Court Opinion

ID: 9845362
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:20:02.764306+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:02.739766
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEPHENSON,
with whom JUSTICE COMPTON joins, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
I would hold that Dr. Ohar is not entitled to sovereign immunity. Although she was employed by a state hospital and was engaged in a research project, I do not agree, as the majority finds, that Dr. Ohar’s “status resembled . . . that of the surgical intern in Lawhorne.”
The first-year intern in Lawhorne was not licensed to practice medicine, having completed only a portion of the licensing examinations. 214 Va. at 406, 200 S.E.2d at 571. He could practice only at the state hospital “in an approved training and instruction program under the supervision of the licensed physicians of the hospital staff.” Id. Thus, a true physician-patient relationship did not exist in Lawhorne.
In the present case, however, Dr. Ohar not only was a licensed physician, protected by malpractice liability insurance, she also was “board-certified” in the specialty of internal medicine. More*216over, the record makes clear that a physician-patient relationship existed between Dr. Ohar and Mrs. Gargiulo. Indeed, Mrs. Gargiulo was not attended by any other physician.
Thus, I see little similarity between Dr. Ohar and the unlicensed intern in Lawhorne. In my view, Dr. Ohar more nearly resembles the licensed physician in James, whose relationship with James was that of physician-patient.
Granting sovereign immunity to licensed physicians discourages rather than encourages good medical practices. The Commonwealth’s primary interest, however, should be to encourage a physician’s best efforts on behalf of his patient.
At the point when the physician agrees to treat or operate on a certain patient, although his employment by the [Commonwealth] makes possible the arrangement, the relationship becomes the personal and confidential one of doctor and patient, not the Commonwealth . . . and patient. The physician owes his best professional efforts on behalf of the patient, and the patient expects, and has a right to expect, the same care and attention from the physician that he would receive if he were in a private hospital and the physician in private practice. The exercise by the attending physician of his professional skill and judgment in treating his patient, and the means and methods used, from the very nature of things, are not subject to the control and direction of others. The fact that the physician may follow certain prescribed guidelines and consult with colleagues, or that a review may be conducted when a patient is injured, or when a patient dies, does not alter the professional status of the attending physician or his relationship with and obligation to his patient.
James, 221 Va. at 50-51, 282 S.E.2d at 867-68.
Furthermore, no compelling state interest is served by allowing Dr. Ohar to be wrapped in the cloak of sovereign immunity.
While there may have been a time when a physician [sought employment at a state hospital] because of the cloak of immunity afforded him as an employee of the sovereign state, we think that time is past. We cannot conceive of any physician, regardless of his status, practicing medicine in this era without the protection of liability insurance, which he purchases for himself or which is provided for him by his *217employer. Realistically, the only interest the state has in affording immunity to the physicians practicing in state hospitals is the probability of an increase in the cost of medical malpractice insurance if such immunity is denied. We do not find this to be such a compelling state interest as to justify the denial of a patient the right to assert a claim against a physician for negligent treatment.
James, 221 Va. at 54, 282 S.E.2d at 870.
Mrs. Gargiulo alleges that Dr. Ohar was negligent in failing to secure a catheter properly — a routine medical procedure. As a result, the catheter disconnected and Mrs. Gargiulo suffered severe and permanent brain injury.
If the evidence would have established that Dr. Ohar violated the applicable standard of care, she should have been required to answer to Mrs. Gargiulo in damages for the resulting injuries. The majority, I submit, places too much emphasis on the relationship that existed between Dr. Ohar and the hospital and too little emphasis on the relationship that existed between Dr. Ohar and her patient.