Sec. 241.027. PATIENT TRANSFERS

(a) The board shall adopt rules to govern the transfer of patients between hospitals that do not have a transfer agreement and governing services not included in transfer agreements.

(b) The rules must provide that patient transfers between hospitals be accomplished through hospital policies that result in medically appropriate transfers from physician to physician and from hospital to hospital by providing:

(1) for notification to the receiving hospital before the patient is transferred and confirmation by the receiving hospital that the patient meets the receiving hospital's admissions criteria relating to appropriate bed, physician, and other services necessary to treat the patient;

(2) for the use of medically appropriate life support measures that a reasonable and prudent physician exercising ordinary care in the same or a similar locality would use to stabilize the patient before the transfer and to sustain the patient during the transfer;

(3) for the provision of appropriate personnel and equipment that a reasonable and prudent physician exercising ordinary care in the same or a similar locality would use for the transfer;

(4) for the transfer of all necessary records for continuing the care for the patient; and

(5) that the transfer of a patient not be predicated on arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, age, sex, physical condition, or economic status.

(c) The rules must require that if a patient at a hospital has an emergency medical condition which has not been stabilized, the hospital may not transfer the patient unless:

(1) the patient or a legally responsible person acting on the patient's behalf, after being informed of the hospital's obligations under this section and of the risk of transfer, in writing requests transfer to another medical facility;

(2) a licensed physician has signed a certification, which includes a summary of the risks and benefits, that, based on the information available at the time of transfer, the medical benefits reasonably expected from the provision of appropriate medical treatment at another medical facility outweigh the increased risks to the patient and, in the case of labor, to the unborn child from effecting the transfer; or

(3) if a licensed physician is not physically present in the emergency department at the time a patient is transferred, a qualified medical person has signed a certification described in Subdivision (2) after a licensed physician, in consultation with the person, has made the determination described in such clause and subsequently countersigns the certificate.

(d) The rules also shall provide that a public hospital or hospital district shall accept the transfer of its eligible residents if the public hospital or hospital district has appropriate facilities, services, and staff available for providing care to the patient.

(e) The rules must require that a hospital take all reasonable steps to secure the informed refusal of a patient or of a person acting on the patient's behalf to a transfer or to related examination and treatment.

(f) The rules must recognize any contractual, statutory, or regulatory obligations that may exist between a patient and a designated or mandated provider as those obligations apply to the transfer of emergency or nonemergency patients.

Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 678, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989. Amended by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 14, Sec. 83, eff. Sept. 1, 1991; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 584, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.