Medical teams and the standard of care in negligence.

Link to article at PubMed

Related Articles

Medical teams and the standard of care in negligence.

J Law Med. 2015 Sep;23(1):69-82

Authors: Sappideen C

Abstract
Medical teams are essential to the delivery of modern, patient-centred health care in hospitals. A collective model of responsibility envisaged by team care is inconsistent with common law tort liability which focuses on the individual rather than the team. There is no basis upon which a team can be liable as a collective at common law. Nor does the common law'countenance liability for the conduct of other team members absent some form of agency, vicarious liability or non-delegable duty. Despite the barriers to the adoption of a team standard of care in negligence, there is scope for team factors to have a role in determining the standard of care so that being a team player is part and parcel of what it is to be a competent professional. If this is the case, the skill set, and the standard of care expected of the individual professional, includes skills based on team models of communication, cross-monitoring and trust.

PMID: 26554200 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *