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ON Jan. 4, 2010, Raymond Fok was changing trains on his way to kidney dialysis treatment when he collapsed on the Canal Street subway platform. Emergency medical technicians examined him and took him by ambulance to the nearest hospital, New York Downtown, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Workers in the emergency room recorded that Mr. Fok's speech was slurred and that he was lurching from side to side when he walked. ''He was a very typical hemorrhagic stroke,'' said Jeffrey Menkes, the hospital's president. From the emergency room, the hospital admitted Mr. Fok to the intensive-care unit on the third floor, where workers tried to find out more about their patient -- not just his medical history, but his insurance or Medicaid status, his address, his Social Security or taxpayer identification number, the location of family members. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]