Opinion ID: 1161746
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Direct Negligence of St. John's Hospital

Text: Appellant contends that, in addition to any potential vicarious liability, the hospital itself owes an independent duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent negligent treatment by its staff physicians. More specifically, appellant argues that if adequate peer review procedures were followed within the hospital, the alleged misdiagnosis would have been discovered and appropriate consultation would have been obtained. In support of this claim, appellant relies on Darling v. Charleston Community Memorial Hospital, 33 Ill.2d 326, 211 N.E.2d 253, 14 A.L.R.3d 860 (1965), cert. denied 383 U.S. 946, 86 S.Ct. 1204, 16 L.Ed.2d 209 (1966), in which a court, for the first time, held that a hospital has a direct duty to provide quality medical care. Since the Darling decision, a number of courts have premised hospital liability on either the failure to select or appoint competent staff physicians or the failure to adequately supervise treatment rendered by staff physicians. See 51 A.L.R.3d 981 (1973); 12 A.L.R. 4th 57 (1982). In Greenwood v. Wierdsma, Wyo., 741 P.2d 1079 (1987), we recognized that a hospital has a legal duty to exercise that degree of care and skill usually exercised or maintained by other reputable hospitals in the extension and continuation of medical staff privileges to physicians. Id. at 1088. We held that this duty was apparent from the language of W.S. 35-2-601. [1] We also noted that the preservation of quality health care for Wyoming citizens was an important public policy, and we quoted the following judicial observation: `Having undertaken one of mankind's most critically important and delicate fields of endeavor, concomitantly therewith the hospital must assume the grave responsibility of pursuing this calling with appropriate care. The care and service dispensed through this high trust, however technical, complex and esoteric its character may be, must meet standards of responsibility commensurate with the undertaking to preserve and protect the health, and indeed, the very lives of those placed in the hospital's keeping.' Beeck v. Tucson General Hospital, 18 Ariz. App. 165, 500 P.2d 1153, 1157 (1972), quoted in Johnson v. Misericordia Community Hospital, supra [97 Wis.2d 521,] 294 N.W.2d [501] at 510-511 [(1980)]. 741 P.2d at 1089. These considerations convince us that a hospital should be required to exercise reasonable care not only in determining whether to extend or continue staff privileges, but also in maintaining adequate supervision and review of treatment rendered by those physicians. Accordingly, we join those jurisdictions which impose upon a hospital a duty of exercising reasonable care in supervising and reviewing the treatment of patients by its staff physicians. See 12 A.L.R. 4th 57. In defining the parameters of this duty, other jurisdictions have recognized that hospitals exercise only a limited degree of control over the details of the work performed by its staff physicians. Consequently, they have held that the hospital is liable only if it knows or should know of the deficient treatment or if the physician's negligence is obvious. See Schoening v. Grays Harbor Community Hospital, 40 Wash. App. 331, 698 P.2d 593 (1985); Braden v. Saint Francis Hospital, Colo. App., 714 P.2d 505 (1985); Fridena v. Evans, 127 Ariz. 516, 622 P.2d 463, 12 A.L.R. 4th 46 (1980); Pickle v. Curns, 106 Ill. App.3d 734, 62 Ill.Dec. 79, 435 N.E.2d 877 (1982); Killeen v. Reinhardt, 71 A.D.2d 851, 419 N.Y.S.2d 175 (1979). We favor this approach, and we hold that St. John's may be liable for negligent supervision of the pathologists in this case only if appellant can demonstrate obvious negligence or show that the hospital knew or should have known of negligent treatment or procedures.