Nurse and doctor discussing over clipboard

If you go into a facility for medical care, and you are injured because your care provider did something wrong, who can be held liable for medical malpractice? Certainly a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist can be held to account if they did something that violated the applicable standard of care. But can others be named in a medical malpractice lawsuit?

The damages from medical malpractice can be significant, especially when a care provider’s negligence resulted in the death of a patient, or causes a life-altering injury that necessitates ongoing care or renders the patient unable to work. It makes sense in those cases to ask a court to hold liable every party who bears responsibility for the injury, so that a patient has a chance of getting the financial recovery the law would entitle them to. Let’s take a look at how that happens.

Parties That Can Be Sued for Medical Malpractice

Before we talk about who can be named in a medical malpractice lawsuit, let’s quickly recap what medical malpractice is. Medical malpractice happens with someone with a duty of care to a patient (like a doctor or nurse) breaches that duty of care. The breach causes an injury to the patient, who suffers actual harm (damages). The harm can be economic in nature, like increased medical bills and lost wages, but it can also include non-economic damages such as pain and suffering.

If a nurse administers the wrong dosage of a medication to a hospitalized patient because she was distracted and didn’t follow procedures, she would be the most obvious party to name in a medical malpractice lawsuit. After all, her actions breached the standard of care, and there is a direct line from those actions to the patient’s injury and damages.

But from a legal standpoint, a number of other parties might also share in the responsibility. “Vicarious liability” is a legal theory that allows one party to be held liable for the actions of another. A party that is vicariously liable is often not even present when the action that causes an injury occurs.

Parties close to the direct care provider, as well as those far removed, might share liability for a patient’s injury. For example, if there were medical staff who were supposed to train or supervise the nurse in the example above and failed to do so, they might also be liable for the medical error. The hospital that hired the nurse may also be liable under the legal theory of “respondeat superior,” which means “let the master answer.” This theory makes employers responsible for the acts of their employees that are committed in the scope of employment.

Of course, it’s often the case these days that healthcare workers are not actually employees of a facility, but contracted workers. Even so, the facility can still be held liable for these workers’ medical errors under an “agency” theory, if it appears that a worker is an agent of the healthcare facility.

Depending on the circumstances the pharmacist dispensing the medication might also be named, as well as the patient’s doctor, the hospital’s healthcare administrators, even the manufacturer of a medical device that malfunctioned in dispensing the medication.

Why Are Multiple Parties Often Named in Medical Malpractice Lawsuits?

When a medical malpractice lawsuit names multiple parties from the nurse on up to the corporation that owns the hospital, observers who are not involved in the case might think that greedy lawyers are just looking for a “deep pocket,” regardless of actual fault. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Medical malpractice lawsuits are challenging to prove and win, even for an experienced attorney. No injury attorney worth their salt will file a medical malpractice suit that doesn’t have merit. Doing so is a waste of time and money and causes the patient, who is already suffering, additional stress.

Because these cases are so complex, causation is not always clear-cut. It would be irresponsible of an attorney not to name someone who could reasonably be liable for malpractice as a party to the case. And what looks like an individual error at first glance could be a systemic problem, such as negligent hiring or insufficient training of employees. It is often a mistake to assume that only the person who is on the front line of a medical error is responsible for that error.

As medical malpractice attorneys, we are bound by professional ethics to do what is in the best interest of our clients. That means attempting to hold liable any party who may be responsible for our injury. We are not looking for a windfall; we just want to make our clients whole—or as close to whole as is possible, given the nature of their injury.

If you have been injured in a medical setting, don’t make assumptions about what happened and who is responsible. Contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney who knows how to investigate what happened to you and file claims against the appropriate parties. To learn more about liability in medical malpractice claims, contact the Fraser Law Firm today to schedule a consultation.