Court: It's not hospital's job to get patients into cars

LANSING (AP) — The state appeals court says Michigan hospitals don’t have a legal duty to assist patients with transportation when they’re discharged.

The court last week ruled in the case of a man who went to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing with a broken left arm.

After leaving the hospital, Michael Chelik fell while getting into a cab and broke his right elbow.

Chelik was in East Lansing in 2010 working for a traveling Disney show.

He argued that hospital staff had a duty to help him get into the cab after they refused to let him sleep at Sparrow.

An Ingham County judge ruled in favor of the hospital, and the appeals court agreed, saying the legal obligation to help patients with transportation would be “endless, unpredictable and ... unreasonable.”