Riley Bennett Egloff Magazine July Magazine | Page 4

Medical malpractice or ordinary negligence? A
primer for understanding the scope and impact
of the Medical Malpractice Act
By: Katie R. Osborne, RBE Attorney
Originally Published March 2018
A
patient suffers an injury while receiving treatment from a health
care provider. The patient alleges that the injury was the result of
the provider’s negligence and the provider is qualified pursuant to
the Medical Malpractice Act (the “Act”). Does an action filed by the patient
against the qualified provider as a result of the injury-causing incident fall
within the scope of the Act? Not necessarily. This article provides guidance
for determining whether the Act applies and explains the importance of
assessing this issue when defending actions brought by patients against
health care providers.
When the Act Applies: Medical Negligence
The Act applies when a plaintiff alleges medical negligence, or negligence
related to the provision of “health care,” which is defined by the Act as
“an act or treatment performed or furnished, or that should have been
performed or furnished, by a health care provider for, to or on behalf of
a patient during the patient’s medical care, treatment or confinement.” 1
Accordingly, a qualified provider commits medical negligence – also known
as malpractice – and is subject to liability under the Act if the qualified provider breaches its duty to the patient
to exercise reasonable care in the provision of health care resulting in harm to the patient. 2 We must therefore
turn to the plaintiff’s complaint for damages to determine whether the allegations asserted are related to the
provision of health care such that they fall within the scope of the Act. 3
Although the substance of the complaint generally controls, the plaintiff need not specifically allege medical
negligence or use the term “malpractice” for the Act to apply. Rather, the plaintiff’s complaint is subject to the
Act if the “tenor” of the complaint, taken as a whole, is one of medical negligence, such as when the complaint
generally alleges that the qualified provider was negligent in providing care to the patient or questions the
judgment of the qualified provider when making health care decisions. 4 See, for example, Putnam County Hospital
v. Sells, wherein the patient fell out of a hospital bed while under general anesthesia and suffered injuries.
The patient filed suit against the hospital, alleging that its staff was negligent by failing to ensure that the side
guardrails of the hospital bed were in place to prevent a fall. 5 The allegations, which questioned the hospital’s
decision on how to prevent falls of patients under general anesthesia, challenged the treatment decisions of
the health care provider and were deemed to be allegations of medical negligence that fell “squarely within the
scope of the Act.” 6
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Riley Bennett Egloff LLP - April 2018