Do physicians owe a duty of care to someone other than their patients? This question is at the center of a case before the New York Court of Appeals after a bus driver was injured in a head-on collision with a car driven by a recently discharged patient.
A patient was treated in the emergency room of South Nassau Communities Hospital, examined by a physician and given several medications, including a narcotic medication. After the patient was discharged, she allegedly became unconscious as a result of the medications she took and crashed into a bus.
The bus driver filed a medical liability claim alleging the physician’s duty of care extends to third parties who might be potentially at risk. A lower court found the bus driver’s claims were insufficient, since he had no patient-physician relationship with the physician. The bus driver has appealed.
The Litigation Center of the AMA and State Medical Societies and the Medical Society of the State of New York last month filed an amicus brief in support of the physician who treated the patient and South Nassau Communities Hospital.
“A physician’s duty of care is ordinarily owed to the patient and does not extend to the community at large,” the brief said. “A critical reason underlying the court’s reluctance to expand a doctor’s duty of care is the recognition of the potential profound harm to society that would result and that expanding a duty of care to non-patients would render doctors liable to a prohibitive number of possible plaintiffs.”
Such a precedent would be economically and socially burdensome, the brief said.
Further, with physicians already practicing in a costly medical liability system, a decision for the bus driver could have a chilling effect, potentially leading physicians “to hesitate providing patients with treatments that have inherent risks and potential side effects,” the brief said.
Visit the AMA Litigation Center’s Web page to learn more about this case and others related to medical liability.
