Orlando Medical Malpractice Lawyers Focus on Hospital Liability
As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers we often find surgical and anesthesia cases involving terrible neglect and significant damages. However, the doctors or surgeons involved possess inadequate insurance coverage. Is there any opportunity for you to provide your injured medical malpractice client with full compensation?
Every Florida medical malpractice lawyers should consider the applicability of the hospital's non-delegable duty to provide competent medical care to its patients. While hospitals have strenuously fought liability for the actions of its staff doctors, plaintiff medical malpractice lawyers have had some success. Recently, in an anesthesia malpractice case, Florida medical malpractice lawyers have received additional ammunition to hold hospitals responsible for negligent provision of medical care and services in their facility.
In Judith Wax v.Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. et.al.32 Fla. L. Weekly D641(March 16, 2007) the Fourth District addressed hospital liability for an anesthesiologist's negligence. In this wrongful death, medical malpractice case the court undertakes a great analysis of the doctrine of non-delegable duty. Looking to common law, contract law and Florida statutes, the court held that the hospital involved may well have assumed the non-delegable duty to provide anesthesia services. The court went on to rule that if the hospital did assume such a duty then such services must be performed in a competent manner. Refreshingly, the court announced that patients should expect to receive careful and non-negligent services in Florida hospitals.
This is a must read for every Florida medical malpractice lawyer. We have for too long been fighting an uphill battle to obtain justice for our clients. With arbitrary limitations now in place, being able to hold hospitals responsible for anesthesia, surgical and pathology services should at least be considered in every case. As you will see by reviewing this decision and the Fifth District's opinion in Pope v. Winter Park Healthcare Group, Ltd, 939 So. 2d 185(Fla. 5th DCA 2006) discussed at length by the Wax court, the hospital consent form may provide the contractual basis for hospital liability. Indeed, as the Wax court stated in a footnote holding hospitals to a non-delegable duty to provide adequate radiology departments, pathology laboratories and emergency rooms "makes sense as an aspiration for the evolution of Florida law."
