If you are a patient at a hospital and a doctor, nurse, physician assistant, or other hospital staff treating you there is negligent, the hospital you are treating at could be liable to you for the injuries you suffered. There are two ways the hospital could be held liable – or at fault – for the injuries you suffered from negligent treatment you received in the hospital. One way is under a vicarious liability claim. Another way is the direct, or corporate, negligence of the hospital.
Vicarious liability means the hospital is liable for any harm its agents and employees cause to you through their negligent cats. In this scenario, the hospital’s insurance can act as excess insurance on top of the insurance of the medical provider who treated you and was negligent. This means if your damages from the negligence – your pain and suffering, lost wages, past and future medical costs, etc. – are in excess of the insurance liability policy of the doctor or other provider who treated you, the hospital’s insurance will apply and provide additional coverage to compensate you for the harm you suffered.
Sometimes the medical provider treating you at a hospital does not have his or her own individual insurance policy. The medical provider may be insured through the hospital instead. In this scenario the hospital’s insurance would be the first level of coverage that compensates you for the harm and injuries you suffered from negligent medical care.
What if the medical provider treating you at the hospital is not an employee of the hospital? Is the hospital still liable for the injuries you suffered from the negligent care that medical provider provided to you in the hospital? For example, staff members and doctors in a hospital’s ER could be employed by some outside entity or agency. Or a radiology group practicing in a hospital could be employed by an independent entity. The answer to this question is it depends on the facts of your case. A hospital can still be liable for negligent care provided by someone who is not an employee of the hospital under a theory of ostensible agency.
Ostensible agency means a patient would reasonably believe that the doctor providing the patient medical care in the hospital is an employee of the hospital. Factors that can support a finding of ostensible agency against the hospital are: (1) the patient looked to the institution, rather than the individual physician for care and (2) the hospital held out the physician as its employee. A holding out occurs when the hospital acts, or omits to act, in some way which leads the patient to a reasonable belief he or she is being treated by the hospital or one of its employees. For example, if the hospital advertised the services the doctor was providing you were services of the hospital, or that the doctor was a part of the hospital’s medical team, you may be able to prove ostensible agency.
As noted above there are some instances where the hospital may be independently negligent and at fault for the injuries you suffered while treating at the hospital. Examples of where the hospital could be liable for its own negligence are: understaffing of the hospital; lacking policies and procedures the hospital should have that could have prevented the harm that happened to you; not ensuring the staff working at the hospital were well trained and aware of its policies and procedures while treating you; or hiring and retaining unqualified personnel to treat you – otherwise known as negligent hiring and retention.
A corporate liability claim is an independent claim of negligence against the hospital. A hospital is not automatically liable for the direct corporate claim against it if a hospital employee is found to be negligent in the treatment the employee provided you as with a vicarious liability claim. You will only recover against the hospital for a corporate liability claim if the hospital is also found independently negligent, and that this negligence caused your harm.
The Thistle Law Firm is experienced at handling medical malpractice claims where the negligent treatment occurred in a hospital. If you or a loved one suffered harm due to negligent treatment while a patient at a hospital, the attorneys at the Thistle Law Firm are here to take your call and answer your questions at 215-568-6800.