What Is a Doctor's Duty of Care?

If a doctor harms you, you may have a medical malpractice case. A successful claim can provide compensation to help you get treatment for your injury and cover any related losses.

To win your case, you must prove each element of malpractice. The first element you must prove in a malpractice claim is that the medical professional owed you a legal duty of care.

This article explains a doctor’s duty of care under medical malpractice law. This duty means the doctor was supposed to uphold a basic professional standard while giving you medical attention. Many health care providers, such as surgeons, nurses, and dentists, may owe this duty. Sometimes, a health care facility can also be liable for malpractice.

A doctor’s responsibility toward patients may seem fairly obvious, but some cases are more complex. A medical malpractice lawsuit will question the doctor’s specific legal obligations and whether they failed.

Consult with a personal injury lawyer. They can help you understand the defendant’s duty of care and the challenges you might face during your case.

State Laws Shape a Provider’s Duty

It’s important to note that the duty of care is a legal concept, not a medical one. In medical malpractice law, a common claim is medical negligence by the doctor or medical professional. To prove negligence, a patient (or claimant) will need to prove duty of care.

Like general negligence claims, medical malpractice claims hinge upon the following:

• Standards of care
• The reasonable person standard
• The doctor’s duty of care to the patient
• The doctor’s breach of duty of care
• Causation of the patient’s injury
• The patient’s damages, such as medical expenses and lost wages

State laws define whether a personal injury inflicted by your health care provider gives rise to a cause of action. This means state laws determine whether you can sue.

The laws tend to vary in the following ways:

• Statute of limitations (time limits) to bring a lawsuit
• Whether the theory of liability under consideration is cognizable (if a court determines it has the authority to review)
• Whether parties are proper parties in a medical malpractice claim
• The qualifications for an expert witness

Medical malpractice is covered under tort law. See FindLaw’s Medical Malpractice Liability for more articles and resources. Getting legal counsel can also help you learn how to file a claim.

What Are a Doctor’s Legal Obligations?

A doctor’s conduct must reflect the skills, quality of care, and level of diligence expected of other competent physicians. Also, a doctor’s conduct must be the same as other physicians under similar circumstances.

For example, a doctor’s duty may involve the following responsibilities:

• Reviewing the patient’s available medical history
• Prescribing a reasonable drug, including an experimental drug, or medical treatment for the patient’s specific circumstances
• Properly administering drugs and using medical devices
• Recommending and ordering the appropriate diagnostic testing, such as an X-ray for a broken bone
• Adequately describing the risks and options of a treatment plan to fulfill informed consent requirements
• Offering reasonable pain management to minimize unnecessary suffering
• Advising the patient on the follow-up care they may need
• Keeping the patient’s information and medical records confidential
• Respecting a patient’s rights under the law

Doctors and medical professionals owe their patients a duty to meet the standard of care. This does not mean doctors must prevent all illnesses and complications while you’re under their care. Many medical conditions are unpredictable and unavoidable. A doctor must act reasonably given the circumstances.

In order to prove a doctor’s medical negligence, a patient must prove that the physician owed a duty of care. If the patient cannot, they may not have a medical malpractice action.

A Doctor’s Duty Depends on a Formal Relationship

A doctor-patient relationship creates the doctor’s duty of care to the patient. State laws determine when this relationship begins. Generally, both the patient and the doctor must consent to the care. The law may also include the doctor’s implied or explicit consent to provide emergency care when the patient is unable to give their consent.

Examples of how doctor-patient relationships can start include:

• The provider accepts the patient in the emergency room
• The provider agrees to accept the patient when the patient schedules an appointment, including via telehealth
• The provider examines the patient or the patient’s records
• The provider administers drugs or performs treatment for the patient
• A consulting provider offers a medical opinion about the patient to another doctor

In a lawsuit, this topic can be another point of argument. The medical professional may argue that they didn’t have a doctor-patient relationship, so no duty was owed.

Remember: A regular person has no duty to assist injured persons absent a special relationship. Examples of a special relationship include a doctor-patient relationship, an attorney-client privilege, and a guardian-child relationship.

For example, a doctor dining in a restaurant has no legal duty to assist a fellow customer suffering a heart attack. The Hippocratic oath is not legally binding. The law does not compel them to intervene, with a few exceptions.

If the doctor does not help the customer, the customer cannot sue for medical malpractice against the doctor. But if the doctor begins to help someone with a medical condition, the doctor may be liable for injuries caused during the course of care.

How Doctors Can Breach Their Legal Duty

Examples of when a doctor breaches their duty of care include:

• Misreading a patient’s medical records
• Any medical error that leads to personal injury or wrongful death
• Sharing confidential patient information

To know whether your doctor has broken their duty of care, consider the following:

• The area of medicine the physician practices
• The customary practices of physicians in the doctor’s area of expertise (also known as the locality rule)
• The level of equipment and facilities available at the time medical care was provided
• Any urgent or unexpected demands of the circumstances, if any, surrounding the medical services that were given

Expert witnesses will examine the doctor’s actions and consider the list above. To qualify as an expert witness, they must be an expert in their field. The expert will need to have the same level of training, certification, and experience as the doctor they are reviewing.

Usually, the expert witness is a retired physician or a doctor with decades of experience who is well-respected in their field. Through expert testimony, the witness will write a report detailing their analysis of the doctor’s actions.

The Employer’s Duty and Vicarious Liability

A negligent doctor or health care professional may not be the only defendant in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The hospital where your doctor works as a staff member could also be liable. Under respondeat superior (also known as vicarious liability), the hospital may be liable. “Respondeat superior” is the Latin translation of “let the master answer.” This theory allows an employer to be liable for the negligence of its employees.

One reason a hospital can be liable in a medical malpractice suit is that hospitals give doctors staff privileges. The hospital might attempt to argue that it plays a limited role in directing or supervising the work of its medical staff.

Many doctors belong to private medical practices, such as limited partnerships or limited liability companies. Under vicarious liability, these groups can also be liable to injured patients.

A doctor may be liable for negligence caused by assistants and staff members when carrying out a doctor’s orders or caring for patients. Likewise, an attending physician is generally liable for negligence caused by interns and medical students following a doctor’s guidance.

Get a Legal Evaluation of Your Malpractice Claim

To have an actionable medical malpractice claim, you must have a personal injury caused by your doctor’s actions during medical treatment. If so, you may be able to obtain a damage award if your doctor or medical care provider was negligent. Also, if your doctor was egregiously irresponsible, you may have a claim for punitive damages.

Evaluating the facts in a medical malpractice claim requires significant expertise. Such claims are not straightforward. Insurance companies can be difficult to deal with and may be unwilling to pay your medical bills. Sometimes, it takes legal action with the help of a medical malpractice lawyer to get the insurance companies to cooperate.

To find out whether a physician was negligent in their duty of care, you may want to contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney for legal advice.