There Are Many Healthcare Providers Who Can Be Liable For Medical Malpractice, Including Businesses Or Entities

When people hear of a New York medical malpractice case, most people think of a surgeon making a mistake on the table with the slip of a knife or wrong cut. While this is certainly a type of medical malpractice claim, there are a lot of other people who could be liable for medical malpractice. In fact, any type of healthcare provider could be liable for medical malpractice—it does not need to just be a doctor. In fact, it does not just need to be a person—entities can be liable for medical malpractice!

For instance, we commonly like of doctors as liable for medical malpractice. This is true. Surgeons, anesthesiologists, and OB-GYNs are the most commonly sued doctors, and make up the bulk of the surgical claims. But family care practitioners, orthopedists, and gastros can also be liable for medical medical malpractice.

Outside of doctors, nurses are also commonly sued and liable for medical malpractice. This is because nurses are generally the trench workers of healthcare and are involved in a lot of patient care decisions, procedures, and treatment. They can be liable for medical malpractice for sure, and are often sued along with the doctors they work with.

Similarly to nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, which are supervised by physicians and help physicians do basic work to the more advanced surgeries, can also be liable for medical malpractice.

Other healthcare providers commonly sued are dentists and dental assistants. Just because they work with just the mouth or teeth, a dental provider could be liable for medical malpractice for something as simple as failing to diagnose a serious health condition such as periodontal disease.

Pharmacists can also be liable for medical malpractice for improperly filling a prescription, mixing the wrong solutions, failing to detect drug interaction conflicts, and other related negligence. This can be very serious medical malpractice too.

In addition to people, entities can be liable for medical malpractice. This is generally through the doctrine of respondeat superior, which is a type of vicarious liability relating to the employer-employee relationship. This means when an attending doctor at a hospital commits medical malpractice, or a nurse employed at a hospital makes a serious mistake, the hospital will be liable for the mistake. The same is true for a medical group wherein the healthcare provider commits the negligence.

But what do you think? I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com. You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.