Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2008
Abstract
No tort reform has more potential to improve the quality of medical care and to reduce the frequency of patient injuries than exclusive hospital enterprise liability. Hospital enterprise liability would make hospitals liable for all patient injuries occurring in the hospital that are the product of provider negligence, regardless of the independent contractor status of the providers. In its "exclusive" form, enterprise liability would also eliminate the personal liability of individual physicians and nurses. Exclusive hospital enterprise liability has the potential to revive the dormant deterrent power of tort law. The reasons are simple. Unlike individual physicians, hospitals are experience-rated repeat players who have the vantage point and the resources needed to recognize and implement systematic improvements in the process of delivering health care. Adoption of enterprise liability would align the incentives of tort law with the goals of modern patient safety advocates who emphasize the need to shift our focus from the blaming of individual wrongdoers to the design of systems that anticipate and prevent human error. Exclusive enterprise liability would also reduce the disruption caused by the insurance cycle, spare high-risk specialists from shouldering a disproportionate share of health care's liability costs, reduce litigation costs that arise in multi-defendant lawsuits, and dampen the extraordinary anger of practicing physicians. The time has come to adopt hospital enterprise liability.
Recommended Citation
Philip G. Peters Jr., Resuscitating Hospital Enterprise Liability, 73 Mo. L. Rev. 369 (2008)