Who’s Liable Now?

 As we’ve learned in our readings, the day-to-day operations of a healthcare organization are complex, involving many different types of healthcare professionals working hard to meet the needs of the patients receiving care. Both the organization and the professionals working within have responsibilities and corresponding liabilities. Keeping this information in mind, we’ll begin our discussion with an opinion-based question: Negligent acts, which occur in a healthcare setting, can result in both individual and organizational liability. When do you think a hospital, or other healthcare organization, should be liable for a negligent act of a physician, which occurs in the hospital? Should it matter whether the physician is an employee of the hospital or not? Our next questions will give you the opportunity to apply your readings from this week. Keep in mind the ethical theories and principles we’ve learned about at the beginning of the course – as well as the areas of health law we’ve been learning about – these will always be an important part of our discussions! We’ll start our discussion by considering a scenario: Select Scenario to view the scenario. We’ll continue our discussion by considering the following questions: Has anyone acted negligently in this situation? If so, who? Is there any organizational liability? On what theory or theories? Are there any ethical principles or theories, which apply? Identify at least one ethical principle or theory and explain how it applies to each of these issues. Are there any other legal issues, which may be present (i.e. civil or criminal wrongdoing, reporting, contractual issues, etc.)? If so, identify and describe these issues. Identify those who may be impacted. Remember that there may be more than just individuals impacted. How might they be impacted? Is there any information missing that would help you identify and address these issues and, if so, what information? Whom do you think should be held responsible for Martha’s injury? Base your answer on accepted legal theories and case law precedent.