Opinion ID: 4580085
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: analysis

Text: A. The district court did not err in granting McDonald’s and the Hospital’s motions for summary judgment on the grounds that the Fisks failed to provide sufficient expert testimony as to the community standard of care. The district court granted McDonald’s and the Hospital’s motions for summary judgment on the grounds that the Fisks failed to present admissible evidence on the applicable community standard of care—an essential element of their medical malpractice claim. Under Idaho Code section 6-1012, a plaintiff bringing a medical malpractice claim must provide expert testimony establishing that the defendant healthcare provider(s) did not meet the applicable standard of healthcare practice. With regard to the applicable standard of care, section 6-1012 provides in relevant part that: In any case, claim or action for damages due to injury to or death of any person, brought against any physician and surgeon or other provider of health care, including . . . any . . . nurse practitioner, registered nurse, . . . hospital, . . . or any person vicariously liable for the negligence of them . . . such claimant or plaintiff must, as an essential part of his or her case in chief, affirmatively prove by direct expert testimony and by a preponderance of all the competent evidence, that such defendant then and there negligently failed to meet the applicable standard of health care practice of the community in which such care allegedly was or should have been provided, as such standard existed at the time and place of the alleged negligence . . . with respect to the class of health care provider that such defendant then and there belonged to and in which capacity he, she or it was functioning.