Court Opinion

ID: 9846807
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:48:47.186916+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:50.379649
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
“A petition by one against a physician for improper and unprofessional advice must show that the relationship of physician and patient existed between the plaintiff and the defendant.” (Emphasis supplied.) Buttersworth v. Swint, 53 Ga. App. 602 (2) (186 SE 770) (1936). It is uncontradicted that appellees were not patients of the professional psychotherapist psychiatric center or its medical staff. No professional duty was owed by the latter to the former. The. center owed “a reasonable degree of care and skill” under Georgia law, only to its patient Mr. Wessner. A further duty existing within the doctor-patient relationship would prohibit public disclosure of privileged conversations between the two. Code § 38-418 (a) 5 and (b). The patient here was presumed sane. No proceedings had been brought questioning his sanity. Other members of the family were quite aware of threats made in the past by the patient toward his wife. It is not shown that in the past the patient had tried or actually had killed anyone. The patient here voluntarily admitted himself to the hospital. There appears to be no law under the facts presented here permitting the doctor or center to have retained their patient in the hospital against his will or to have prohibited the patient from *589voluntarily leaving or checking out of the hospital.
If the doctor had restrained and imprisoned the patient indefinitely, as contended here, the former would have breached a duty resulting in the latter’s sustaining a loss of his personal liberty. This could have subjected the doctor to financial liability. I find no law requiring a doctor to notify all of his patient’s relatives upon a patient’s discharge or upon the patient’s unilaterally leaving the professional custody of the doctor or hospital. The majority opinion is misinterpreting, overextending or in effect overruling Buttersworth, supra, therefore I must respectfully dissent. The medical profession, as the legal profession, at best, is a profession of inexact science. Blount v. Moore, 159 Ga. App. 80 (282 SE2d 720) (1981). The standard of care must be limited to the patient or client, unless it appears that an agreement was made to the contrary, or that the professional intended for others outside of the professional relationship to rely on his skills, care and performance.