Mead v. Legacy Health Sys. (Summary)

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE – PHYSICIAN PATIENT RELATIONSHIP – ER CALL

Mead v. Legacy Health Sys., No. A130969 (Or. Ct. App. Oct. 28, 2009)

The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed a circuit court decision and ruled that an on-call neurosurgeon, who gave advice over the telephone to an emergency room physician concerning a specific patient’s care, had a physician-patient relationship with the patient in the ER.

The surgeon’s insistence that he did not expect that the physician would rely on his advice was not sufficient to vitiate the relationship because of his "on-call status" in combination with his analysis of the information provided to him by the physician and because he provided a medical opinion. Specifically, the on-call surgeon told the physician to have the patient "admitted for observation and pain management under her physician’s name."

Importantly, the court noted that the "on-call status" alone was not enough to give rise to a physician-patient relationship; rather, the on-call physician must affirmatively participate in the care of the patient for a relationship to arise.