Apparent Agency Theory of Liability in Medical Malpractice Cases

Understand how healthcare facilities may be found liable for the acts of their non-employed attending physicians under a theory of apparent or ostensible agency. Learn how courts have found that a physician, although technically an independent practitioner, has rendered services on behalf of the healthcare facility and is, in effect, a de facto employee or agent of the institution for purposes of liability. Get up to speed on three approaches to apparent agency liability: de facto agency or employment; apparent or ostensible agency; and performance of inherent hospital functions.

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Related Content

• Corporate Negligence Theory of Liability in Medical Malpractice Cases
  Review another exception to the rule that healthcare facilities will not be held liable for the acts of their non-employed attending physicians. Learn how hospitals may be liable for failing to properly review the credentials and monitor the performance of their attending staffs.
• Establishing Causation in Malpractice Cases
  Get an in-depth analysis of the causation requirement in a medical malpractice action. Review the concepts of actual cause and foreseeability. Understand whether the physician's negligence must be the sole proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury, the dominant cause, or merely a substantial factor. Look at the impact of a third party's intervening or supervening conduct. Address whether proof requires expert testimony or may be made through inference alone.
• Informed Consent Theory of Liability in Medical Malpractice Cases
  Learn about the concept of informed consent in the context of medical malpractice litigation. Review how failure to obtain patient consent before providing treatment can form the basis of legal action. Understand the physician's disclosure obligations to obtain informed consent from the patient and compare the two competing legal viewpoints in determining sufficiency of the physician's disclosure—that is, whether the disclosure conformed to what a reasonable physician would disclose under similar circumstances, or whether the disclosure provided sufficient, material information to allow the patient to accept or decline the proposed treatment.

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