Court Opinion

ID: 9796431
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:57:19.667624+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:18.427347
License: Public Domain

*229Cherry, J., with whom Saitta and Gibbons, JJ.,
agree, dissenting:
I agree with the majority that Nevada law does not currently support the imposition of an absolute nondelegable duty upon hospitals to render competent services to its emergency room patients. I also agree that the ostensible agency doctrine, previously discussed by this court in Schlolfeldt v. Charter Hospital of Las Vegas, 112 Nev. 42, 910 P.2d 271 (1996), provides a natural extension to the emergency room scenario contemplated here. However, given the public policy considerations, I would adopt the non-absolute nondelegable duty approach, as the Supreme Court of South Carolina decided in Simmons v. Tuomey Regional Medical Center (Simmons II), 533 S.E.2d 312 (S.C. 2000).
Emergency room patients may base their decisions regarding care largely upon hospital advertising and the reputation of the hospital as an entity. These patients do not seek out individual doctors, but expect the hospital to provide competent emergency room care. Hospitals should not be able to escape liability for the malpractice of independent contractor emergency room doctors when hospitals hold themselves out to the public in this manner. The Simmons II approach accounts for this commercialization of medicine and the “public perception of the unity of a hospital and its emergency room.” Id. at 322.
Further, some emergency room patients may be required to seek treatment at specific hospital emergency rooms due to contracts with their insurance carriers. In creating a contractual relationship with insurance companies, hospitals limit patient choice and assure themselves a certain portion of emergency room business.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.