Court Opinion

ID: 9591776
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:07:35.497763+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:49.917317
License: Public Domain

Gregory, Justice,
concurring specially.
I point out that use of the phrase “locality rule” can be misleading because Georgia does not really require hospitals to meet a standard of care measured by circumstances in any local area. In Smith v. Hospital Authority, 161 Ga. App. 657, 659 (288 SE2d 715) (1982), Judge Sognier considered a charge given the jury regarding the appropriate standard of care: “The use of the word ‘local’ in the trial court’s charge may have been too restrictive standing alone. We find no authority in Georgia law which restricts the standard of care applied to hospitals to a ‘local area.’ However, the evidence in the case included testimony from experts familiar with various small county hospitals in other counties similar to Terrell County. Hospitals in the ‘local area’ in the trial court’s charge here include similar hospitals in similar communities in Georgia. ...”
I believe the correct rule is that the hospital is to be measured against what is reasonable under the same or similar circumstances. To measure a small rural hospital against a large urban hospital may very well miss the mark. To limit “similar circumstances” to particular geographical areas is to ignore reality.