Determining Legal Liability In Birth Injury Cases
In cases involving childbirth injuries, it's often assumed that liability is limited to medical physicians. However, the spectrum of legal liability often extends beyond the conduct of physicians. Nurses, anesthesiologists and other medical staff may share responsibility for medical malpractice actions. Even pharmaceutical companies may be liable if it's proven that a drug was the cause of patient injuries.
The following explains how these parties may be held liable in birth injury cases.
Understanding Vicarious Liability
While nurses, physician's assistants and other licensed medical staff can be held individually responsible for medical malpractice actions culminating in birth injuries, the hospital itself can be held responsible as a corporate entity based on the doctrine of vicarious liability.
Vicarious liability describes a form of imputed negligence where the employer is found responsible for the negligent acts of its employees, especially if the employee was acting within his or her duties at the time of the negligent act. Vicarious liability ensures that a patient who suffers injuries due to the negligence of a hospital employee will receive adequate compensation from a financially responsible party.
However, it may not be possible to hold the hospital vicariously liable if a physician or other healthcare provider works for hospital as an independent contractor, as opposed to a salaried employee. Although the hospital can't be held liable for the healthcare provider's negligence, it can be held liable for its own negligence, as explained in the section below.
Liability under the Corporate Negligence Doctrine
Corporate negligence is a crucial legal doctrine that holds hospitals, medical clinics and other health care facilities responsible for their patients' well-being. As with vicarious liability, the hospital itself could face legal action for the negligence of its medical staff.
There are several ways that a hospital can be held liable under the corporate negligence doctrine for birth injuries:
- If the hospital grants attending privileges to a physician later found to be unlicensed or incompetent in his or her duties.
- If the hospital fails to make reasonable inquiries during the hiring process about a medical staff member's education, training, licensing and other credentials, especially when said member's negligent care contributes to a patient's birth injury.
- If the hospital has an insufficient number of registered nurses on duty, culminating in a birth injury that can be attributed to staffing shortages.
- When the orders or treatment plan of the patient's private attending physician are ignored or contraindicated.
- When hospital employees fail to make reasonable inquiries regarding contraindicated orders.
When Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Share Liability
There are several reasons why pharmaceutical manufacturers are normally not held liable for injuries caused by a prescribed drug:
- The manufacturer's primary responsibility is to the physician who prescribed the drug in question.
- The physician has the primary responsibility of advising his or her patient about the drug's potential side effects and other risks.
- The manufacturer only owes the patient, who is the ultimate consumer of the prescribed drug, the assurance that the drug will perform safely when used as directed.
As long as it provides sufficient warning to physicians about its dangers or potential side effects, the pharmaceutical company is usually free of any liability. However, that could easily change if the company fails to warn a physician about the drug's potential dangers.
In such cases, the manufacturer could be held liable for providing an "unreasonably dangerous" product. However, this does not absolve the physician of his or her liability when it comes to prescribing the drug in question. As a learned intermediary, the physician is responsible for determining whether said drug is appropriate for the patient, using his or her superior medical knowledge.
For more help determining liability in a birth injury case, talk to a birth injury lawyer.
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