A patient who is alive when he or she reaches the hospital, but dies prior to admission is considered

• A. An emergency room death
• B. Carded for record only
• C. A death on arrival
• D. An outpatient

Answer: (A)

The situation describes a death that occurs after the patient has arrived at the hospital but before they are admitted to an inpatient bed. That places the event squarely in the emergency department, where patients are first evaluated and decisions about admission are made. So, the death is characterized as an emergency room death because it happened during ED care before any admission.

The other options don’t fit this scenario: one is not a standard way to label a death in this context, and an outpatient label isn’t appropriate since the patient is no longer alive to be treated as an outpatient.