospital Must Face Suit Under Emergency Treatment Law

A patient’s estate can move forward with its federal law case against a hospital that allegedly failed to provide an appropriate screening examination for the patient’s emergency medical condition, a Georgia appeals court said.

Georgia’s requirement that professional negligence plaintiffs file expert affidavits attesting to their complaints’ merits doesn’t apply to screening claims brought under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, the Georgia Court of Appeals said Tuesday. A trial court therefore erred by dismissing that claim, it said.

But a claim based on the emergency law’s requirement that a hospital stabilize an emergency patient before transferring or ...