Arriving at an emergency room for treatment is an unpleasant experience at best, and a terrifying and traumatic one at worst. During the trauma of an accident, injury, or serious illness, a patient rarely considers their doctor’s employment status or contractual relationship with the hospital. Instead, they understandably focus on receiving the medical treatment they need and naturally anticipate that the hospital is ultimately responsible for their care. Sadly, until a change in long-held legal precedent occurred in April of 2024, this wasn’t always the case. Now, under a Washington Supreme Court judgement, a new precedent holds hospitals legally liable for medical malpractice regardless of the treating doctor’s employment status, opening the door for direct claims against a hospital regardless of the treating doctor’s position as an employee or independent contractor. Make sure to consult a personal injury attorney in Marysville for legal guidance.
How Washington Hospitals Sometimes Protect Themselves From Tort Liability
When a doctor’s negligence causes a patient’s serious injury, worsened medical outcome, or death, the injury victim or their estate has the right to file a medical malpractice claim to recover compensation for the resulting economic damages and additional compensation for their pain, suffering, catastrophic injuries, or wrongful death. A crucial aspect of recovering this compensation is identifying the legally liable party and filing a claim against their malpractice insurance. To protect themselves from legal liability, hospitals often use independent contractors as emergency room physicians, leaving the doctor directly liable rather than the hospital. An individual provider’s medical malpractice insurance often does not adequately cover the full extent of an injury victim’s damages or fully compensate a family for the loss of a loved one. In contrast, a hospital or other medical facility has additional coverage and resources.
Washington’s Recent Expansion of Tort Liability for Hospitals
After the family of a patient fatally injured by a contracted doctor’s misdiagnosis in a Washington hospital appealed a 2020 ruling that the hospital could not be held liable for the death because the doctor was an independent contractor and not an employee of the hospital, the family appealed the decision in the state’s Supreme Court. Chief Justice Steven Gonzales ruled in the family’s favor, stating that a patient with emergency injuries should not have to be concerned with their doctor’s contractual relationship with the hospital, and that it falls well within the hospital’s duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of patients by staffing the emergency room with competent doctors and establishing standards of care and proper staff training. The ruling concludes as follows:
“We conclude that our statutes and regulations impose nondelegable duties on hospitals concerning the provision of emergency services. A hospital remains responsible for those nondelegable duties regardless of whether it performs those duties through its own staff or contracts with doctors who are independent contractors to do so.”
New Legal Precedent for Hospital Tort Liability From Washington’s Supreme Court
The 2024 ruling sets a new legal precedent based on the patient’s perspective rather than the hospital’s. The ruling significantly expands the scope of hospital liability in medical malpractice cases, after many decades in which Washington hospitals insulated themselves against liability by using independent contractors rather than employees.