Court Opinion

ID: 9533497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:32:11.962356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:04.109768
License: Public Domain

RILEY, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The trial court exceeded its jurisdictional authority to make a preliminary determination of law under the Medical Malpractice Act. Under the Act it is the medical review panel's sole duty "to express the panel's expert opinion as to whether or not the evidence supports the conclusion that the defendant acted or failed to act within the appropriate standards of care as charged in the complaint." I.C. § §4-18-10-22(a). The grant of power to the trial court to preliminarily determine matters is to be narrowly construed. Griffith v. Jones, 602 N.E.2d 107, 110 (Ind.1992).
The majority relies on Miller by Miller v. Memorial Hosp. of South Bend, Inc., 679 N.E.2d 1329, 1332 (Ind.1997) for the proposition that a medical malpractice plaintiff must, as a prerequisite to filing *660suit, present a proposed complaint for review and expert opinion by a medical review panel, and there is no prerequisite for such a plaintiff to fully "explicate and provide the particulars or legal contentions regarding the claim." While it is true that the Robyn's amended answer presented a claim for breaching the standard of care under CLIA, it also placed Schuen on notice of her request to have the medical review panel consider his role as medical director and any additional acts of negligence that may have been committed. In reviewing a dismissal under Trial Rule 12B(6), an appellate court must determine whether, in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and with every inference drawn in his favor, the complaint stated any set of allegations upon which the trial court could have granted relief. Cram v. Howell, 680 N.E.2d 1096 (Ind.1997).
In this appeal from the trial court dismissal, Robyn asserts that her complaint is sufficient to establish that Schuen had a duty of care in accordance with Webb v. Jarvis, 575 N.E.2d 992 (Ind.1991), another case involving the evaluation of a physician's duty to a third party. To determine whether the doctor in that case owed a duty, the supreme court considered three factors: (1) the relationship between the parties; (2) the reasonable foreseeability of harm to the person who was injured; and (8) public policy concerns. Id. at 995.
Balancing the three Webb factors, I find that Dr. Schuen owed a duty of care to take reasonable precautions as medical director for the protection of Robyn. As to the foreseeability factor, it is possible that when a medical review panel reviews the evidence it could find that a negligent act of an employee of PAML caused her injuries and that Dr. Schuen, as medical director, breached his obligations under CLIA by failing to properly supervise the laboratory personnel under his direction. If the institutional proceedings are faulty at PAML and have deviated from applicable standards of care, then any fault in procedures or the administration of the laboratory's testing could foreseeably bring injury to the patient.
Because cervical cancer develops so slowly from dysplasia to invasive cancer, it is usually preventable if discovered in its early stages using sereening tests taken during regular gynecological examinations.3 Thus, it is within the purview of the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act and sound public policy to safeguard the public from misread laboratory tests.
I would reverse the summary judgment entered by the trial court and remand the case to the trial court to deny Dr. Schuen's motion for summary judgment or preliminary determination and further remand this case to the medical review panel for its review and determination.

. American Cancer Society guidelines for the early detection of cancer. CA Cancer J Clin. 2000 Jan-Feb; 50(1):34-49.