Opinion ID: 894534
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Cedars Hospital

Text: Mason argues that the failure of Cedars Hospital to provide adequate policies and procedures governing the processing by hospital staff of an unscheduled discharge by a voluntary patient prevented Mason from receiving a proper nursing assessment of her mental condition and her physician from being informed of her plans to leave with another patient. Accordingly, Mason argues that the hospital's inadequate policies and procedures proximately caused her injuries. Assuming that the hospital had policies and procedures in place that required Marx to review Mason's chart and inform Ramos that Mason planned to leave the facility with another patient, it would only have meant, in the most optimistic scenario, that Mason would not have been in Thomas's car at the time of the accident. Hospital policies and procedures governing Mason's discharge had nothing to do with the events that contributed to harm Mason  i.e., Thomas suffering a psychotic episode and flipping her car after swerving to miss a dog in the road while driving at a high rate of speed. There is no allegation that Mason's mental condition was a substantial factor in the accident. Cedars Hospital's failure, if any, to provide adequate policies and procedures for discharging Mason was not the cause in fact of her injuries as a matter of law. Just as Ramos's and Marx's conduct was too attenuated from the accident to be the cause in fact of Mason's injuries, the conduct of Cedars Hospital is also too attenuated to have caused the accident. Mason also claims that Cedars Hospital is vicariously liable because Mason's injuries were the result of alleged negligent acts and omissions by Ramos in his capacity as a physician with staff privileges at the hospital and Marx in her capacity as an employee of the hospital. Because we conclude that any breach of duty by Ramos and Marx did not proximately cause Mason's injuries, Cedars Hospital is not vicariously liable.