Hospital calls cops and feels the sting

Jun. 16--When the emergency room staff at Northfield City Hospital thought an obviously disturbed patient was about to turn violent, they did what many hospitals do in that situation: They called the police.

In this instance, officers used a Taser to shock the man. The patient dropped to the floor, was injected with medications and transferred to the psychiatric unit at another hospital, according to an official report about the February incident.

Now federal and state health officials have cited the Northfield hospital for violating the patient's rights.

The hospital and the Minnesota Hospital Association are perplexed by the ruling, which could have implications throughout the state.

"They did nothing wrong here," said David Feinwachs, general counsel for the association. He said it's not uncommon for hospitals to call police in cases like this. "And now they're being faulted for it."

The Minnesota Department of Health, which investigated the incident, cited the hospital for failing to protect the patient's safety. Under federal law, the hospital could lose Medicare funding if the problem isn't corrected.

"It wasn't an easy case," said Darcy Miner, director of complaints monitoring for the department. Still, she said, health officials concluded that "something happened that shouldn't have" and that the hospital could have done more to avoid it. "We felt that in this situation, that level of force was not warranted," she said.