A 64-year-old man sat in a wheelchair in the NorthShore Evanston Hospital emergency room for more than nine hours without being reassessed before he went into cardiac arrest, according to a federal investigation that resulted in a $105,000 settlement announced July 10.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that NorthShore University Health System failed to provide the patient an appropriate medical screening examination, violating the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, the federal law that requires hospitals to screen and stabilize emergency patients regardless of ability to pay.
The patient arrived at the emergency department in February 2025 complaining of leg pain and nausea, according to a HIPAA Journal report on the enforcement action. He was triaged at 11:15 a.m. with a heart rate of 126 beats per minute and assigned an Emergency Severity Index level of 2, classified as high risk.
Staff placed him in a wheelchair in the waiting room.
His vitals were never rechecked.
At 8:55 p.m., staff found the man slumped over and unresponsive. He was in cardiac arrest. CPR was initiated immediately.
The HHS-OIG enforcement record, published July 10 and last updated July 22, describes the violation as "failing to provide an appropriate medical screening examination" under what the agency calls the "patient dumping statute." EMTALA was enacted in 1986 to prevent hospitals from turning away patients who cannot pay.
The settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by NorthShore. No public statement from Endeavor Health or NorthShore University Health System responding to the penalty has been identified.
The patient's outcome after the cardiac arrest has not been disclosed in federal records or published reports.
The settlement was published nearly a month before NorthShore's parent system, Endeavor Health, received positive national attention when U.S. News & World Report released its 2026-2027 Best Hospitals rankings on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Those rankings placed Endeavor Health NorthShore Hospitals in a tie for fourth in Illinois and fourth in the Chicago region, according to Patch and the Daily Herald. The ranking covers the combined NorthShore system, including the Evanston, Glenbrook, Highland Park and Skokie campuses.
NorthShore's settlement was announced alongside a separate, larger penalty: Merit Health Central Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, agreed to pay $350,000 for EMTALA violations involving 14 patients between 2013 and 2015.
No further compliance deadlines or follow-up dates have been announced for the NorthShore case.
